The Jags return home to play host to Georgia Southern in a nationally-televised Thursday night contest. It's the only time this month that South will play a member of the Sun Belt Conference's East Division. This will be the third time in as many years that the Jaguars and Eagles will meet on a Thursday night.

USA is looking for its first win in league action at Hancock Whitney Stadium since defeating ULM on Oct. 24 last fall. The Jags also aim to earn their third home victory of the year, a total they last reached in 2018.

South Alabama-Georgia Southern Series Notes
• After coming from behind in the fourth quarter last season in Statesboro, the Eagles have won each of the first seven meetings in the series.
• The last two match-ups between the two programs have been decided by one score, including a double-overtime victory for GS in the most recent meeting in Mobile.
• South averaged just eight points per outing in the first four contests in the series, but has more than doubled that output in each of the last two games.
• The Eagles have posted 20 or more points in all seven contests against the Jags, scoring 24 per game in Mobile while recording an average of nearly 45 points an outing at home.
• GS owns three of the top seven rushing totals in a game by an opponent in the Jaguar record book, although the last of those performances came during the 2017 season.

Notes From The Last Georgia Southern Meeting
• It was the last time the Jaguars have dropped a game when leading after three quarters prior to last weekend.
• The total number of plays run were the fewest for the Jags and their opponent in 2020.
• Not only was it the fewest passing and total yards allowed by South last year, it was the only time during the campaign that the opposition was held under 100 yards through the air.
• It was the second year in a row that Keith Gallmon Jr. was credited with a forced fumble against the Eagles, while it marked the first time in his career he led USA in tackles in back-to-back outings.
• With Brandon Crum and Trent Tyre both catching two passes, it was the first time a pair of Jaguar tight ends finished with multiple receptions in the same game dating back to a Nov. 26, 2016, contest at Idaho.

Notes On Wommack's Coaching/Playing Career
• Wommack, 34, became the third head coach in program history and youngest at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level when he was hired on Dec. 12 last year.
• He was one of five finalists for the Broyles Award, given to the top NCAA FBS assistant coach in the nation, in 2020 after helping Indiana go 6-2 overall while finishing 12th in the final Associated Press poll.
• In addition to serving as the Hoosiers' defensive coordinator — the youngest in the Power Five — the last two years, Wommack was also defensive coordinator for the Jags in 2016 and '17 as well as at Eastern Illinois for one season prior to his first stint in Mobile.
• The Jaguars allowed over 10 points fewer per outing than the previous campaign his first year on the staff, the fifth-best improvement in the NCAA FBS that fall.
• After beginning his collegiate playing career at Arkansas in 2006, Wommack was a fullback and tight end at Southern Miss for three years — helping the Golden Eagles to a postseason bowl appearance each fall — before receiving his degree from the school in 2009.

Interception Increase
South recorded a season-best three interceptions at Texas State on Saturday, with the trio of Jamal Brooks, Darrell Luter Jr. and Tré Young combining to return those 115 yards which led to 17 second-quarter points for the Jags. Not only was it the most picks posted by the Jaguar defense since the group had three in a match-up with Georgia State on Nov. 21 last fall, but with seven through its first five contests USA has already equaled the number of interceptions it finished 2020 with.

Lots Of Tackles For Loss
A total of nine individuals contributed to the Jaguars' season-best 11 tackles for loss against the Bobcats last time out, highlighted by Gallmon Jr. and Charles Coleman III finishing with career-high figures after collecting 2½ and 1½, respectively. Yam Banks joined the duo with multiple stops for loss — the first of career, both recorded on the same fourth-quarter drive — while it marked the third straight outing that both Brooks and Wy'Kevious Thomas have been credited with at least one tackle in the opponent's backfield. In fact, Thomas has had a sack in each of the last three contests, the longest streak by a member of South's defense since Tyree Turner was in on one four games in a row from Sept. 8-30, 2017 (Finessé Middleton posted one in each of the last three outings of that stretch as well).

Jennings Generating Mayhem
ILB Shawn Jennings shared team-high honors in last weekend's contest after making nine stops, three more than his previous career high recorded in the Jags' season-opening defeat of Southern Mississippi as well as the same number he had posted in the first four games of the year combined. That total included a tackle for loss, the third time this fall that Jennings has ended up with a stop in the backfield as he is now one shy of reaching double figures in the category in his career.

A Committee Approach
After not seeing action in any of the Jaguars' first four contests this year, redshirt freshman AJ Phillips came off the bench to post a six-yard gain on the final snap of the opening quarter against the Bobcats on the way to finishing the night with a game- and career-high 74 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. In addition to becoming the eighth individual to lead the team on the ground in the last nine outings dating back to a Nov. 14 trip to Louisiana a year ago, it marked the first time since a stretch from Nov. 12, 2009-Sept. 18, 2010, that different players have rushed for multiple touchdowns in three consecutive games as Phillips joined Kareem Walker and Bryan Hill in turning the trick in the last month.

Tolbert Tops Team Again
Over that span going back to South's visit to the Ragin' Cajuns, only one individual has paced the squad in receiving yards in all nine games — Jalen Tolbert. The junior finished the Texas State contest with 84 yards on five receptions, making it the 10th time in the Jags' last 11 outings that he has caught five or more balls, and it included his first touchdown reception of the season in the first overtime as he now stands one shy of the all-time mark in the school's record books with 15 in his career.