Well, hey, y'all! Azalea Fairhope-Grice here, red-white-and-blue beads around my neck, coaching whistle on a ribbon and a glue gun still warm from float-building season prep. I'm a Mobile girl, born and raised on the Bay, and I grade every football play the way I grade a Mardi Gras float: Is it bold? Does it move? Did the crowd scream? South Alabama has been building a very pretty float this fall, and Tuesday night, we're rolling it all the way to West Virginia.
Part 1: An Open Week, and the Parade Before It
Let's be honest first, because my mama raised me honest and my volleyball players feared it. South Alabama did not play last weekend. The Jaguars had an open date after their Thursday game on Oct. 8, so you get two things from me today: a love letter to that last game and a little praise for a smart week of rest.
And honey, that last game was a parade. South Alabama beat Arkansas State 56-49 in Jonesboro, and AP called it the most combined points of any FBS game this season. The two teams scored 62 points in the first half alone, also an FBS high this year, per AP.
Grand marshal of the parade: Keenan Phillips. He ran 19 times for 157 yards and three touchdowns, including a 42-yarder early in the fourth quarter that made it 56-35. And then, because a float needs sparkle, he returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. One hundred yards! That float didn't just roll down the parade route; it ran the whole route and came back for seconds. Float grade: A-plus, with glitter.
Jared Hollins had a quiet day in the air, 6 of 10 for 76 yards, but he ran in two short touchdowns 21 seconds apart late in the second quarter and threw a 7-yarder to Rod Gibbs. PJ Martin ran for 95 yards and a touchdown. As a team, AP says, the Jaguars ran 50 times for 296 yards. And when Arkansas State got within seven with under seven minutes left, we chewed up the rest of the clock with a 13-play drive. Defense? Cole Blaylock made 10 tackles, and Damyrion Darby and Masey Lewis each picked off a pass.
AP also pointed out that South Alabama had already matched its number of wins from all of 2025, when it went 4-8. We're 4-2 and 2-0 in the Sun Belt. Mardi Gras isn't until February, but y'all, it feels early this year.
Part 2: Rolling to Huntington
Tuesday night, 7:30 Eastern, on ESPN2, South Alabama visits Marshall at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Prime time on a Tuesday. The whole country is watching, and I've already ironed my beads.
First, the gracious part. Marshall is 3-3 and had a week off, too. It has a real receiver in Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw, with 22 catches for 324 yards and four touchdowns, and Caleb Clark-Glover leads the Herd with 44 tackles. Its passing game ranks 50th in FBS, according to AP. I tip my tiara.
Now, the float inspection.
Turnovers: Throw Me Something, Mister
At a Mobile parade, you yell "Throw me something, mister!" and the krewes toss you beads. Marshall has embraced the spirit. AP's preview lists the Herd's turnover margin at minus-9, 136th in FBS. South Alabama is plus-7, eighth in the nation.
In its last game, a 27-21 home loss to Coastal Carolina, AP says Marshall turned the ball over six times. Six! Honey, that's not a football team. That's a parade float handing out beads to the other side of the street.
The Jaguar Ground Parade
South Alabama runs for 220.3 yards a game, 16th in FBS, and scores 38.8 points a game, 15th. Phillips has 444 rushing yards and five touchdowns. We hold the ball 33:03 a game, 16th in the country.
Marshall's run defense allows 193.8 yards a game, which AP ranks 123rd. Its defense overall is 132nd in yards allowed, and 129th in scoring defense. And the Herd's red zone offense is 129th, scoring on 70.8% of trips. That's a float that gets all the way to the reviewing stand and then stalls in front of the judges.
A Word About Our Own Float
I'm a coach, so I'll tell you where we need to be better. AP ranks South Alabama's defense 126th in yards and 131st in scoring, at 34.5 points allowed a game. We gave up 49 to Arkansas State and 418 passing yards to Trey Owens. That's a float with a beautiful top and loose wheels. Tighten the bolts, girls. Tighten the bolts.
The Last Time
CollegeFootballData.com lists one previous meeting: South Alabama 28, Marshall 0, in Mobile in 2023. A shutout. One parade, zero floats for the visitors. Tuesday is Marshall's first try at evening the books, and I hope the Herd brings a sturdy trailer.
The Parade Route: Mobile vs. Huntington
Mobile. Darlin', we invented this. Wikipedia says Mobile has the oldest organized Carnival celebration in the United States. French colonial settlers first celebrated Carnival here in 1703, at the Old Mobile Site, and in 1830 Mobile became home to the country's first organized Carnival mystic society to parade. New Orleans is our lovely younger sister; we taught her everything she knows. Our official cultural ambassadors are the Azalea Trail Maids, and yes, I took my name very seriously growing up.
Mobile had 187,041 people in 2020, and we sit right on Mobile Bay. Our team has played at Hancock Whitney Stadium since it opened in 2020. Before that, the Jaguars played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. On a fall Saturday you can catch a sunset over the Bay, a game at the Hancock and, if you're lucky, a mystic society planning next year's float in somebody's garage.
Huntington. Huntington is a river town on the Ohio, and it's a sweet one. Its 2020 population was 46,842, about a quarter of Mobile. But Wikipedia tells me something delightful. Before 1870, the area was known as Holderby's Landing, after a farmer named James Holderby. Then the town was renamed for Collis P. Huntington, founder of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, who built it as the railroad's western end.
So Huntington is named for a railroad founder, and the farmer whose land it sat on got relegated to history. Honey, in Mobile we name things after flowers and parades. In Huntington they name them after the man who owned the trains. I'll say this: at least you always know which way to go home. Just follow the tracks.
And here's my sincere note, because I'm a Southern lady. Marshall's story, its rebirth after the 1970 plane crash, is one of the most moving in all of sports. I'll be in my seat Tuesday night with a hand over my heart for "We Are... Marshall." Then I'll be on my feet for every Jaguar first down.
The Grand Finale
Here's my float card. South Alabama runs the ball, holds the ball and protects the ball. Marshall is 136th in turnover margin, 129th in the red zone and 123rd against the run. Our defense has to tighten the bolts against a Herd passing game that can move, but if Keenan Phillips gets loose, this parade will have a grand marshal and an encore.
Throw me a first down, Jaguars. Throw me 20.
My call: South Alabama Jaguars 34, Marshall Thundering Herd 32.