Southern University earned their first win in the Terrance Graves era with a 42-10 victory over Savannah State University in Saturday night's home opener. The win moves the Southern Jaguars to 1-1 following last week's lost vs. McNeese State University. The Savannah State Tigers are now 0-1.
Early on, the Jaguars and Tigers engaged in a fierce defensive battle. The first five drives went as follows: Tiger's punt, Jaguars turnover, Tiger's Punt, Jaguars Punt, Tiger's Punt.
Savannah State's First-team preseason All-SIAC selection Deandre Creary (CB) set the tone early by intercepting Jaguars quarterback Noah Bodden.
However, the Jaguars defense answered right away by forcing the Tigers to go three-and-out and prevent momentum from swinging.
A few drives later, the Jaguars broke the scoring drought with a 44-yard field goal by Joshua Griffin (K). The Jaguars began to find their offensive rhythm with strong running by running back Kobe Dillon and quarterback Noah Bodden.
The Tigers answered the Jaguars touchdown right away, with quarterback Jadon Adams scoring in a truly unique fashion. After a miscommunication on a run handoff, Adams kept his composure and evading a defender directly in front of him before taking off for a 81-yard touchdown run giving the Tigers a 7-3 lead.
From there, Southern University continued to settle in on both sides of the football. They followed up the Tiger's touchdown drive with suffocating defense and three straight scoring drives of their own.
However, with 9:00 left in the 2nd quarter, the Jaguars made an interesting switch at the quarterback position. Despite Noah Bodden driving the team into field goal range three times, Head Coach Terrance Graves made the call to insert freshman quarterback Czavian Teasett into the game.
Teasett made his Jaguars debut last week vs. McNeese State as he lead the offense for one drive. On Saturday, Graves handed McNeese the full keys to the offense for the game, and the freshman made a emphatic statement.
Teasett drove the Jaguars into scoring distance for the next six drives. Four of the six drives resulted in touchdown scores, while the other two resulted in one made field goal and one blocked field goal.
Teasett's spark also trickled over to the Jaguars defensive efforts.
Following Jadon Adam's spectacular touchdown run, the Jaguars held all of the Tiger's offensive drives to four plays or less.
The Tiger's gained some momentum after cornerback Elijah Norwood returned a blocked kick down into Jaguars territory. However, the Tigers were forced to settle for a field goal despite having great field position.
Furthermore, the Jaguars continued to firmly pull away from the Tigers as the game continued.
Freshman quarterback Czavian Teasett finished 17 of 29 passing with 316 yards and three touchdowns. Jaguar receivers Darren Morris (4 catches 77 yards), Khalil Harris (1 catch, 76 yards), and Jermaine Minor Jr. (4 catches, 62 yards) were all key pass catchers for Teasett.
Additionally, the Jaguars defense held the Tigers to 65 total yards.
The Tigers will now prepare to join the win column in their home opener against Central State University next week.
Conversely, the future may be cloudier than it seems for Southern University. After Teasett's big time performance, the Jaguars may be in for a closer quarterback battle than they anticipated.
While there are questions, the world will have to wait until the Jaguars matchup vs. Jackson State next Saturday for answers.
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