Week 5 Preview: South Alabama at North Texas

After opening up conference play with a loss to Coastal Carolina 38-20, South Alabama will look to rebound against a solid North Texas team.

South Alabama will also be looking to avenge last year’s home opener, when these two teams met last. In that game South Alabama blew a fourth quarter lead, ultimately losing 52-38.

North Texas on the other hand will look to keep their unblemished record intact. The Mean Green have started the year 4-0, including a blowout 59-10 win over Washington State and an overtime win against Army in Week 4.

South Alabama

South Alabama will enter this week’s game 1-3, but the record hardly tells the full story. The Jags have shown flashes of excellence in close losses to Tulane and Auburn, but followed it up with an ugly loss to Coastal Carolina. South Alabama is still looking to find out what kind of team it is, and will be looking to turn their season around with a big win to close out non-conference play.

As for last week, though, it was not pretty. The Jags entered the game as 16-point favorites and instead lost by more than 16.

South Alabama did move the ball efficiently last week, out-gaining the Chants by 130 yards. The Jags also played well defensively. The main issues were the mistakes— three turnovers and multiple penalties cost them greatly, with Coastal Carolina scoring off of each turnover.

Individually, it was not a great day for Bishop Davenport. The junior quarterback threw for 197 yards, but that included two interceptions and a fumble. Despite the rough day passing, South Alabama was at least able to run the ball well— totaling 223 yards against the Chanticleers. This split between three running backs Keenan Phillips, Kentrell Bullock, and PJ Martin.

South Alabama will look to continue leaning on their strong run game, even more so with the emergence of Keenan Phillips.

“[Keenan Phillips] is a great player, we’ve got to find more ways to get him the football. The way he ran tonight, what I’ve seen in practice, he’s doing a heck of a job,” said head coach Major Applewhite.

Defensively, South Alabama held the Chanticleers to just 112 passing yards. South Alabama did not force any turnovers but kept Coastal off the field. The Jags did struggle, however, to defend the run game, allowing 182 rushing yards on the day.

This has been a big issue for the Jags this year. South Alabama now has the 13th-worst rush defense in the country by yards allowed per game.

Another big story out of last week’s game was the injury to starting center Malachi Preciado. Following his exit, there were a number of bad snaps and penalties. Applewhite is optimistic that he may be able to play in Week 5, despite absences from practice, but he remains a game time decision.

Cleaning up the mistakes will be the biggest key for South Alabama this week. The offense has the talent to keep up, but has to cut out the turnovers and play a complete game. Defensively, South Alabama will need to make stops and keep the pass heavy, high powered North Texas offense off the field.

North Texas

The Mean Green enter this week’s game fresh off a road overtime win against Army last week, winning 45-38.

North Texas led 28-7 at one point in the second quarter of that game, but allowed Army to come all the way back. Army sent it to overtime on a last second field goal, but North Texas still escaped with a win. The Mean Green will be looking to improve to 5-0, in what would be their best start to a season since 1959.

“We’ve got to avoid number one distractions, and thinking we’re a little better than we are right now,” said head coach Eric Morris. “[South Alabama] is a good ball club, they only lost to Tulane by two points and went on the road to Auburn and battled.”

In last week’s game the Mean Green took advantage of short fields, capitalizing off of a number of Army turnovers, and being very balanced on offense. They totaled 478 yards of total offense in the game, 249 yards of those passing, 229 yards of those rushing. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker had the best performance individually, throwing for 249 yards and a touchdown.

Overall, North Texas comes into the game as an offensive powerhouse with the 9th-best scoring offense in the country. They lean primarily on their strong pass game, with Mestemaker throwing for an impressive average of 253 yards per game. The Mean Green have also ran the ball well, using a number of running backs. North Texas are primarily led though by Makenzie McGill II, who leads the team with 280 yards and four touchdowns.

Despite the balanced attack last week, look for the Mean Green to take advantage of a shaky South Alabama secondary, keeping the ball in the air in this game.

The defense for North Texas, while much improved from last year, is still the weakest part of this team. They have struggled to defend the run especially, giving up 175 rushing yards per game. However, they have done a good job of keeping teams off the board, only giving up an average of 20 points per game.

This week North Texas will look to force a sloppy South Alabama team to turn the ball over and make mistakes, as Coastal Carolina did last week. They will also need to be able to contain the South Alabama rushing attack.