Carter Bradley Throws Three Touchdowns as South Alabama Rallies Past Old Dominion 27-20

South Alabama made it five wins in a row on Saturday, and it took a full second-half effort to get there. Quarterback Carter Bradley accounted for three touchdown passes as the Jaguars erased a halftime deficit and shut out Old Dominion after the break to win 27-20 in Mobile. In a season that had already carried the program to rare heights, the victory added another chapter: a game where the defense tightened, the offense ground out long drives, and a team with everything to play for refused to let a stubborn opponent walk out with the result.

The win lifted the Jaguars to 10-2 overall and 7-1 in Sun Belt play, capping a five-game winning streak and preserving their position atop the Sun Belt West race heading into the final stretch of the conference schedule. For a program that fielded its first football team only in 2009, a 10-win season at the FBS level represents the kind of milestone that once seemed a decade away, and it has energized a fan base that has watched the program climb steadily from the Sun Belt’s basement to its top tier.

Bradley, a graduate transfer who has settled into the starting role this season, has been central to that climb. His three scoring tosses against the Monarchs pushed his season totals further upward and demonstrated the poise that has defined his year: even after his only turnover of the afternoon, he responded with the kind of methodical, clock-consuming drive that wins November football games in the Sun Belt.

Monarchs Strike Early

Old Dominion, finishing its season at 3-9 overall and 2-6 in Sun Belt play, controlled the first two quarters behind quarterback Hayden Wolff, who hit a pair of touchdown passes to stake the Monarchs to a 20-13 halftime lead. Old Dominion came into the game with nothing to lose and played like it, mixing the run and the pass effectively and keeping the South Alabama defense on the field for long stretches. Wolff’s two scoring strikes were sharp, well-placed throws, and the Monarchs capitalized on their opportunities while the Jaguars were still finding their footing.

The Jaguars answered with two long scoring marches. The first covered 83 yards in 12 plays and ended with a 30-yard strike to Jalen Wayne, the kind of drive that drains a defense as much as it scores points — twelve plays marching the length of the field, converting along the way, and finishing with a deep shot to the veteran receiver who has been Bradley’s most trusted target. Wayne’s catch capped the kind of sustained possession that visitors playing with a lead dread, because it flips both the scoreboard and the momentum.

After the game’s only turnover — an interception thrown by Bradley — he bounced back by capping a grinding 15-play, 69-yard drive with a 2-yard scoring toss to DJ Thomas-Jones. The response said as much about the quarterback as either of his long completions. Rather than letting the mistake compound, Bradley led the Jaguars on the longest drive of the day by play count, chewing up nearly the entire third quarter’s rhythm and putting the ball in the hands of his tight end at the goal line.

That was all the offense either side would manage in the second half. Old Dominion scored on four of five first-half possessions but touched the ball just four times after intermission, punting three times before turning it over on downs at the South Alabama 41-yard line with under two minutes left. The contrast between the halves was stark: an offense that had moved at will before the break could not sustain anything after it, and every failed possession handed the ball back to a Jaguars offense content to keep grinding.

Two Halves, Two Different Games

The statistics lay out the turnaround in full. The Monarchs managed only 69 of their 381 total yards after intermission, while the Jaguars piled up 398 yards and held the ball for more than 10 additional minutes. Time of possession, often a byproduct of the scoreboard, became a weapon in its own right: by driving the field in long, deliberate marches, South Alabama kept Wolff and the Old Dominion offense standing on the sideline, freezing out an opponent that had looked comfortable in the first half.

The defensive adjustment after halftime was equally decisive. Whatever the Jaguars changed at the break — pressure packages, coverage looks, or simply a tightened fit against the run — the effect was to reduce Wolff’s windows and force Old Dominion into longer down-and-distance situations it could not convert. Three punts and a turnover on downs told the story of a unit that had run out of answers by the time the final drive reached the South Alabama 41 with under two minutes to play and the game on the line.

The final desperate possession encapsulated the afternoon’s arc. Old Dominion moved into Jaguars territory needing a touchdown to tie, the kind of situation the Monarchs had handled well in the first half. But the defense that had been pushed around for two quarters stiffened at the decisive moment, and the turnover on downs — four possessions, three punts, no points — sealed the result and sent the home crowd home with a fifth consecutive victory to celebrate.

For the Jaguars, the ability to win a game in which they trailed at the half carried its own significance. November football in a conference race is rarely clean, and teams that play in December do so on the strength of afternoons like this one — imperfect starts, steady corrections, and the composure to answer an interception with a 15-play scoring drive rather than another mistake.

Milestones and What Was Next

Running back La’Damian Webb rushed for 74 yards, pushing him past the 1,000-yard mark for the season. Crossing 1,000 rushing yards is one of college football’s classic benchmarks, and Webb reached it while serving as the engine of the kind of clock-controlling offense the Jaguars leaned on in the second half. Every yard he gained Saturday came against a defense committed to stopping him — Old Dominion knew the Jaguars would run the ball to bleed the clock, and still the carries kept coming and the chains kept moving.

The opponent’s star delivered a historic performance of his own, even in defeat. Old Dominion linebacker Jason Henderson finished with 18 tackles to reach 186 on the year — a total topped in FBS history only by Texas Tech’s Lawrence Flugence (193 in 2012) and Boston College’s Luke Kuechly (191 in 2011). To sit behind only those two names on the single-season tackles list is remarkable company: Flugence’s total has stood as the FBS record for more than a decade, and Kuechly went on to become one of the most decorated defenders in college football history before a standout NFL career.

