MOBILE, Ala. – South Alabama used a balanced offensive attack and four rushing touchdowns to defeat Ohio, 41-36, Saturday night at Hancock Whitney Stadium. The victory improves the Jaguars to 2-1 on the season, while the Bobcats fall to 1-2.
Key Moments
- South Alabama opened the scoring on its first possession as Keenan Phillips capped a seven-play, 75-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run, his first of the season.
- After Ohio tied the game at 7-7, the Jaguars answered with their second consecutive 75-yard touchdown drive. Jared Hollins connected with Rod Gibbs for a 34-yard touchdown on fourth down to give South Alabama a 14-7 lead.
- D.J. Moore recorded his first interception as a Jaguar on Ohio's ensuing possession, returning it 13 yards. South Alabama capitalized just 29 seconds later as Trae'von Dunbar broke free for a 32-yard touchdown, the Jaguars' fastest touchdown drive of the season.
- Christian Ross recovered an Ohio fumble in the end zone for a touchback midway through the second quarter. The Jaguars followed with an 18-play, 66-yard drive that took 7:57 off the clock and ended with a 32-yard field goal from Davis Little, giving South Alabama a 24-7 halftime lead.
- Ohio scored touchdowns on each of its first two possessions of the second half to cut the South Alabama lead to 24-21.
- The Jaguars responded with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Hollins connected with Micah Woods for 49 yards to set South Alabama up at the 1-yard line before PJ Martin punched it in to extend the lead to 31-21.
- South Alabama extended its advantage in the fourth quarter with a 14-play, 81-yard drive that took 7:53 off the clock. Dunbar capped the possession with a 5-yard touchdown run, his second score of the night, to give the Jaguars a 38-21 lead.
- After Ohio pulled within 38-29, the Jaguar defense forced a turnover on downs before Little connected on a 21-yard field goal with 1:10 remaining to make it 41-29. The Bobcats scored on the final play for the 41-36 final.
Key Stats
- South Alabama finished with 458 yards of total offense, including 266 yards on the ground.
- The Jaguars rushed 50 times for 266 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
- Phillips led South Alabama with 116 rushing yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.
- Martin added 80 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries, while Dunbar finished with 52 yards and a career-high two touchdowns on six attempts.
- In his first career start, Hollins completed 13-of-20 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown.
- Jeremiah Jones-Thomas led the Jaguars with six receptions for 74 yards, while Woods recorded a 49-yard reception.
- South Alabama converted 8-of-15 third downs and both of its fourth-down attempts while finishing 5-for-5 in the red zone.
- The Jaguars held the ball for 32:30 and did not commit a turnover.
- Jordan Williams led the Jaguar defense with seven tackles, while Damyrion Darby recorded a career-high 1.5 sacks.
- Little went 2-for-2 on field goals and 5-for-5 on extra points to finish with 11 points.
Notable
- Hollins made his first career start at quarterback and appeared in just his sixth game as a Jaguar.
- South Alabama had a starting quarterback other than Bishop Davenport for the first time since Nov. 29, 2024.
- Dunbar recorded the first multi-touchdown game of his career. He became the first Jaguar running back with multiple rushing touchdowns in a game since Kentrel Bullock against Southern Miss on Sept. 22, 2025.
- South Alabama recorded four rushing touchdowns for the 14th time in program history and the first time since doing so against ULM on Nov. 15, 2025.
- The Jaguars improved to 2-0 at Hancock Whitney Stadium this season, marking their first 2-0 start at home since 2022.
- South Alabama has now won six of its last seven games against MAC opponents and improved to 4-0 when hosting a MAC opponent.
- The Jaguars scored on each of their first four offensive possessions.
- South Alabama scored 10 points off Ohio's two turnovers.
Quotable
Head Coach Major Applewhite
Opening Statement:
"Always grateful for a win. It was a great crowd. I enjoyed our fans out here tonight. Hancock Whitney's a beautiful place. It's great to be 2-0. I really appreciate the support. There's a lot of guys and gals and students that stayed till the end. Unfortunately, they had to, but I'm very happy they won. Winning is hard, and all those clichés that we hear. I want to work on how we win and win cleaner towards the end. That's what we talked about in the locker room with the team. There's ways to close games. If we want to be champions, then we've got to close games better than that. But at the same time, I'm very proud of the effort that they played with, and it's really hard to get momentum back in a ball game in football. It's not like a 9-2 swing in basketball. It's really hard when you let go of the rope. It's really hard to get it back, so I'm proud that they had enough to get it back and finish the game the right way."
On the running game:
"It's a phenomenal effort. All backs did a great job, and the offensive line, to run like that and take care of the football, put us in some good situations. Not in too many third-and-longs, and against a really good defense, and that's a really good team now, too. I'm proud that we were able to establish a run game and kind of slow things down in the second half a little bit — or speed things up — however you want to say it."
On Jared Hollins' performance:
"He was 13-of-20. He took good care of the football. I didn't see many balls in jeopardy. He made a phenomenal play on a fourth-and-2 early in the ball game, just continuing to keep the play alive. We always talk about how you end the play with the ball, and, you know, we'll laugh about that one in the quarterback room because it was a great play, and sometimes you need players to make great plays. Not surprised at how he played because of how hard he prepares and how much he wants it. He put himself into good situations, and he did that at MGM with his program and Coach Goldston, turning that program around. He's waited for this opportunity, did a great job with it tonight. I'm very happy for him."
On Bishop Davenport missing tonight's game:
" He had an injury that was lingering from the Tulane game. It's getting a lot better, and he would've been able to play in some capacity tonight, but I didn't want him thinking about it too much. It's just one of those situations where you should go out there and be worried about executing or worry about getting what's bothering you better."
Quarterback Jared Hollins
Opening statement:
"First of all, I just want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving me the ability to play this game. I thank my teammates for coming through in the clutch."
On his performance:
"I feel like at times I played like a starter, and then at times I played like a backup. I've got to get better, get back to the drawing board and get ready for next week."
On the 4th down scramble touchdown:
"I was a little nervous about what Coach Applewhite had to say about that. But I just kept my eyes downfield, trying to make a play for the team."
On the team's selflessness:
"This team is selfless, for one. The offensive line comes out and puts it on the line every game, every week. Those guys are banged up and beat up because they're down in the trenches doing all the work. They carried the load tonight. And those three guys behind me and beside me, whatever it may be, they carried the ball like they always do. That's what they're going to do every time you put them on the field."
Runningback Keenan Phillips
On his performance:
"I felt like I had a great game, but there's still stuff I left on the table, certain runs that I've got to make. I felt like I had a good game to add to a good start to the season."
On the selflessness of the running back room:
"It's really the whole running back room. Everybody is selfless, from the top guy to the bottom guy. Everybody wants to see everybody succeed. Anytime somebody does well, we're all happy. It's like we all succeed. When somebody does something, we all do something."
Linebacker Parker Shattuck
On the defensive performance:
"I thought we played pretty well in the first half. In the second half, we've got to finish the game, just like last week. You've got to come out and finish in the second half. We gave up too many yards on the ground. We've just got to be better in that area."
On the difference in the second half:
"It was just our mentality coming out at halftime. We remembered what happened last week, obviously, so we came out trying to put the game away. We've got to do a better job of putting the game away, but we got it done."
On regaining momentum:
"The leaders have got to step up, and somebody has to make a play to turn the momentum around. We got two three-and-out stops to flip the momentum, and the offense went down and scored. That really put us back in the game."
Up Next
South Alabama will hit the road for the second time this season, traveling to Lexington, Ky., to face Kentucky for the first time in program history on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11:45 a.m. CT.
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