ATLANTA, Georgia — Florida A&M quarterback Damien Fleming lofted the ball for the back corner of the end zone. To send the Atlanta Football Classic into overtime, all he needed was a pair of friendly hands.
Instead, the ball found nothing but Georgia Dome turf.
One kneel-down later, Southern’s sideline burst into celebration with chest-bumps and the now-weekly tradition of spraying interim coach Dawson Odums with water.
In the stands, the SU faithful screamed and cheered, and on the club level, a group of Jaguars fans twirled umbrellas and danced carefree to the sounds of the Human Jukebox.
Ah, that’s what two in a row feels like. The Jaguar Nation might have forgotten that feeling in recent years, but after Southern’s 21-14 win against Florida A&M, the team has its first back-to-back wins since 2009, not to mention something that seemed inconceivable two weeks ago: momentum.
ATLANTA — In a 21-14 win over Florida A&M that was often a struggle offensively, Southern’s coaches showed just how confident they are in starting quarterback Dray Joseph. After saying last week that he planned to put backup J.P. Douglas in for a series or two per game, interim coach Dawson Odums and his staff stuck with Joseph throughout Saturday’s Atlanta Classic.
A change could have been expected just after halftime, when Joseph was 9 of 15 for 88 yards and threw an interception on his first pass of the second half. At that point, Southern trailed 7-0.
“We believe in our starting quarterback,” Odums said. “We just felt like it wasn’t anything that he was doing that was preventing us from scoring. We went into halftime and made some adjustments and corrections, got some protections together, and we challenged him.”
It worked, as Joseph rebounded in a big way. He was a perfect 8 of 8 on a game-tying touchdown drive, then finished 25 of 35 for 226 yards and two touchdowns to earn the game’s MVP award.
ATLANTA — At halftime of Saturday’s Atlanta Classic, Southern interim coach Dawson Odums had his work cut out for him.
The Jaguars had played a sloppy and sluggish first half, with four punts, two turnovers and only 94 yards of offense. They trailed Florida A&M 7-0, with the lone score coming after a fumble led to an easy Rattlers touchdown.
At that point, it was eerily similar to Southern’s 6-0 loss against Mississippi Valley State two weeks earlier — the kind of performance that has already proven deadly to an SU coaching career.
Not that a negative result would have cost Odums his job, but he and the Jaguars were well on their way to losing the momentum they had built in a win at Jackson State. They were in dire need of a second-half turnaround.
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