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MOBILE, Ala. – Facing the first nationally-ranked opponent — one that included the country's leading rusher coming into the weekend — on your home field is a tough enough task.  Doing so without your starting offensive backfield should make the task infinitely more difficult.

But Cole Garvin completed 16-of-21 passes for 242 yards and three touchdowns in his collegiate debut, Gerald Everett finished with his first 100-yard receiving game of the season and the University of South Alabama defense allowed only 316 total yards, leading the Jaguars to a 42-24 non-conference football victory over No. 19 San Diego State Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

"We all knew that Cole was a good quarterback.  It was a tough decision this summer when deciding a starter," South head coach Joey Jones explained.  "The only thing you worried about is his experience and how he would react out there with it his first time on the playing field and I think he played great and had one heck of a game.  He was cool as he could be and made great throws.  He had a couple of runs and protected the football."

All of Garvin's touchdown passes covered at least 20 yards, with the last two helping the Jags (3-2) take the lead.  On the third snap of the second half, with USA down by two, the sophomore found Everett open in front of the USA bench near midfield, with the senior tight end putting the Jags back in front 21-16 with a career-long 79-yard touchdown catch.  After the Aztecs (3-1) regained the lead on a 12-yard pass from Christian Chapman to Kahale Warring, going up 24-21 when he found David Wells for the two-point conversion, Garvin marched the Jags 69 yards in 11 plays and more than six minutes before hitting Josh Magee for a 20-yard score to give USA the lead for good.

It was the third time Garvin connected with Magee on the possession, with the first two completions converting third-down situations.

"I was nervous until I got on the field, but once I threw that first pass it was gone," Garvin said.  "We really had a great week of practice, and a fantastic game plan — I give credit for that to [offensive coordinator] Coach [Bryant] Vincent.  I also want to point out that the play around me was not on me; we had great catches.  The defense held them to 21 points, and to do that against an offense that powerful helped us out tremendously.  That was a team win all the way around."

Magee paced all players with six catches for 83 yards, while Everett posted 103 yards on five receptions.  Kevin Kutchera caught three passes for 56 yards as well, as the trio accounted for all but two of Garvin's completions.

The Jags put the game away with two touchdowns in the final eight minutes.  After a snap over the punter's head gave USA the ball at the SDSU-3, Dami Ayoola scored from one yard out, and nearly four minutes later Devon Earl picked up a fumble and returned it 80 yards for a score — it's the third in the senior's career.

Donnell Pumphrey was averaging 199.7 yards per outing coming into play, and against the Jaguars he carried 25 times for 151 yards and a score.  But USA allowed Chapman to complete 13-of-22 attempts for 159 yards to hold the Aztecs 126 below their season average.

Jeremy Reaves posted seven stops, Jalen Thompson supplied a career-high six and also broke up a pair of passes, and Neiko Robinson made six tackles to lead the Jag defense.  Kalen Jackson was credited with five stops — including three behind the line of scrimmage — and forced a fumble, Earl chipped in with five stops and a pass defensed and Roman Buchanan made five stops as well.  Randy Allen was credited with 1½ sacks as South finished with a season-best four while making 10 tackles for loss.

"We knew they were going to get the ball to No. 19 [Pumphrey] — he is a great player," said Jackson.  "We knew we had to set the edge and the safeties would come down and clean everything up, and they did a great job of coming down and making big-time tackles.  It was just fun being out there.  Everybody was flying around and no one got down — this is just a great team win."

"We knew that [Pumphrey] would get his runs because he's a heck of a running back," added Jones.  "[Coming into the game] he's had some 200-yard games against some good football teams.  We knew that we had to stop him to have a chance and if we didn't do that, it was going to be tough.  Our defense played really well.  San Diego State got us on some things here and there because they are pretty darn good.  We knew we couldn't stop them all the time, but they didn't have any big throws on us.

"We limited their big plays and I'm just proud of the way we played on defense."

The Jags went ahead 7-0 on their opening possession, taking advantage of a roughing the kicker call to march 90 yards in eight plays and three-and-a-half minutes.  After Ayoola picked up a first down with a nine-yard run to move the ball to the USA-35, the Jaguars followed with a 13-yard run by Garvin and a 31-yard completion from the sophomore quarterback to Magee down the left sideline.  Tyreis Thomas crossed the goal line from 12 yards out — he would end the night leading the team with 33 rushing yards — with just over 10-and-a-half minutes left in the opening period, marking the first time the Aztecs have trailed in nearly 250 minutes, a stretch dating back to the Mountain West Conference championship game on Dec. 5 last year.

South answered SDSU's first touchdown later in the quarter with another eight-play march, going up 14-6 when Garvin connected with Kutchera for his first career score with less than two minutes remaining in the period.  The senior made a diving catch from 37 yards out one play after his seven-yard reception converted a third down.

The first two Aztec scoring drives in the opening half started in Jaguar territory.  SDSU took over on the 48-yard line following a 20-yard punt midway through the first period, and after a 33-yard pass from Chapman to Mikah Holder Rashaad Penny reached the end zone on a 15-yard run.  With just under 10 minutes to go in the opening half, Quest Truxton's 32-yard punt return set up a three-play, 40-yard drive that began with a Pumphrey 36-yard run and ended when he scored from seven yards out to make the score 14-13.

And when SDSU marched 63 yards — with the drive starting after Derek Babiash's interception in the end zone — keyed by a 25-yard rush from Pumphrey and a 27-yard completion to Eric Judge, the Aztecs took a 16-14 lead to the locker room as John Baron converted a 34-yard field goal five seconds before the break.

Judge caught three passes for 43 yards and Holder had two receptions for 48, while Penny gained 62 yards on nine attempts.

Calvin Munson led all players with nine tackles, including one for a loss of six yards, as the SDSU defense surrendered only 331 yards on the night.  Austin Thayer-Wyatt and Na'im Mcgee posted eight tackles each, Dakota Turner added seven while Damontae Kazee and Malik Smith were two of four individuals from the unit to supply five stops; the latter also broke up a pair of passes.

The Jaguars held the ball for over 21 minutes in the first half, finishing with more than 33 minutes of possession, aided by a 7-of-13 performance on third downs.  SDSU was only able to move the chains on two of 10 third-down attempts, also failing twice on fourth down.

USA's win snapped the Aztecs' 13-game win streak, which was second-longest in the nation coming into the day.

"We started in January building the character of this team.  It's really because they bought into what we were telling them to do that they were able to come through and win in games like this," Jones observed.  "We beat an SEC West team [Mississippi State], we beat the No. 19 team in the country.  People looked at our schedule and said how in the world are they going to win any games in the first four or five games of our season.  It's because our kids have bought in and that's what it's really all about.  Because they have bought into what we're telling them is why I'm so proud of them.  That they believe in this program is why we are here."

"They've got a great coaching staff and they have very talented players," said SDSU head coach Rocky Long.  "You can't beat a Southeastern Conference school without really good athletes and good coaching.  When we came in, at least the coaching staff knew they were a very tough team to play against and we knew that since they had the confidence to win last year that it would be hard to beat them here."

At halftime, five individuals inducted into the USA Athletic Hall of Fame earlier in the day — Demetric Bennett (men's basketball), Jeff Campbell (men's cross country/track and field), Mark Hoffman (baseball), Pete Klear (men's tennis) and Marei Lirette (volleyball) — were recognized in a ceremony on the field.

The Jags will be off next weekend, returning to action on Saturday, Oct. 15, with a Sun Belt Conference contest at Arkansas State.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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