JONESBORO, Ark. — South Alabama football has already matched last season’s win total, and the Jaguars did it the hard way. South Alabama held off Arkansas State 56-49 on Thursday night at Centennial Bank Stadium, surviving a late rally in a 105-point shootout that now stands as the highest-scoring game in the Football Bowl Subdivision this season.
Junior running back Keenan Phillips scored four touchdowns — three on the ground and one on a 100-yard kickoff return — as the Jaguars improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the Sun Belt Conference. Arkansas State fell to 2-4 and 0-2 in league play.
The victory gave South Alabama four wins at the midpoint of the regular season, the same number the program managed in all of 2025. It also gave the Jaguars a 2-0 start in Sun Belt play for the first time since 2022.
A three-touchdown lead, and then a fight to the finish
South Alabama led by three touchdowns late in the third quarter and appeared to be in control. Arkansas State’s offense, however, never stopped coming. Red Wolves quarterback Trey Owens threw for 418 yards and four touchdowns, and his 1-yard run cut the margin to one score with 6:51 left in the game.
That set up the decisive stretch of the night. Rather than risk giving the ball back, the Jaguars leaned on their running game and ran 11 straight running plays to bleed the clock. The drive included a fourth-down conversion by quarterback Jared Hollins and two third-down conversions by Phillips. When Phillips picked up 10 yards on third-and-3, Arkansas State was forced to burn its final timeout with 1:45 remaining. South Alabama then knelt on the ball to close out the win.
Head coach Major Applewhite acknowledged afterward that his team made the night harder than it needed to be.
“I’m proud of our team. We made it as hard as we possibly could, but at times, we played really well. I was proud of the team’s fight. You’ve just been in this league long enough; you know exactly what to expect. And what to expect is craziness, in terms of every game you can win, every game you can lose. We made our mistakes and made it closer than it needed to be at the end.”
Applewhite also praised the way his players handled the swings of a chaotic game.
“… But I’m proud of the resiliency of our guys. I know that’s cliche, but, hell, man, there’s a lot of bad stuff happening. They could have went in the tank and they just stayed focused. They kept fighting, and they were flexible in their mental toughness and adjusted.”
Keenan Phillips ties a program record
Phillips, a junior from Bainbridge, Ga., was the central figure in the win. He ran for 157 yards on 19 carries with touchdown runs of 3, 23 and 42 yards. He opened his scoring night in the first quarter by taking a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. In all, he piled up 264 all-purpose yards.
His four touchdowns tied the South Alabama record for a single game. La’Damian Webb ran for four touchdowns twice — against Georgia Southern in 2022 and against Southern Miss in 2023 — and receiver Jalen Tolbert caught four touchdown passes against Arkansas State in 2019. Tolbert went on to be selected in the 2022 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys, and Webb was a central piece of the record-setting 2022 team, so Phillips now shares a place in the record book with two of the most productive players in program history.
Hollins efficient in his first start since being named the starter
Thursday’s game was Hollins’ first since Applewhite confirmed earlier in the week that the former Mary G. Montgomery High School standout had earned the starting quarterback job. Hollins did not need to throw much. He attempted only 10 passes, completing six for 76 yards and a touchdown, but he did damage with his legs, scoring on a pair of 3-yard runs and adding a 2-point conversion run.
Running back PJ Martin added 95 rushing yards and a 6-yard touchdown. Together, the Jaguars ran for 280 yards and six touchdowns, a ground game that ultimately allowed South Alabama to protect its lead in the final minutes.
Fourth downs and the ‘book’
South Alabama converted every fourth-down attempt it tried. The most important came in the third quarter, when Hollins found Rod Gibbs for a 7-yard touchdown on fourth-and-2. That score pushed the Jaguars ahead 49-28 with 4:36 left in the third quarter.
Applewhite said the aggressive approach reflects both the statistical “book” on fourth downs and his confidence in the players asked to execute it.
“We’re going to live and die by the book at times. And what it has to do with, it’s not so much the book, it’s the belief in the players that they’ll go execute and make us right. They’ll make us right by being aggressive, and we’re not going to change that from that standpoint.”
Fourth-down decision-making has become a larger part of college football strategy over the past decade, as coaching staffs rely more heavily on probability models that often favor going for it in short-yardage situations in opponent territory. Applewhite, who also serves as South Alabama’s offensive play-caller, has made clear that his team will continue to take those chances.
Three takeaways that turned into touchdowns
The South Alabama defense gave up 516 yards, but it produced three turnovers, and each one led directly to a touchdown.
- In the second quarter, defensive end Mase Lewis strip-sacked Owens, and Parker Shattuck recovered the fumble at the Arkansas State 28-yard line. Hollins capped the ensuing drive with a rushing touchdown.
- On Arkansas State’s next possession, Lewis came up with an interception after a blitzing Jordan Williams deflected a pass. Lewis returned it to the Arkansas State 12, and Hollins scored again on the ground. South Alabama missed the extra point on that touchdown, leaving the score 34-21 with 1:29 left before halftime.
