Alcorn Controls Second Half to Oust Southern 27-13

LORMAN, Miss. – Trailing 6-3 at half, the Alcorn State University football program came out in the second and scored 24 unanswered points to defeat Southern 27-13 Saturday at Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium.
 
Alcorn (6-2, 4-0 SWAC) won its fifth game in a row and eighth straight at home.
 
The opening drive of the third quarter set the tone for the Braves. The big play was a 52-yard pass to senior Raidarious Anderson, and Alcorn capped it off with a one-yard keeper by junior Felix Harper to take a 10-6 lead over the Jaguars (4-4, 3-1 SWAC).
 
Alcorn then scored on a four-yard pass to senior De'Shawn Waller, drilled a 31-yard field goal by senior Corey McCullough and punched in an 11-yard pass to LeCharles Pringle to catapult ahead 27-6.
 
Harper was 19-of-26 passing for 277 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Chris Blair was his leading receiver with 108 yards, including a 69-yard reception. On the ground, Waller rushed for a game-high 81 yards.
 
Alcorn outgained Southern 377-284 in total offense.

The Jaguars used two quarterbacks. Ladarius Skelton threw for 114 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-20 passing, while Glendon McDaniel recorded 95 yards on 12-of-18 throwing.
 
Defensively for the Braves, senior Solomon Muhammad tallied a team-high eight tackles. Junior Malik Holbert wrapped-up a career-high three sacks to go along with five tackles. Senior Mikail Webb and junior Qwynnterrio Cole each pulled in an interception.
 
With the victory, Alcorn is the only remaining unbeaten team in the SWAC.
 
The Braves will have next weekend off from competition. They'll return to the field on Saturday, Nov. 9 for a 2 p.m. game at Grambling State. Alcorn defeated GSU 33-26 last season as Blair caught the game-winning touchdown pass with 12 seconds left.
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
The Jaguars possessed the ball first and put together a long 13-play drive. They made it all the way to the Alcorn 15 when they tried a trick play - a halfback pass by Devon Benn was intercepted in the end zone by Cole to put an end to it.
 
The Braves returned the favor on the other end. At their own one-yard line after a penalty and a rush for a loss, Harper connected with Blair for 69 yards. Alcorn was then setup 1st-and-goal from the two-yard line when a pair of rushes were stopped short, and then a fumble on third down at the one-yard line on a quarterback-sneak play was recovered by SU to keep the game scoreless.
 
Alcorn got the ball back late in the first quarter and completed an 11-yard pass to sophomore Tim McNair Jr. to near midfield. The Braves made it into the red zone, but were pushed back on a 14-yard suck and settled for a 37-yard field goal. McCullough knocked it through to give Alcorn a 3-0 edge at the 14:07 mark of the second quarter.
 
Southern had the ball for nearly the rest of the second quarter. An outstanding 20-play, 84-yard drive was capped by a two-yard touchdown run by McDaniel. The drive featured four third-down conversions. However, the snap on the extra point was botched, as SU led 6-3 with 4:03 remaining in the second.
 
Both teams had the ball briefly in the final four minutes, but nothing came out of it. The Braves trailed 6-3 at the break.
 
On the second play of the third quarter, Harper aired it out and found Anderson deep for 52 yards. After a seven-yard rush by Pringle placed the ball at the one, Harper kept it himself to put Alcorn back on top 10-6 with 12:48 to go.
 
The Braves got the ball again after a Southern pass was batted high in the air and picked off by Webb at the SU 47. Alcorn cashed in with five completions by Harper, including a four-yarder to Waller in the flat to extend the lead to 17-6 with 5:29 left in the third.
 
At the very of the third quarter, Alcorn started at its own one-yard land after a downed punt. A 15-yard pass to sophomore Trey Turner gave them some breathing room, and a 34-yard pass to Blair cross midfield. McCullough tacked on a 31-yard kick to give Alcorn a 20-6 advantage.
 
After a three-and-out by the defense on the ensuing SU series, the Braves scored once more in the fourth. A good 26-yard punt return started the drive at the Southern 40. Alcorn made it a 27-6 game on an 11-yard pass to Pringle with 5:53 remaining in the fourth.
 
The Jaguars scored late to trim the deficit to 27-13. An 11-yard pass to Hunter Register was followed by a 15-yard pass interference by the Braves at the Alcorn 39. A few short passes was followed by a 12-yard touchdown pass to Register at the 3:29 mark.
 
NOTES
- Alcorn has won 9 of the last 10 matches against SU. It includes wins in the 2014 & 2018 SWAC Championships. The Braves improved to 39-27-2 all-time against the Jaguars.
 
- The Braves won their seventh consecutive game against a SWAC West Division opponent.
 
- Alcorn improved to 84-53 all-time in Jack Spinks-Marino Casem Stadium, which is in its 28th season.
 
- Alcorn head coach Fred McNair upped his career SWAC record to 20-7.
 
