Texas Southern hands Southern worst loss since 1999

When Southern’s football team came out the locker room after halftime Saturday night at A.W. Mumford Stadium, the goal was to close a 13-point gap against a brutally physical Texas Southern football team. The Jaguars believed they could do it. They had faith.

“The coaches told us to keep fighting. We weren’t out of the ballgame,” safety Anthony Wells said. “They told us to keep mistakes to a minimum and play hard.”

Southern needed a spark, a turnover, a big special-teams play. Something. Anything. Nothing good happened. By the end of the third quarter of a thoroughly convincing 54-7 blowout, the pep in Jaguars’ step was long gone and so were most of the 8,329 fans who bothered to show up.

Jaguars offense stymied

Call it intuition, call it foreboding. Whatever it was, the smallest crowd of the season was on hand to watch the most lopsided home loss for Southern University in recent seasons, a 54-7 defeat at the hands of Texas Southern.

Texas Southern brought in the second-ranked defense in the Football Championship Subdivision, and the Tigers acquitted themselves nicely. Southern’s offensive statistics all came in below the meager averages already allowed by Texas Southern.

SOUTHERN NOTEBOOK: Lopsided loss makes history

This was not the way Southern intended to make history. In dominating the Jaguars 54-7 on Saturday night in A.W. Mumford Stadium, Texas Southern earned its most lopsided win in the history of the TSU-SU football series, which dates to 1946. Before Saturday, the Tigers’ largest margin of victory was 37 points, achieved in a 37-0 win in 1972.

Southern offense manages just 134 yards

Think Southern’s 54-7 loss to Texas Southern on Saturday night was bad? Linebacker Shomari Clemons said it should have been worse. “We could have held them to zero points, we could have held them to a goose egg,” said Clemons, the LSU transfer who scored the first of Texas Southern’s two defensive touchdowns — outscoring Southern’s offense. His defensive teammates agreed.

TSU/SU: How they scored

First quarter
TEXAS SOUTHERN: Shomari Clemons 3 fumble return (Robert Hersh kick) at 14:08. KEY PLAYS: On Southern’s third play from scrimmage, defensive lineman Jonathan Hollins, a Redemptorist graduate, sacks quarterback Dray Joseph, forcing a fumble in the process. Clemons, a former LSU player, scoops up the fumble and walks into the end zone. Texas Southern 7, Southern 0.

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ATTENDANCE: 8,329

Videographer: Bookman, 11/7/10