Henderson’s pursuit of the record book gave a 3-9 season a storyline, and his 18-tackle afternoon in Mobile kept the chase alive until the final whistle. South Alabama’s offensive staff was aware of where he lined up all afternoon, but the Monarchs’ defensive centerpiece found the ball regardless, wrapping up ball carriers on drives that otherwise belonged entirely to the home team.

The victory kept South Alabama’s division hopes alive, though clinching the Sun Belt West still required Troy to stumble against Arkansas State later that night. The Jaguars had done their part, running their record to 7-1 in conference play and finishing their own slate with a fifth straight win, but the arithmetic of the division race sat outside their control. South Alabama needed a Trojans loss to claim the West title outright, and fans leaving the stadium Saturday evening had one eye on the scoreboard from Jonesboro, Arkansas, where Troy faced an Arkansas State team playing out its own season.

The scenario was a familiar frustration for Sun Belt teams in a race against Troy, which had been the class of the West all season. A 10-2 record and a five-game winning streak would usually settle any division argument; this year, it only set the stage for someone else’s game to decide South Alabama’s fate. That is the nature of divisional tiebreakers and head-to-head results in a conference where the rivals do not always meet in the regular season’s final week.

Whatever happened later that night in Jonesboro, the afternoon in Mobile stood on its own as a statement of how far the program has come. The Jaguars entered the season with modest external expectations, and they ended their home schedule with a 10-2 record, a winning streak five games long, a 1,000-yard rusher, and a quarterback who threw for three touchdowns in the finale. The home crowd that filled the stadium for senior recognitions and the final home date got to see the full range of what this team does well: long, punishing drives, a defense that adjusts at halftime, and the closing resolve to stop an opponent inside the final two minutes.

The Old Dominion game also closed out the Monarchs’ difficult season on a competitive note. Finishing 3-9 and 2-6 in the Sun Belt, Old Dominion played its best football in stretches of this game, scoring on four of five first-half possessions and briefly appearing in control of a game being played more than a thousand miles from its own campus. Had the second half unfolded the way the first did, the Monarchs would have walked out with the kind of upset that defines a rebuilding season. Instead, they became the final hurdle in South Alabama’s winning streak.

For South Alabama, the wait for Troy’s result was the last piece of unresolved business in a season that had already delivered more wins than any in program history to that point. A division title would mean a trip to the Sun Belt championship game and a chance at the conference crown; a Troy win would end the Jaguars’ season at 10-2 and leave them to a strong bowl destination. Either way, the foundation laid over these five consecutive victories — a balanced offense, a second-half defense, and a roster that answers adversity with long drives rather than panic — has positioned the program for more Novembers like this one in the years ahead.

Fans who watched the Jaguars trail at halftime and shut the door in the second half saw the difference between a good team and a winning one. South Alabama has spent years building toward this level, and on Saturday, with the division race hanging in the balance, the Jaguars looked like a team that expected to be there — and played the full sixty minutes accordingly.

Update: Scoring Details and Division Outcome

The win gave South Alabama its first 10-win season as an FBS program. Old Dominion scored on the game’s opening possession in five plays, with Hayden Wolff hitting Blake Watson for 36 yards and then Javon Harvey for a 26-yard touchdown. South Alabama answered with a 15-play, 75-yard drive capped by Carter Bradley’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Caullin Lacy.

A 33-yard field goal put Old Dominion ahead 10-7 late in the first quarter. Bradley briefly left the game after his left, non-throwing shoulder was driven into the turf, and Diego Guajardo tied the score with a 23-yard field goal. Watson’s 6-yard touchdown reception on a shovel pass made it 17-10, and Guajardo answered with a 46-yarder. The Jaguar defense then stopped the Monarchs inside the 2-yard line, and ODU kicked an 18-yard field goal as time expired for a 20-13 halftime lead.

Bradley tied the game with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Wayne with 4:50 left in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Jaguars put together a 15-play, 69-yard drive that took 6:57, opened by an 18-yard Bradley run on which he hurdled a defender, and finished with Bradley’s touchdown pass to DJ Thomas-Jones on third-and-goal from the 2.

On Old Dominion’s final possession, a sack was wiped out by a facemask penalty and an apparent 25-yard touchdown pass was nullified by a chop block. On fourth-and-13, Jamie Sheriff sacked Wolff for a 10-yard loss to force a turnover on downs.

Statistics

South Alabama outgained ODU 398-381 and 208-96 on the ground, while the Monarchs held a 285-190 edge through the air. The Jaguars converted 9 of 17 third downs and all three fourth-down attempts, held the ball for 35:08 and were penalized five times for 40 yards. ODU converted 7 of 15 third downs and one of two fourth downs.

Bradley completed 17 of 29 passes for 190 yards, three touchdowns and an interception and ran for 22 yards. Lacy caught six passes for 53 yards and a touchdown, Wayne had three catches for 63 yards and a touchdown, and Devin Voisin caught three for 36 yards before leaving with a shoulder injury. La’Damian Webb, who did not start, ran for 74 yards on 18 carries to finish the regular season with 1,015. Braylon McReynolds added 56 yards on 10 carries, and Omni Wells had 40 on nine.

Wolff completed 21 of 36 passes for 285 yards and two touchdowns. Watson ran for 110 yards on 18 carries and led ODU with six catches for 88 yards and a touchdown, and Ahmarian Granger had five catches for 71 yards.

Division Result

Troy defeated Arkansas State later Saturday to win the Sun Belt West Division on the head-to-head tiebreaker over South Alabama, ending the Jaguars’ bid to host the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Dec. 3. South Alabama will learn its bowl destination during the bowl selection show at 11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 4.