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STARKVILLE, Miss. – The iron might have seemed unkind when the University of South Alabama football team had two first-half field goal attempts bounce off the upright, but the third time turned out to be the charm for the Jaguars.

That's because it was a Mississippi State try from 28 yards out in the final seconds that bounded wide left off the upright, giving the Jags a 21-20, come-from-behind non-conference victory over the Bulldogs Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium.

In fact, the Jaguars did not lead until less than a minute was left in the contest.  After taking over at the USA-29 with just over six minutes to go, two incompletions left the Jags facing third-and-10.  Dallas Davis connected with Kevin Kutchera, who weaved his way down the field for a 37-yard gain and a first down.  Davis then went up the middle — hurdling one defender in the process — on third-and-three for 19 more yards to set up first-and-goal at the MSU-8, converting a third time on third down when he hit Gerald Everett in the back of the end zone for the eventual winning score with 57 seconds remaining in regulation.

"Honestly, when the coaches called that play, I started licking my chops," said Everett.  "As I said on media day, the team relies on me offensively, so I have to embrace that role.  I'm glad they wanted to get me the ball in crunch time.  Our guys protected great up front and Dallas gave me a great ball.  It was hard not to catch it, honestly."

"Ever since the beginning of fall camp, we've worked on third down heavy [formation]," Davis explained.  "When it came to it [on that drive], we executed it.  Penalties don't really affect us, we just go on to the next play.  We just made history and it hasn't really hit us yet, but I feel like in the next 30 minutes it will."

It capped a day that saw the sophomore quarterback, making his first-ever start at the collegiate level, finish 24-of-34 passing for 285 yards and two scores — he recorded 308 yards of total offense — and the senior tight end tie a career high with eight receptions for 95 yards.

"I thought I was going to be, but once I heard the cow bells, it kind of hyped me up a little bit," Davis said after the game when asked if he was ever nervous.  "The nerves went away and we executed what we needed to do."

Still, the Jags had to hold off a final Bulldog rally.  MSU began its last drive at the 35-yard line after the kickoff sailed out of bounds, with Damian Williams picking up first downs by finding Donald Gray for completions good for 14 and eight yards.  A 13-yard Williams run put the Bulldogs in the red zone, with the quarterback carrying twice more for eight yards to set up a 28-yard field-goal attempt.

But — like those two Jaguar attempts in the first half — it hit the upright and was no good, leaving Davis to kneel once to secure the Jags' first-ever win in five attempts against a Southeastern Conference school.

"My first thought was the character [of this team]," South head coach Joey Jones said as he exited the field.  "We started to work on that at the start of the offseason in January when we had some things to deal with.  We challenged our players to build their character and be the very best people they could be; to be the kind of people that we could count on in the crunch time and to be the kind of people that does things right all the time.  These guys have bought into that 100 percent.  Our motto is 'One Heartbeat', all moving in the same direction.

"I think it's more than X's and O's, more than Dallas throwing a touchdown pass," he continued.  "I think it came down to character today, and we beat a Mississippi State team that is as well-coached as you're going to get.  Dan Mullen and his staff do a tremendous job, and he's proven that over the years.  For me to stand across from him and have a chance to play against him and his team, you know you are going against the best.  Our guys really played well today and never gave up after being down 17-0 at halftime.  We made some adjustments [at halftime] and went out and played in the second half.  We felt like if we did what we had to do, we could win the ball game and our kids did that."

The comeback began immediately after the break as the Jaguars took the opening kick of the second half and needed just eight plays to move 75 yards, scoring their first points of the season on a 20-yard pass from Davis to Josh Magee — over three defenders — in the back left corner of the end zone.  After Magee began the possession with a 25-yard catch, USA ran on five straight plays before the touchdown throw, including a two-yard gain by Xavier Johnson on fourth-and-one at the MSU-41, that made the score 17-7.

Magee would lead all players with 113 receiving yards on a career-best seven catches, posting his first 100-yard game since USA's victory at Troy on Oct. 3 last fall.

"I feel like this is what we're supposed to do," he said.  "We go out there to battle just like Mississippi State does.  We put our pads on just like they do.  We were confident going into this game.  We just knew that we had to pay attention to detail and do what we had done in practice."

Weston Graves hit a 48-yard field goal after Finessé Middleton forced a pair of incompletions in a three-snap stretch to extend the Bulldog advantage to 20-7, with the score remaining that way the rest of the quarter.

