Jacksonville: Jax State will hit the road for the first time as a Football Bowl Subdivision, and…
Jax State will hit the road for the first time as a Football Bowl Subdivision member, having an unblemished record after dominating FCS foe East Tennessee State 49-3 Saturday afternoon at Burgess-Snow Field.
The Band Day crowd of 21,276 watched the Gamecocks improve to 2-0 as quarterback Logan Smothers ran for two scores and threw another in his first Jax State start.
The Buccaneers (0-1) took a 3-0 lead on their second series with a 22-yard field goal, only to see the Gamecocks score three touchdowns the rest of the first half. Jax State then exploded for three more TDs in the first eight minutes of the third quarter to quickly turn the game into a rout.
The Gamecocks’ opportunistic defense caused four turnovers, one week after coming up with three turnovers against UTEP. All four Bucs turnovers led directly to Jax State scores.
Xavier Morrow and Jeff Marks recovered ETSU fumbles, while Kekoura Tarnue and Jalen Bustamante each stopped a pass.
“I thought it was a pretty solid effort. I thought we did what we were supposed to do,” said Jax State head coach Rich Rodriguez, who won his 174th career victory, the ninth most among active FBS coaches. “We didn’t have any turnovers and caused some turnovers on defense. It was a good, solid win, and we got to play a lot of guys.
“The best you can be after two games is 2-0, and that’s where we are. Now we know the battle gets a whole lot harder.”
Smothers was very efficient at the helm of Jax State’s attack for the first time as a starter.
The Muscle Shoals native, who heard he was starting on Saturday morning due to Zion Webb’s illness, was 13-of-17 passing for 127 yards, including a 23-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Galban in the first quarter to give Jax State a lead it would never relinquish.
Smothers also ran a team-high 14 times for 40 yards and got into the end zone twice, the first short-score run coming in the second quarter and his second on a 3-yard run in the third quarter.
Webb played just one game due to sickness. “I found out I was starting this morning,” Smothers said. “I’ve always had that ‘next man up’ mentality, so I was ready.”
Malik Jackson ran for a game-high 100 yards on 12 carries and was one of four Gamecocks to rush for a score (a 42-yard jaunt in the third quarter). Ron Wiggins had 58 yards, including a 10-yard TD run; J’Wan Evans scored on a pair of 2-yard runs; and Smother scored twice on short passes.
Alen Karajic scored all seven of his extra-point tries and now has 224 points, ninth on the school’s career scoring list. Karajic needs just three points to beat Chris Hobbs (1981–84) for eighth place.
Jeremiah Harris, whose interception sealed the Week Zero Conference USA win over UTEP, led the Gamecocks with seven stops.
The Gamecocks travel to play Sunbelt Conference partner Coastal Carolina next Saturday in Conway, S.C. The Chanticleers, who have played in bowl games the past three years, open their season later tonight at UCLA.
Kickoff at Brooks Stadium is set for 6 p.m. CT. This will be the first of two trips to the Palmetto State for the Gamecocks this season; they also head to Columbia to meet South Carolina on Nov. 4.
Jax State is 3-2 all-time against teams from the state of South Carolina (1-0 at Wofford, 2-0 at Newberry, 0-2 at Furman).
Jacksonville State Head Coach Rich Rodriguez
September 2, 2023
The ETSU Game
Opening comments: “I thought it was a pretty solid effort. I thought we did what we were supposed to do. The guys played hard; they were into it. Our performance offensively wasn’t quite there at times, but we kind of simplified the plan a little bit once we got the lead. I thought our defense did another really good job on third down; it was really busy. Our special teams were solid. I think we had one pre-snap mistake that kind of bothered me, and a couple penalties on defense that we need to clean up. We didn’t have any turnovers, which caused some turnovers on defense. I got a good, strong win, played a lot of people, and might’ve played 70 guys. We got the win; the best you can be after two games is 2-0 and that’s where we’re at. Now we know the battle gets a whole lot harder. I’m happy we got to play a lot of people.”
On Logan Smothers’ performance: “His arm strength’s coming back from labrum surgery. We didn’t ask him to throw much, but when he did, he missed a couple. I think that might’ve been stress or something. He was seeing the game well; he was making good reads. He’s active; he can run a little bit. Up front, I thought our guys controlled, which they should’ve. When we started going speed a little bit, I think it wore them down a little bit in the second half.”
On the run game: “We’ve got a lot of running backs. We wanted to see Reggion Bennett. I think he’s a guy that’s going to be in the mix quite a bit. He’s been banged up; he had surgery last year, so he got in there. It was good to see J’Wan Evans get in there. We know Malik (Jackson) and Ronny (Wiggins) are pretty good guys, so we’ll play four or five guys at running back to keep fresh guys all game.”
On the defense: “Really good on third down on defense. Created some mistakes, putting some pressure on the quarterback. We missed a couple tackles for sacks, but for the most part, we tackled pretty well. Our defensive guys do a really good job of adjusting.”