- In the third quarter, after the Red Wolves had driven into South Alabama territory, Dee Darby intercepted a pass and returned it 58 yards, setting up Hollins’ fourth-down touchdown pass to Gibbs.
Arkansas State answered the second-quarter turnovers before the break and went into halftime trailing just 34-28. South Alabama responded early in the third quarter when Phillips scored on a 23-yard run and Hollins added a 2-point run, making it 42-28. Darby’s interception and the Gibbs touchdown followed, putting the Jaguars up by three scores.
How Arkansas State came back
The teams traded scores to make it 56-35 with 14:52 to play, a margin that would end most games. In the Sun Belt, it did not. Arkansas State scored back-to-back touchdowns, first on Owens’ 15-yard pass to Jabari Bush and then on Owens’ 1-yard quarterback sneak. A South Alabama fumble set up the Red Wolves’ final touchdown, just the Jaguars’ third turnover of the season.
From there, the Jaguars’ 11-play, all-rushing march to run out the clock ended Arkansas State’s comeback bid.
The highest-scoring FBS game of the season
The 105 combined points eclipsed Texas-San Antonio’s 59-45 win over Colorado State on Sept. 26 for the most points scored in an FBS game this season.
South Alabama’s 56 points were also the program’s most in a Sun Belt Conference game. The previous high was 55, which the Jaguars scored against both Southern Miss and Louisiana-Monroe in 2023. The program’s most points against an FBS opponent remain the 59 it scored in a 59-10 win over Eastern Michigan in the 2023 68 Ventures Bowl, played at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile.
Thursday’s output came on the heels of a 52-35 homecoming win over Louisiana-Monroe the previous Saturday, which had been South Alabama’s season high. That means the Jaguars have now scored 108 points across their first two Sun Belt games.
Turnover margin among the nation’s best
Despite the late fumble, South Alabama has been one of the country’s best teams at protecting the football. The Jaguars have committed only three turnovers all season while forcing 11, giving them a plus-8 turnover margin. That figure is tied for third nationally among the 138 FBS teams.
Ball security has been a stated priority for Applewhite. When he named Hollins the starter earlier in the week, he said taking care of the football sat at the top of the list of what he wants from the quarterback position.
What a 4-2 start means
South Alabama’s 4-2 record is its best start since 2022, when the Jaguars opened 5-1. That 2022 team, coached by Kane Wommack, also started 2-0 in Sun Belt play and finished 10-3, the best record in program history.
The years since have been uneven. South Alabama went 7-6 in both 2023 and 2024, winning the 68 Ventures Bowl in each of those seasons. Last season, the Jaguars slipped to 4-8 after losing six of their first seven games. Applewhite, the former Texas quarterback and former Houston head coach, took over the program after Wommack left following the 2024 season, and he is now in his second season in charge.
The record could be even better. South Alabama lost 28-24 at Tulane in Week 2 after a late collapse, a game in which the Jaguars outgained the Green Wave. The only lopsided loss came in Week 4 at Kentucky of the Southeastern Conference, a 45-21 defeat in which South Alabama led 21-17 in the second quarter before being outscored 28-0 the rest of the way.
Applewhite said the Arkansas State win was especially valuable because of where it came.
“We finished the game on the road. I mean, hell, it’s gonna be hard to finish against an SEC team [Kentucky] on the road, but we’d love to be 5-1 right now and finish that one [vs. Tulane] in New Orleans. But I’m pleased with being 2-0 in the league and getting a road win, because we’re gonna have to play some tough road games down the stretch.”
Up next: Marshall on a Tuesday night
The Thursday night game gives South Alabama an extended break before its next outing. The Jaguars return to action on Tuesday, Oct. 20, when they travel to Huntington, W.Va., to face Marshall. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be televised.
Marshall joined the Sun Belt in 2022 and won the conference championship game in 2024, making the trip one of the tougher road tests on South Alabama’s league schedule. The extra days off also come at a useful time for a roster that played on a short week, having faced Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday and Arkansas State five days later.
The time away from the field also coincided with Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Friday, a day after the Jaguars’ win in Jonesboro.
By the numbers
- 56-49: Final score; 105 combined points, the most in an FBS game this season.
- 4: Touchdowns by Keenan Phillips, tying the South Alabama single-game record.
- 264: All-purpose yards by Phillips, including 157 rushing yards and a 100-yard kickoff return.
- 280: South Alabama rushing yards, with six rushing touchdowns.
- 11: Consecutive running plays South Alabama used to close out the game.
- 418: Passing yards by Arkansas State’s Trey Owens, who threw four touchdown passes.
- 516: Total yards allowed by the Jaguars, who forced three turnovers that all led to touchdowns.
- +8: South Alabama’s turnover margin, tied for third nationally.
- 2-0: The Jaguars’ Sun Belt record, their first 2-0 league start since 2022.