- Since taking over as the starting quarterback over the last five games, Harper has now thrown for 1,423 yards, 18 touchdowns and no interceptions. He entered the game ranked third in the nation in offensive efficiency with a 185.7 mark.
 
- With a seven-yard rush by Harper on 4th-and-2 in the fourth quarter, the Braves remained one of three teams in the country to maintain a perfect 100 percent fourth down conversion rate on the season.
 
- Alcorn outscored Southern 10-7 in the fourth quarter, and has now outscored the opposition 66-31 in the fourth his year.
 
- The Braves entered the game leading the SWAC in scoring defense (20.9 ppg), total defense (328.4 ypg) and interceptions (10). They limited SU to 13 points, 284 yards and picked off two passes.
 
- McCullough's two field goals put him at 40 in his career, which are the most in school history.
 
- Alcorn entered the weekend ranked No. 3 in the national HBCU Top-10 and also received votes in the STATS FCS Top-25 Poll.
 
- Alcorn's captains were McCullough and seniors Darrell Henderson and Kevin Hall. The Jaguars won the coin toss and received.
 
Quoting Alcorn head coach Fred McNair
Opening Statement
"Such a great day to be a Brave. It was a very emotional day and I didn't want to put any more added pressure on those guys, but today was a day that Steve [McNair] set records against this team that we played and I just wanted to make sure we came out and represented well as a program. We played an excellent ballgame the second half, came back and fought. My hats off to Coach [Dawson] Odums, they're such a great, classic football team and a great program over at Southern. He does a great job with that program, but these guys that we have here at Alcorn are phenomenal players. They continue to fight each and every week through all the adversity that comes at them. It was a great win for us."
 
On how he made sure the game wasn't too big for the team
"The biggest thing is that these guys have been on this stage before, they know how to handle the situation. They know how to handle this big stage, that's the thing that we as coaches remind them of, making sure that things don't get too big for them. They kind of keep themselves in good spirits. These guys were locked in and it's testament to those guys and how they prepare themselves to win every day on the practice field."
 
On the dominant second half
"The coaches did a great job of making adjustments at the half. These guys came out and executed the plays called."
 
On prepping Felix Harper for this game
"This probably was his biggest game he's ever played, so we were trying to keep him calm and try to make him understand that this stage isn't too big. I think Coach Pat White does a great job with them of doing everything he needs to be doing to teach them the right reads and throwing it in the right spots. He runs the offense just as well as anybody."
 
On having De'Shawn Waller healthy
"That's a big step for us, he was down for a while and we kind of piggybacked off of [Niko] Duffey - he did a great job of filling in for Waller. We also have [Trey] Turner that's done a great job for us as well. Those guys coming in and playing while he was down helped us out a whole lot until he got healthy but he's back to himself, he's doing all the things that it takes to win the ballgame, running the ball hard and catching passes out of the backfield. He's only going to get better throughout the rest of this year."
 
On how opportunistic the defense was
"They stepped up the second half despite giving up that touchdown, they got that interception. Creo [Argue] batted the ball up and we made a catch on it so that was a big turnover right there."
 
On controlling their own destiny from here on out
"That's what we tell the guys all the time, we don't wait for anybody to lose or hope somebody beats somebody, things of that nature. We control our own destiny from the beginning of the season and we come out and play to win every SWAC game. This was a big game for us today in the conference against a very good football team in Southern."
 
Quoting quarterback Felix Harper:
On the offensive adjustments coming out of halftime
"We just had to come together as a unit, take one play at a time, one drive at a time, one quarter at a time and once we did that we came together with coaching to put the product on the field."
 
On bouncing back with a rushing touchdown after fumbling on the one-yard line
"I was a little upset. I thought it was a bad call but it's okay, so we took that play and kept fighting and it ended up helping us come together as a team."
 
On what was the motivator factor for him today
"The motivating factor was that it was just another game on the schedule so we all came together as a team. It started from the first week of practice and we came together. I thank the coaches and also my teammates for believing in me as we got the job done."
 
On what he did mentally to prepare
"Watched film with Coach [Pat] White day-in and day-out, we do that a lot. Also, on the field I have to have great energy because everybody looks up to me, I'm running around and screaming and once they see me then my other teammates do that, I always say it starts with the O-Line."
 
Quoting defensive back Qwynnterrio Cole:
On how the defense limited Southern to 13 points
"Every week we study film, we study a lot of film. They ran a lot of the same plays and they actually have not changed a lot from last year. We just came in prepared."
 
On his interception on the trick play
"They actually showed us the trick play every year for some reason and our coaches told us to be expecting it, it's going to come and it came. I had to go get it."
 
On the defense making a statement in this game
"It was big. We try to go out and we like to try and shut people out. We didn't get it done today but we came close. We just like to go out and play physical."
 
On how fun it is getting the best shot from every team they play against
"One thing about me is I love playing competitive games. If it's easy then it's going to be boring. If it's up there, I like competitive games, it's more fun."
 
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