After breakthrough win, South Alabama suddenly has a lot to play for

It’s easy to exaggerate the importance of a single win, but South Alabama beat Louisiana 24-22 Saturday’s incident completely changed the complexion of the Jaguars’ season.

South Alabama (5-5, 4-2 Sun Belt Conference) is now one win away after qualifying for the third consecutive bowl and is still alive for the conference title. The Jaguars will travel on Saturday to face last-place Southern Miss (1-9, 0-6), a team that fired its coach and is outscored 95-3 over the past two weeks.

“It was nice to see us make it happen in a critical moment,” defensive tackle Maurice Strong said. “I’m going to take this move forward, ride the momentum and try to get a chance to get to the bowl game and play for the Sun Belt championship. … But we can’t look forward from day to day. The goal right now is just to take care of Southern Miss. Let the chips fall where they may.”

Louisiana’s win leaves South Alabama right in the middle of the conference title race, but it will need some help to play in the Sun Belt championship game. Not only must the Jaguars win against Southern Miss on Saturday and Texas State on Nov. 29, but they also need to win one of Louisiana’s (8-1, 5-1) final two games against Troy or Louisiana-Monroe. must make him lose.

If there’s a three-way tie for first place with Louisiana and Arkansas State, South Alabama is in good shape; It is also 4-2 in state conference play and beat the Jaguars 18-16 on Oct. 5 in Jonesboro. The second tiebreaker (after head-to-head play, which does not count for a Three-way tie) will be a league record, with South Alabama going 5-1 against the West (vs. 4-2 for the Ragin’ Cajuns and Red Wolves) The three finished 6-2 in the league .

“Two weeks ago, after losing to Georgia Southern, we came in here angry, frustrated, whatever adjective you want to use, and said, ‘hey, there’s still a lot to play for,’” the South Alabama coach said. said Major Applewhite. “I don’t know, I can speculate, but I would guess there are some guys in this room who say, ‘I don’t know.’

“Well, two weeks later all this stuff showed up again. … If you’ve coached long enough, if you’ve been around long enough in November, you understand what three and four games in a conference game means, and all of that is still possible.”

But even if South Alabama didn’t win the division and play for the conference title, the Jaguars showed they could win a close game when they finally had to make a play. The USA was 0-3 in one-score games this season and 1-5 in the last two seasons before Saturday.

South Alabama took a 24-3 lead at halftime, while Louisiana scored 19 unanswered points to pull within two points with 1:16 left. But the Jaguars stuffed the Ragin’ Cajuns with a game-tying two-point try, and nose tackle Wy’Kecious Thomas stopped quarterback Chandler Fields just short of the goal line.

“We’ve talked before that college football games normally come down to 3-5 plays and you have to be on the right side of them (to win),” defensive coordinator Will Windham said. “We weren’t three weeks ago. We gave up these two goals late against Georgia Southern. That was the point of preaching (against Louisiana) as we finally got closer.

“We were really good in the red zone all day. We held them to some field goals and that was the difference in the game. We talked about doing the best we could in the game. We repeated all the goal line plays they showed on Tuesday and Wednesday. When that play was made at practice on Thursday, (Thomas) made the play.” .And this comes out when it comes to gaming.”

South Alabama is a three-touchdown favorite over Southern Miss, which has lost eight straight since its lone win of the season against FCS rival Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 7. The Jaguars are 4-0 all-time against the Golden Eagles. Including a 55-3 win in Mobile last season.

Southern Miss ranks last in the Sun Belt Conference in scoring offense (14.9 points per game) and scoring defense (36.6), as well as total offense, rushing offense and rushing defense. The Golden Eagles allowed 38 sacks and converted just 23.4 percent of their third down.

“The record (talent) doesn’t quite match up,” Applewhite said. “Then you see the effort they played with. Then you look at whether it’s a two-score game against Arkansas State in the fourth quarter or a one-score game against (Louisiana) at home in the fourth quarter. There are very close matches.

“So the thing that comes to your mind as a coach is, ‘I hope our players see this.’ I hope our players understand this.’ So talk to them and help them understand, explain to them: ‘Do you all feel like a 5-5 team?’ ‘No coach, we think we’re better.’ ‘Okay, they probably feel that way too.’ On Senior Citizen’s Day, they will play with someone who has feelings.

Kickoff for South Alabama-Miss South is Saturday at 2 p.m. at MM Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.