By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
MOBILE, Alabama – The Northwestern State football team never has played South Alabama in its history, but that does not mean the Demons are totally unfamiliar with their Thursday-night opponent.
When Northwestern (0-2) squares off with the Jaguars (0-2) at 6:30 p.m. inside Hancock Whitney Stadium on ESPN+, it does so with a cadre of players and coaches who have ties to the school and to the Mobile area in general.
Two players – senior tight end Chance Newman and junior linebacker Landry Huddleston – hail from the Mobile metropolitan area with Huddleston calling Mobile his hometown. First-year head coach Blaine McCorkle went to high school in Pensacola, Florida, and then made the drive west on I-10 to attend and play at LSU. Offensive line coach Cade Camp was a graduate assistant at South Alabama for two seasons, and offensive coordinator Norman Joseph spent two seasons as the head football coach at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in the city.
All told, there will be plenty of emotions when the Demons arrive for their first matchup with the Jaguars.
“This will be my first time playing in Mobile in front of my family, and a lot of people I went to school with are going to end up being there,” said Huddleston, who transferred to Northwestern from Belhaven in December. “I have previous teammates, guys I played with and against at South Alabama, so I’m looking forward to it.”
The same can be said for Newman, who grew up in Daphne, Alabama, which lies approximately 30 miles east of the South Alabama campus and Hancock Whitney Stadium.
That distance did not stop Newman from attending several Jaguars’ games while growing up in the area. Like Huddleston, Newman expects to see plenty of familiar faces in the stands – even as the Demons play their second road game of the season, both of which have taken place more than 350 miles from campus.
“I’ve got a bunch of people coming,” he said. “There will be a big Newman crew in the stands this Thursday, so I’m pretty juiced up about that. Being that close to home, it will feel like a home-field advantage for me. I went to a lot of South Alabama games growing up, so I got to experience that environment before. They’ve got a great environment with the new stadium.”
Although the matchup with the Jaguars marks the second Thursday-night game of the season for Northwestern, which fell to Tulsa in its Thursday-night season opener, it does mark a slight change for the Demons.
With Tulsa serving as the season opener, it gave Northwestern a much longer ramp-up time for the game. The trip to South Alabama comes five days after a 37-31 loss to Prairie View A&M in which Northwestern quarterback JT Fayard was ruled to not have crossed the goal line on an untimed down that ended the game.
That turnaround reinforced the Demons’ ability to quickly shift focus onto the Jaguars.
“Sometimes your best bet is to just go play football again,” McCorkle said. “It is a quick turnaround, and that creates a lot of planning and organizational challenges. You have to be detailed and know what you’re doing or the week will sneak up on you in a hurry. I think our staff’s done a good job of putting a plan in place, moving our days ahead and being prepared. We’ll be ready to go Thursday and excited to play again.”
Family reunions and a larger-than-normal road crowd will be benefits for the Demons, but Northwestern is focused on the business portion of the trip.
South Alabama has dropped its first two games of the season, but the Jaguars feature an offense that ranks 13th nationally in the Football Bowl Subdivision in passing yardage (329 per game) and 40th in total offense (458.5 yards per game).
“(Major Applewhite) is a heck of a football coach, and he has a great resume,” McCorkle said. “He’s been a lot of places and had a lot of success. I’m excited to match up with him and go one on one. He’s from Baton Rouge and was there the same time I was in college, so it will be good to shake his hand and see him.”