The SouthernUniversity Jaguars football team will take on the Texas College Steers (5-3) atA.W. Mumford Stadium at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in its Homecoming game.
Texas College,located in Tyler, Texas is a school in its second year of reinstated football. Last season the Steers finished6-3. Two quarterbacks have seenaction for Texas College this season, with junior David Bowie completing 42 of105 passes for 910-yards and 13 touchdowns. Olan Johnson, a junior, is 23 of 47 for 390-yards and fivetouchdowns. Johnson also rushedfor 279-yards and two touchdowns.
Southern (6-2overall, 5-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) spent practically the entiremonth on the road defeating top SWAC foes Alabama State (42-41), AlabamaA&M (33-24), Jackson State (45-7) and Alcorn State (23-20).
“We’re justreally trying to gel the defense,” said Jaguars senior line backer TaurusMorgan, the Jags’ leader in tackles with 72 (9.0 per game). “The guys that Iplay with have tremendous heart; they’re always ready to play and they nevergive up.”
Of those fourconsecutive SWAC games, the Jaguars had to come from behind in the fourthquarter in three of the matches to pull of the win.
In the AlcornState game last week the Jag’s junior wide receiver James Vernon was taken outof the game because of a knee injury.
With Vernongone, Southern took an immediate blow to its passing game — senior quarterbackThomas Ricks completed 12 of 26 passes for 55-yards, a season low for theplayer who was named SWAC Offensive Player of the Week four different times,including three straight weeks.
“We’re not goingto diversify what we did offensively,” Richardson said. “We’re going to establish a runninggame but we’re still going to have to throw the football.”
Vernon leads theJags with 51 catches for 682 yards and seven touchdowns. With wide receivers junior AntonioOverstreet, freshman Rogers Taylor and junior Emile Bryant through eight gamesthe four have combined to catch 120 passes for 1,555 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Ricks rushed 25times for 111-yards a career high in the win over Alcorn. The 6-foot-3, 212-pound LaPlace nativepicked up the weight that was needed with the absence of leading rusher seniorGerald Holmes (leg injury).
“When you lookat the depth on our football team, the only stable part of it is the offensiveline,” Richardson said. “We’regetting to the time of the year when the injuries start to occur. You just hopeyou have enough depth on your football team to get through it. Everybody’sgoing through the same thing. Hopefully, you can finish up strong.”
