It’s certainly accurate to call South Alabama’s 2024 season eventful, but “eventful” might be even closer to accurate.
The Jaguars are 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the Sun Belt Conference heading into Saturday’s home game against Georgia Southern (5-3, 3-1). And South Alabama achieved that record with four “mini-streaks” of two games each.
The Jaguars lost their first two games against North Texas and Ohio State, but then beat Northwestern State and Appalachian State to improve to 2-2. They lost back-to-back games against LSU and Arkansas State, but won against Troy and Louisiana-Monroe.
The two-up-two trend was still present in 2023, when the Jaguars went 6-6 during the regular season and won the 68th Ventures Bowl. South Alabama hasn’t won three straight games since the end of the 2022 season, but will look to turn that around when the Eagles visit Hancock-Whitney Stadium on Saturday.
“This is about as much prosperity as we can handle, so it keeps everyone on their toes,” South Alabama first-year coach Major Applewhite said with a laugh. “We are finally aiming for three consecutive wins.”
South Alabama is having their best performance of the season and arguably their best second half. The Jaguars defeated ULM 46-17 and outscored the Warhawks 34-0 in the final two quarters.
South Alabama ran the ball for 355 yards and six touchdowns to win that game. This was the Jaguars’ third 300-yard rushing performance of the season (the others being Northwestern State and App State), and the total yards were the most in program history against an FBS opponent.
“It’s really awesome,” offensive guard Reid Buys said. “It’s kind of a dream to line up and run all the plays. That’s where our growth came from and I’m glad we did it.”
Depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s game between Louisiana (3-0 in conference play) and Texas State (2-1), South Alabama will be a five-way team in the race for first place in the Sun Belt West heading into the weekend. There is a possibility that it will be added. ULM and Arkansas State are also 2-1 in the Sun Belt, so even if the Ragin’ Cajuns beat the Bobcats, the Jaguars would be no worse off than a one-game upset.
But for the Jaguars to remain at or near the top of the division, they must show consistency rarely seen throughout the program’s 16-year history. South Alabama has played in just four bowl games and won back-to-back championships for the first time in 2022 and 2023.
“We definitely have momentum,” Buys said. “It’s all mental. You have to stay consistent and I think that shows in the work we put in this week. It’s the same approach every day because you can’t go back and you can’t get comfortable. . Don’t be complacent.
“It’s November, so perhaps the saying goes, “A November to remember.” We’re dialed in and locked in, but we’re still hungry. ”
Georgia Southern is tied for first in the Sun Belt East despite a 47-19 win last Thursday and Old Dominion holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. Clay Helton’s team also posted a 24-23 victory over Marshall on October 12, in which the Eagles trailed 23-3 midway through the fourth quarter.
Georgia Southern once again runs a multifaceted passing offense behind quarterback J.C. French, averaging over 250 yards per game through the air. However, the Eagles have a poor defense, allowing over 30 points and a league-worst 457.6 yards per game.
“It’s a different type of game this week as opposed to everything being focused on the run from a defensive standpoint,” Applewhite said. “They have three really good backs who can run the ball, but they want to throw the football.
“We have to be able to communicate on the back end, disguise things, be safe sometimes, be aggressive sometimes. Sometimes we want to play on top of things, sometimes we want to play on top of things, Sometimes you really want to “match.” We have to do a great job of understanding formations, splits and concepts from a passing game standpoint. This week will be a different approach. ”
Saturday’s kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Hancock Whitney Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
