This Southern team is on fire right now, and now all eyes are on an exciting SWAC championship game.
That’s the key takeaway from this year’s Bayou Classic, a 24-14 win for the Southern Jaguars over the Grambling Tigers. Head Coach Terrence Graves gets his 3rd win in the Bayou Classic, and Southern gets their 3rd win in a row in the game. This is Southern’s 4th consecutive victory, giving the Jags the exact momentum they need to take on the best the SWAC East has to offer in Jackson St. next week.
Southern got this win using the formula they have found in the past few weeks with new quarterback Jalen Woods under center: dominate on defense, don’t make mistakes on offense, and get the explosive play when you can. However, there was one key difference this week: Southern actually got off to a fast start. The Jags scored their first ever touchdown in the first quarter this season after a bomb from Woods to Chandler Whitfield helped set up a CJ Russell run for the score. Then, a couple drives later, Kobe Dillon found a hole for a big run and set up a Joshua Griffin field goal, and the Jags had something they weren’t very familiar with for the first two and a half months of the season: a comfortable 1st half lead.
That comfort didn’t last very long. After the field goal, the ensuing kickoff was returned by Grambling WR Tylon Williams 94 yards for the Tigers TD, and despite the Grambling offense getting nothing going on offense, they went into the half only down 10-7 still completely in the game. Grambling never led, but they managed to keep the game interesting and close for the most part.
That being said, Grambling was truly doing nothing on offense, something that carried over into the second half and all throughout the game. They finished with only 9 first downs and 148 total yards of offense as Southern’s defense played one of their best games all season, playing their best ball at the right time with the juggernaut Jackson St. offense looming on the horizon. The defense did everything; live in the backfield forcing TFLs and sacks, play well situationally to turn 7s into 3s and 3s into 0, and even force turnovers. Herman Brister III caught a pick early in the 2nd half.
Unfortunately, Brister’s presence will be missed in the first half of the SWAC championship game, as he was ejected from the game for a targeting penalty during a tackle on Grambling WR Julian Lewis. The hit was unbelievably brutal, but also not clean, and Lewis got injured on the play. He was carted off the field and evaluated for a concussion, but Grambling Head Coach Mickey Joseph said the injury wasn’t severe after the game.
The second half gave us two of the most impressive catches we have seen in any Southern game all year. Jalen Woods generally played well for the Jags today, as even though he didn’t throw in high volume or complete a high percent of his passes, he found explosive plays through the air and mostly limited the mistakes. Mostly. There was one exception, as he overthrew his intended receiver for what seemed like a sure-fire incomplete pass that was instead intercepted by Blake Davis because of an incredible play Davis made on the ball.
Woods finished the game 9/17 for 176 pass yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. That gave him over 10 yards an attempt, an amazing game from an efficiency standpoint, largely because of that explosive play. A lot of that is because of one of the guys he was throwing to, Chandler Whitfield. Whitfield had one of his best ever games in a Southern uniform, logging 5 catches for 134 yards (yes, 134 of the 176 passing yards went to Whitfield), and this unbelievable one-handed touchdown catch. Whitfield deservedly won team MVP for the Bayou Classic with his performance.
That touchdown made the score 17-7, which turned out to be enough points for Southern to win the game. Grambling kept it close for a while with a touchdown drive led by a great play by Tylon Williams, punched in on the ground by Keilon Elder, but Southern separated at the end with one last touchdown to give us our final score of 24-14. This was scored on a big play by Kendric Rhymes, cementing the impact of all three of the Jags’ 3-headed rushing attack on this year’s Bayou Classic. Rhymes led the way with 12 carries for 110 yards and this TD. Dillon and Russell had their impact too, as Dillon finished with 81 yards and Russell had the game’s first score.
Southern moves to 8-4 on the season and takes their now 4 game win streak into the SWAC championship game where they will get a chance at revenge against Jackson St. The two teams met back in September. Jackson St won the first meeting 33-15 in a game where then-starter Zae Teasett got knocked out early and Jalen Woods didn’t play at all. Southern is going to look to prove they are a very different team from the one from their first meeting. As for Grambling, they finish their season 5-7 on a disappointing note.
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