Looking to bounce back after a loss at home to the USF Bulls, the Golden Eagles traveled away for their Week 4 matchup against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, where they lost 44-7 in a game that saw Southern Miss six turnovers, the most since 2012.
It wouldn’t be the best start at all for the Golden Eagles as Tate Rodemaker would start the first drive of the game throwing a interception to Antonio Carter II, who would help set up the first score on the day for the Gamecocks, as thanks to Gamecock running back Tre Stewart who found nothing but daylight as Jacksonville State struck first on the day. Rodemaker’s woes would continue as on the following drive, his pass would be intercepted again by Jax State who would capitalize once again with another touchdown to make it 14-0.
From there, John White would make his debut under center for the Golden Eagles as he would replace Tate Rodemaker following back to back interceptions.
“Tate turned it over his first two drives, so when you turn it over you put somebody else in,” Coach Will Hall said.
White would give a spark to the Golden Eagles offense as he would be able to scramble it in for the Golden Eagles’ only touchdown on the day as he would run it in for the score.
“It was fun, it was a great drive that we all put together,” said White. “A lot of credit to our offensive line and our receivers. It felt great to get that touchdown.”
The Golden Eagles would have a chance to score later on in the 2nd quarter, but fumbled away a chance to turn it into a one score game as they would head into the half down 21-7.
The 2nd half would see the Gamecocks surge massively, as they would go on a 24-0 scoring run throughout, to give Jax State not only a homecoming win, but their first win on the season 44-7.
“We can’t turn the ball over, we can’t turn the ball over 6 times, especially you can’t turn the ball over on the one yard line and about to go in and score,” Hall said after the game. “We have to go and fix those things.”
White echoed similar sentiments.
“I totally agree,” he said. “I’m behind Coach Hall 100% if he thinks it was that, then I agree with that.
White would finish the day 9-18, with over 118 pass yards alongside 3 turnovers in his debut.
“I got to play better, no doubt about that,” White said. “We as a whole offense have to be better offensive line receivers, we all have to play better, get on the same page.”
His teammate, Dylan Lawrence, one of the NCAA’s interception leaders with two, expressed similar thoughts.
“We got to eliminate those mistakes, those are very simple mistakes that we have to capitalize on like tackling and turning the ball over,” he said. “If we can do those little things, we can be alright.”
The Golden Eagles fall to 1-3 after finishing up their non-conference slate of games. While they’ll have a bye week for this upcoming week, they’ll be back in action October 5th when they take on longtime rival Louisiana at 6 p.m. at The Rock.