In the final moments of the period, Logan Cooke pinned the Jags on their own one-yard line with a 40-yard punt, but Tyreis Thomas broke free for a career-long 37-yard gain to get South out of the shadow of its own goal line.  The Jaguars converted again on fourth down, this time after Davis found Everett for six yards while needing only two, and two plays later moved to the red zone when a personal foul on the Bulldogs was tacked on to a 23-yard completion from Davis to Magee.  Davis picked up four yards on a carry up the middle, and after an offside penalty Thomas scored from four yards out to draw USA within six points, 20-14, with just under 13 minutes left in the contest.

Thomas finished the day with 83 yards on 10 carries as the Jags had 94 yards on the ground to post 379 total; that was three fewer than the Bulldogs had in the contest, though MSU recorded 239 of those on the ground and just 143 through the air.

MSU got on the board first late in the opening quarter, marching 60 yards in seven plays and two-and-a-half minutes, taking a 7-0 lead when Williams connected with Deddrick Thomas for a four-yard touchdown pass.  Williams, in his first series of the contest, was 5-of-5 passing on the drive including finding Brandon Holloway for a 19-yard gain on his initial snap and hitting Thomas for 11 more two plays later; he also had a carry for a four-yard pick up on possession.

The Jaguars answered by driving 55 yards — taking five minutes off the clock — but saw a 37-yard field goal attempt hit the left upright in the opening minutes of the second quarter.  Instead of seeing their lead cut into, Fred Ross opened the Bulldogs' ensuing possession with a 46-yard rush down the right sideline, sparking a six-play, 80-yard march that ended with Holloway's seven-yard touchdown run up the middle as MSU built a 14-0 advantage with just over 11 minutes to go in the opening half.  Westin Graves tacked on a 37-yard field goal with less than five minutes remaining in the half after the Bulldogs put together another 10-play drive, and after another Jag field-goal attempt off the upright — this time the right, with seven seconds to go before the break — took a 17-0 lead to the locker room.

After outgaining MSU 79-73 in the first quarter, the Bulldogs held a 132-69 edge in total offense in the second period — all but two of USA's yards came on its final march — to outgain the Jaguars by 57 yards over the opening 30 minutes.

But the Jaguars were able to hold MSU to 177 yards after the break as Roman Buchanan set a career high with 12 tackles to lead all players; one of those was for a loss of four yards, and he also broke up a pass.  Kalen Jackson supplied nine stops with one behind the line, while Jeremy Reaves and Devon Earl were credited with seven tackles apiece.  Randy Allen, Chason Milner and Darrell Songy chipped in with five stops each, with Bull Barge and Nigel Lawrence both making four tackles as well.

"We're not shocked, we came in here expecting to get this win," stated Buchanan.  "When we were down 17-0, the defense didn't blink at all.  We just knew that if we could stop [giving up] the one or two big plays that allowed them to get down in the red zone, that we were going to be ok.  We believed in each other.

"I didn't have any doubt in my mind that we were going to win this game.  I didn't care that [Mississippi State] got down to the red zone [on its final drive].  I knew one of two things was going to happen; [the MSU kicker] was mentally shaken from his first miss or we were going to block it, so I didn't blink and neither did my teammates."

"Really, we just played better," added Earl.  "We gave up a few plays at the beginning and that's what got them down to the red zone.  We came in at halftime and knew we were still good, because we had only given up two or three plays.  We fixed those things and just moved onto the next play."

Williams was 20-of-28 passing for 143 yards to go along with 12 carries for a game-high 93 yards.  Holloway gained 48 yards on 11 attempts, while Ross added a team-leading six catches for 34 yards and Holloway caught five balls out of the backfield for 40 more.

Leo Lewis had two stops behind the line of scrimmage among his nine tackles, pacing the Bulldogs in the category, while J.T. Gray had eight tackles and A.J. Jefferson seven.  The latter was credited with four stops for a loss of 25 yards including a pair of sacks.

"We did the things that we needed to do to win," MSU head coach Dan Mullen stated.  "We had some opportunities to win that we didn't take advantage of.  They made plays when they needed too.  You have to make plays to win the game.  For us, we have young players out there playing and they have to learn the critical moments to step up and be able to make the plays to win."

"I think there are teams in the Sun Belt Conference who have had those wins against the SEC," said Jones.  "We were close a couple of years ago against Tennessee and had a chance to beat them and weren't able to do that.  We came through today, though.  To have that opportunity against an SEC West team who is extremely well-coached, has very good athletes, and the tradition they have here at Mississippi State, is a blessing [to our program]."

The Jaguars return to action when they play host to Georgia Southern in their home — and Sun Belt Conference — opener next Saturday.  Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. (CST) at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, and the contest will be televised live on the American Sports Network.

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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