The Southern Blues: Jags fall to JSU

The gridiron is a place where boys become men, where dynasties are built, and where one play can change the trajectory of your life. The 70 years of tradition took place on A.W. Mumford’s gridiron when the Jackson State Tigers faced off against our Southern University Jaguars. Both teams are coming off of a loss and put all their emotions on the field for all of Baton Rouge to witness, contributing to the first hard sellout since 2003. However, coming off an unreal season that ultimately landed the Jags in the SWAC championships, there has been much speculation after the Jaguars’ first loss against Alabama State University regarding Coach Dooley’s effectiveness as a coach, and the criticism proved to be valid.
The Jaguars started rocky in the 1st quarter as Southern could not get the conversion on the 3rd down after the first series and was forced to kick to JSU. However, the Jaguars drew first blood with a touchdown completed by graduate student wide receiver August Pitre III 7-0.
Jackson State would immediately come back with another touchdown by the graduate student transfer quarterback from Virginia Tech, Jason Brown, connecting with redshirt junior Rico Powers. Jackson State would take the lead 13-7.
The second half proved to be a memory of last week’s loss to Alabama State, which lacked offensive production. The Tigers would score again in the 3rd quarter, coming from graduate student running back Irv Mulligan on a 21-yard touchdown run, making Jackson State’s lead grow to 20-7.
The fourth quarter was underwhelming for the Jaguars as spectators vacated their seats. It wasn’t until the 4th quarter when sophomore running back Kendric Rhymes broke off a 27-yard touchdown run, closing the deficit to 20-14. Jag Nation was on their feet, counting on the Dog Day defense to get a stop, but senior wide receiver Andre Hunt would crush the Jag Nation’s spirits after having a 75-yard touchdown run, opening the lead back up to 27-14. With possession of the ball and 1:33 left on the clock, the Jaguars could not execute yards away from the red zone. The game concluded with Baton Rouge, Louisiana, being renamed Jackson, Louisiana 27-14.
The Dog Day defense everyone is accustomed to seeing allowed 415 yards of offense. Jackson State’s running game was too much as they would gain 270 yards on the ground to a dismal 13 by Southern. Southern quarterback Blood had 46 pass attempts and completed 27 of them, which is 58 percent. When questioned about the offense’s momentum or lack thereof, Coach Dooley admitted, “I don’t put what happened on offense that’s just not who I am, I put it on me. I got to figure some stuff out.” It is nice to see that accountability is still a trait that some people still value.
While many in college football have put Jackson State on a pedestal, even during the era of Deion Sanders, the Tigers have arguably always been a beatable team. During their last game against Florida A&M, the defense was exposed for having holes in their line. All the Jaguars had to do was watch the film from the first half, and it was easily apparent that the defensive line was lackadaisical and slow. Sophomore Linebacker Derrick Williams stated, “I feel like miscommunication and not playing our guys right. Everything we messed up on tonight, we are just going to clean it up and move forward.”
The road to redemption comes soon for the Jaguars as they will face off against Alabama A&M next Saturday at A.W. Mumford Stadium. Kick-off is set to take place at 6:00 p.m. Will the Jaguars continue their losing streak going 0-3, or will they ultimately once again be “A Team of Faith”? [Eric Dooley].
Stay tuned in to all Office of Student Media social media platforms for updates leading up to and during the game.