SU tries to get ground attack on track

By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter

One week after Southern ran for 293 yards against Mississippi Valley State, the Jaguars came down to earth, with 67 yards on 31 carries in a 12-2 win over Prairie View.

The rushing total against Valley was the best total since September 2003 and reinforced the 238 rushing yards from the season opener.

Though the rushing total against PV was still better than five anemic totals last season, it was the worst since Mark Orlando became the team’s offensive coordinator for the final three games of last season.

“We have to get our running game started back,” Southern coach Pete Richardson said. “We cannot afford to just sporadically try to throw the football. Our throwing game has evolved around us running the football.”

Southern (3-0) hosts Tennessee State (2-1) of the Ohio Valley Conference at 6 p.m. Saturday in A.W. Mumford Stadium.

The Jaguars are 5-1 since making the move to Orlando after a 26-10 loss at Alcorn State in which SU ran for 53 yards on 34 carries.

Saturday’s output, however, was the worst rushing game since SU made the staff move and, concurrent with that, emphasized the ground game.

In the first eight games of last season, Southern had running game clunkers of 1, 57, 63 (against Prairie View), 95, 61 and 53 yards. Since then, SU has run for, in order, 236, 152, 131, 238 and 293 before PV (2-1) corralled the Jaguars to the 67 yards Saturday.

There’s a realization Prairie View, in its third season under defensive coordinator Heishma Northern and with linebacker Zach East, is pretty stout defensively.

“Prairie View really came to play,” junior running back Kendrick Smith said.

However, there’s also a concern Northern might have laid down a plan for stopping the Jaguars.

“Prairie View did an outstanding job,” Richardson said. “People will take a look at that.”

Another concern for Saturday is, SU will have to play the first half without senior wide receiver Gerard Landry, who has scored a touchdown in all three games and is the unit’s emotional leader. Landry was ejected midway through the fourth quarter and, by NCAA rules, must sit out the first half.

“You have to be concerned. &hellip It’s going to be a struggle getting to the second half, because he’s made some outstanding plays for us,” Richardson said.

Lee’s completion percentage Saturday was a strong 61.1 percent, but PV kept SU from turning short passes into long gains. Receiver Del Roberts, who turned dink passes into big plays the week before, was held to 38 yards on nine catches.

“It was bad for everybody,” said sophomore quarterback Bryant Lee, 4-1 as a starter. “We just didn’t execute the way we wanted to.”

Lee threw for 144 yards and a touchdown and ran for a season-low 21 yards (also a career low in games in which he’s played at least a half).

“He’s a young quarterback and he’s learning, but we were inconsistent, dropping some passes that cost him some big plays,” Richardson said. “Overall, we hung in there with a good football team.”

SU’s offense, meanwhile, has started slowly all season. The Jaguars had minus-6 yards on 10 plays, with three, three-and-outs, in the first quarter.

The Jaguars had to come up with big plays to score Saturday.

Lee hit Landry on a hot read for a 15-yard touchdown on a third-and-9 in the final minute of the first half.

And holder Nick Benjamin found tight end Evan Alexander for a 12-yard TD on a fake field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“The play was inconsistent, offensively, for us,” Richardson said. “Missed assignments caused some problems for us. Of course, a lot of that was caused by Prairie View putting the pressure on us.”

Southern players lauded Tennessee State as having a physical defense and said getting back offensive rhythm will be a challenge.

“We didn’t perform like we were supposed but the defense stepped up,” Smith said. “We have to execute better than we did. In the game we had some mental busts.”