MOBILE, Ala. — Jake Bentley threw four touchdown passes, two of them to Jalen Tolbert, and Darrell Luter Jr. intercepted two passes as South Alabama beat Arkansas State 31-13 on Saturday in its homecoming game at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
The win was South Alabama’s third straight over Arkansas State and moved the Jaguars to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the Sun Belt Conference, one victory from bowl eligibility. Arkansas State fell to 1-7 and 0-4.
Four First-Half Touchdowns
South Alabama opened with an eight-play, 79-yard drive on which no play gained fewer than 5 yards, and Bentley finished it with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Tolbert. After an Arkansas State three-and-out, the Jaguars went 75 yards in seven plays, and Bentley found Tolbert again from 30 yards out. It was Tolbert’s ninth career touchdown catch against the Red Wolves.
Alan Lamar’s 52-yard kickoff return gave Arkansas State its first possession in Jaguar territory, and a pass interference penalty set up first-and-goal at the 7. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Chris Henderson pressured quarterback Layne Hatcher into an incompletion.
Starting at their own 1 with 1:41 left in the first quarter, the Jaguars put together an 18-play, 99-yard drive that took 8:31 off the clock. Terrion Avery’s first-down run barely cleared the end zone to avoid a safety, and Bentley capped the march with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Avery for a 21-0 lead.
After the defense forced a three-and-out that lost 16 yards, Bryan Hill ran 47 yards to the Arkansas State 14 on the first play, and Bentley threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Crum for a 28-0 lead. Lamar returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for Arkansas State’s only touchdown, and South Alabama led 28-7 at halftime.
“I thought it was a tremendous first half in terms of our execution,” head coach Kane Wommack said. “I thought we did a poor job on our kickoff unit, we have to get better there. But outside of that, we really played with a lot of effort and energy. We executed at a high level. It was a good response victory to a week ago against Louisiana-Monroe where I didn’t think we played anywhere near the standard offensively, defensively, special teams.”
Defense Takes Over
Arkansas State opened the third quarter with a drive that ended in a 32-yard field goal, cutting the lead to 28-10 with 10:05 left in the period. South Alabama’s next three possessions were three-and-outs, and the Jaguars finished the third quarter with minus-5 total yards.
The South Alabama defense forced turnovers on Arkansas State’s next two possessions. AJ DeShazor forced and recovered a fumble, and Luter made his first interception. On the second play of the fourth quarter, Bentley was intercepted on a pass intended for Tolbert, but Devin Rockette intercepted the Red Wolves a few plays later with a sliding catch.
Arkansas State reached the South Alabama 17 before a third-down sack forced a 43-yard field goal, making it 28-13 with 6:22 left. The Red Wolves’ onside kick went out of bounds off a Jaguar at the 50. Arkansas State’s Corey Rucker was injured on the play and was taken from the field on a cart. Avery opened the ensuing drive with a 23-yard run, and Diego Guajardo’s 39-yard field goal made it 31-13. Luter’s second interception ended Arkansas State’s final threat.
“I thought we played very hard and aggressive on defense the entire game,” Wommack said. “You look at the numbers and you can see that it was a dominating performance by our defense [only allowing] 242 yards total, giving up 38 yards rushing. They were 3-of-13 [on third down]. We stopped them in the red zone on fourth down. Obviously getting four takeaways on defense is huge and tremendous.”
By the Numbers
South Alabama gained 352 yards in the first half and finished with 424, including 173 rushing and 251 passing. The Jaguars had 23 first downs, 20 of them before halftime, and converted 5 of 14 third downs and 2 of 3 fourth downs. Arkansas State had 28 yards at halftime and finished with 38 rushing yards and 186 passing yards, along with 232 kickoff return yards.
- Jake Bentley: 29 of 39 for 251 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
- Jalen Tolbert: eight catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
- Jalen Wayne, Caullin Lacy and Lincoln Sefcik: five catches each for 42, 39 and 35 yards.
- Brandon Crum: three catches for 31 yards and a touchdown.
- Terrion Avery: 113 rushing yards on 22 carries and a 2-yard touchdown catch.
- Bryan Hill: 47 yards on one carry before leaving with a shoulder injury.
- Kareem Walker: 26 yards on five carries.
- Quentin Wilfawn: 11 tackles, six solo, and a half sack.
- Darrell Luter Jr.: two interceptions and a tackle for loss.
- Ke’Shun Brown: two tackles for loss, including a sack.
- Charles Coleman III: 1.5 sacks.
- Devin Rockette: an interception and a half tackle for loss.
For Arkansas State, Hatcher completed 19 of 37 passes for 186 yards with three interceptions. Rucker caught four passes for 67 yards. Lincoln Pare ran for 32 yards on eight carries and Johnnie Lang for 20 on seven.
Most Wins Since 2016
The five victories are South Alabama’s most since a 6-7 season in 2016, when the Jaguars last played in a bowl game.
“The standard and capability of this team is not five wins,” Wommack said. “It’s disappointing that it’s been so long since we’ve had five wins as a program, but at the same time we need to be process oriented. To me, we are not where we can be, but we’ve created an opportunity for this team to play our best ball at the end of the year and that is really exciting.”
“This was a great win, but we need to move the dial forward in this program, and until we become a consistent football team, we will not achieve our goals,” he said.
Up Next
South Alabama travels to Troy for the annual Battle for the Belt against the Trojans. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m.
