BATON ROUGE, LA (BRPROUD) — Jaguar fans got their first taste of the football program under head coach Terrence Graves at the annual Blue and Gold Spring Game on Saturday afternoon.
The Blue team's offense defeated the Gold team's defense with a final score of 69-44.
Southern returns nearly its entire coaching staff from a year ago, but also has a new offensive system in place with the arrival of new offensive coordinator Mark Fredericks. All three quarterbacks struggled to get past midfield early in the game, and their inexperience quickly became evident.
But as the game wore on, junior Noah Bodden and redshirt freshmen Jalen Woods and Chavian Teasett flipped a switch. Each quarterback scored two touchdowns to claim a starting role.
“No, there is no clear front-runner,” Graves said with a laugh. “It's going to go down [to the end], everyone's going to compete. ”
Defensively, walk-on defensive back Daylen Wilson secured two interceptions and nearly returned one for a score in the first quarter.
In the spring game, they were without a number of key players due to injuries, including starting running back Kendrick Rhimes and All-SWAC defensive lineman Kelby Givens. The Jaguars are also awaiting the arrival of transfer portal players who are expected to wear the Columbia blue and gold this fall.
