In a game with all of the stakes you could think of, Southern rose to the occasion.
Seemingly everything was on the line tonight for Southern in a game with a lot of hype behind it. The only two teams that were undefeated in the SWAC west played each other, and on top of that, it was homecoming for the Jags. On this night, it would be the Jags that would come out on top over the Alcorn St. Braves, 24-14.
The opening sequence of this game lived up to the expectations of the matchup, with a frenetic pace of explosive plays, big stops, and turnovers, all without a single point being scored. Southern finally got a decent opening drive going this season via a big Kobe Dillon run, but got stuffed on the 2 yard line in a 4th and inches situation to give Alcorn St. the ball. Just two plays later, Xzavier Vaughn threw a deep interception to Horacio Johnson, giving the Jags the ball in plus territory.
However, Southern got stuffed on 4th and inches for the 2nd straight drive, giving the Braves the ball with much better field position. Just two plays after that, Alcorn St. fumbles the ball and Southern recovers, but the play gets called back due to penalty. Two plays after that, a strip sack gives Southern another chance at the ball, which they actually follow through on and take over.
For those keeping score, that was 1 50+ yard play, 2 turnovers on downs, 1 fumble, 1 INT, a 2nd fumble that got called back, and a total of 0 points. That all took place in the first 7 minutes of the game.
Southern wasn’t immediately able to take advantage of it, but this start to the game was a pleasant surprise for the Jags in multiple ways. They hadn’t put together any good offensive drives to open games before this week, and even though they came up with 0 points, that opening drive showed a lot of promise for the team. On the other side of the ball, the defense had been dominant in seemingly every statistic in the book…except for turnovers. The defense had struggled to generate them all year, and they finally got two big ones early in the game.
Unfortunately for the Jags, neither of these revelations resulted in any points for them. What did result in points was a 4th and inches play for Alcorn St in which Southern went all in at the line of scrimmage and got burned for it when Tavarious Griffin broke through the line of scrimmage and got a 64 yard TD run for the Braves to dent the scoreboard first.
Southern responded in the 2nd quarter with a pair of TD drives, both capped off by Noah Bodden. First, he had a fun 15 yard run into the endzone capped off with a little dive. Then the next drive, he threw it to Datreveon Brown for a 37 yard TD.
Southern was cruising late in the half with the lead and the ball, trying to push to extend the lead to 2 scores with Alcorn St. getting the ball to start the 3rd quarter. On 3rd and long, Bodden converted with a pass to Cameron Jackson, but Jackson then fumbled the ball, giving the Braves a short field. They would score shortly thereafter off of a Xzavier Vaughn TD run, tying the game up at 14 a piece going into halftime.
After a scoreless 3rd quarter, Southern got the ball back the begin the 4th and went on a game-changing drive. In this drive, we saw yet another change at QB – the 2024 Southern Jags are the team that just can’t get through a game with only one QB. Noah Bodden converted a 3rd down with a long run, but went down at the end after a big hit. He seemed ok after the game, but he had to come out for the rest of the game and was replaced by Czavian Teasett. Considering how disastrously Teasett’s outing went last week (3 drives, 3 turnovers), there was some cause for concern for Jags fans.
So what did Southern do? After having two TD drives of 8 plays each, this time the Jags went on a 15 play, 8 minute long drive that slowly sucked the life out of Alcorn St, exerting their will on the ground. The rushing attack was a strength for Southern the whole game as the offensive line seemed to play their best game of the season and the team totaled 295 yards on the ground. After Bodden came out of the game, Southern didn’t throw the ball a single time, and it just did not matter. Kobe Dillon and Kendric Rhymes kept the chains moving, and the Jags found themselves in field goal range. On 4th and 3 just outside the Alcorn St. redzone, Joshua Griffin kicked a 39 yard field goal to give the Jags the all important lead with just 7 minutes left.
At this point, an Alcorn St. team that had not put a true scoring drive together all game couldn’t find one when the pressure was at its highest point. They had to press to try to break the tie, and the dam broke. After a brief drive, Southern drove in the dagger with a huge two play sequence. First, a forced fumble recovered by Herman Brister III suddenly gave the ball to the Jags with the lead and only 4 minutes to go. Then, on the very next play, Kendric Rhymes sealed the deal with a 46 yard TD run.
With this win, the Jags move to 4-3 on the season, but much more importantly, 3-0 in SWAC play. Now they stand alone atop the SWAC West standings, and it is clear that the road to the SWAC championship game will go through Baton Rouge. They begin a new chapter of the season, as the current top dogs of the division, with every team looking to knock them down a peg. They travel to Florida A&M next week, and that game will be at 6:00 next Saturday.
You can check out the postgame interviews of Head Coach Terrence Graves, QB Noah Bodden, LB Vincent Paige Jr, RB Kendric Rhymes, S Herman Brister III, and DB Horacio Johnson here!
