Finding the #DOG: No. 2 Blazers wake up late to beat Seahawks

Sep. 2—VALDOSTA — The Tremaine Jackson era at Valdosta State started with a win.

The No. 2 Blazers (1-0) seemingly sleepwalked at the start before coming alive after halftime to beat the Keiser Seahawks (1-1) 36-21 Thursday night.

"Go Blazers," Jackson said when asked his thoughts on his first win as head coach. "Any time you can win in college football regardless of who you're playing or what level, it's always a big deal. We've got a lot of things we need to clean up. It was good for us to be in this situation where we were kind of in a fight. I think that'll help us later on down the road. We'll get back to work tomorrow, watch the tape and see the mistakes we made.

"We played 10 new guys on defense that didn't start the first game a year ago. We're going to have some communication deals going on, so we'll get that cleaned up but I'm really proud that our kids won tonight. It's been a long road the last nine months. Regardless of the ups and downs, we won. It's a great night for the Blazers."

Playing against the seventh-ranked team in the NAIA, the Blazers got all they could handle for three quarters.

Despite struggling to stop the Seahawk offense for stretches, the Blazers' Black Swarm showed its teeth in the fourth quarter — coming away with two of its three interceptions in the fourth quarter to preserve the victory.

An 8-yard pass from Shea Spencer to Jaylen Arnold pulled the Seahawks to within two at 23-21 with 11:01 remaining in the game.

The Blazers responded with an 11-yard touchdown run by senior running back Seth McGill, capping an 8-play, 75-yard drive spanning 4:18 to give the Blazers a 30-21 cushion.

With the Seahawks looking to mount a response, the Blazers quickly diffused the threat as senior linebacker Jameon Gaskin picked off Shea Spencer and rolled 37 yards down to the Keiser 7-yard line.

Outside of a 2-yard rush by Seth McGill, the Blazers couldn't find the end zone as Ivory Durham failed to connect with B.K. Smith on a pair of shots to the end zone. The drive didn't end empty-handedly for the Blazers as Estin Thiele hit a 22-yard field goal to extend the lead to 33-21 with 5:49 to go.

The Black Swarm put an exclamation point on the game on the very next Seahawks drive.

On first down, sophomore defensive tackle Brian Rattery burst into the backfield to stop Keiser's Marques Burgess for a 2-yard loss. On second down, Spencer had his pass attempt broken up by Gaskin downfield. Then, on third-and-12 from the Keiser 23, Spencer got picked off again, this time by redshirt junior defensive back Ravarius Rivers with 4:54 left.

"They started slow, gave up some yards," Jackson said of his defense. "We want to keep people under 17 points, so they're a little disappointed they gave up 21. ... Ultimately, they made plays when plays needed to be made. They did tighten up. A lot of guys that hadn't played a football game in three or four years. Ravarius Rivers hadn't played since 2018 and made a pick tonight."

Struggling to get the ball into the end zone, the Blazers went to Thiele, who nailed a 45-yard field goal to make it 36-21 with 2:43 remaining.

The sophomore kicking specialist went a perfect 5 for 5 on field goals in the game — connecting from 35, 38, 36, 22 and 45 yards on the night. Thiele's performance tied the school-record set by Will Rhody against Central Arkansas in 2004.

Though they looked out of sync the majority of Thursday night's contest, the Blazers still finished with 463 yards of total offense — 193 coming by way of the run. The Blazers earned 26 first downs while going 8 of 16 on third down and converted all five of their chances in the red zone.

In terms of ball security, the Blazers fumbled three times and lost one when senior Jamar Thompkins coughed up the ball on a drive in the third quarter.

Durham finished 17 of 39 for 270 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown to Davie Henderson on the first drive of the second half to spark the Blazers. The senior QB also rushed five times for 29 yards.

Smith had team-best four catches for 92 yards in his VSU debut. Victor Talley also had four catches for 41 yards while Henderson hauled in two for 38 yards and Travon Roberts added two of his own for 31 yards.

Thompkins, one of three Blazers to rush for over 1,000 yards last season, led the Blazers with 113 yards on 19 carries with one touchdown. McGill added 44 yards and a score on 10 carries in the win.

The Blazers seemed to find the running game in the second half, rushing 21 times for 112 yards after intermission.

"(The Seahawks) were loading the box up," Jackson said. "They were doing some things uniquely in the box trying to stop the run game. They watch film, too. They know who's back there so we took some shots over the top. We didn't connect tonight. If we had connected, everybody would've said it was a great night. We'll look at what we can do differently. ... It's a brand new system. I thought Ivory managed the game really well."

Keiser led 7-6 at halftime and regained the lead 14-13 with 8:12 remaining in the third quarter on a 43-yard hookup from Spencer to Seth Rolle. A 36-yard field goal by Thiele on the next VSU drive gave the Blazers the lead for good with 5:38 left in the quarter.

During his media availability Tuesday, Jackson said he was not looking for a score, but looking for a standard. Scoring seven points in a half was eye-popping for the Blazers, but seeing the Seahawks move the ball with relative ease against his team was particularly unsettling for the first-year head coach.

Jackson revealed he made a plea for his team to show a "#DOG mentality" — a hashtag Jackson introduced upon his arrival that stands for discipline, obedience and grit.

"I didn't like the standard in the first half," Jackson said. "That wasn't us. That wasn't our standard. We weren't finishing things, we weren't tackling well, we weren't playing with a lot of enthusiasm, our sideline was dead. That's when we went in and got to communicating. I told them at halftime, 'It doesn't matter what the score is. I'm looking for a #DOG — I'm looking for a team that's disciplined, obedient and has got a lot of grit.' We've got hard evidence, hard facts and sometimes you can grow better from just practicing."

Keiser finished with 389 yards of total offense Thursday, rushing for 126 yards and recording 21 first downs.

Spencer completed 22 of 42 passes for 263 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. Arnold led the Seahawks with seven catches for 86 yards and a touchdown while Myles Henderson added six catches for 89 yards. Rolle finished the night with five catches for 59 yards.

Defensively, the Blazers were led by redshirt freshman linebacker Akil Lampley's 10 total tackles. Gaskin added nine total tackles (seven assisted) while Phillip Starks had seven total tackles with five solo stops in the win.

Redshirt sophomore defensive back Sean Colman intercepted Spencer in the end zone on the Seahawks' opening drive of the game.

"I think this team can be extremely good," Jackson said. "We're our own worst enemy. We're the ones that can beat us. We've got to really focus on not beating ourselves and that comes with maturity, that comes with game experience. It's easy to practice against each other and compete and try to forecast. Now we've got hard evidence on what we've done and where we need to get better and I look for us to have the maturity to do that."

UP NEXT

Valdosta State hosts Virginia Union next Saturday, Sept. 10 at 5 p.m. for Family Weekend at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

Keiser faces another Gulf South Conference opponent next week as the Seahawks travel to Mississippi College for a noon kickoff.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.