College Sports

JACKSONVILLE — Every football season is going to have some kind of adversity to it. It's the thing that tests the character of a team.

Jacksonville State faces its first real crisis this week.

After appearing to get their running game back in shape — and dispatching their past four opponents with relative ease — the Gamecocks face another major hurdle on Saturday with the possibility of missing their two most experienced running backs.

Senior Daniel Jackson didn't dress for Southeast Missouri because of a rib injury and junior Tremayne Coger, the Alabama transfer who was just hitting his stride after missing the first two games with an ankle injury, sprained his right knee in the second quarter. Neither is likely to be available when the No. 22 Gamecocks (4-1, 2-0 Ohio Valley Confernece) play Eastern Kentucky.

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Slideshow: Jacksonville State vs. Southeast Missouri State. View photos from the football game between Jacksonville State and Southeast Missouri State.

That will leave JSU to face the Colonels (3-3, 2-1) with two untested players — freshman Brandon George and sophomore Drec Lindley — as their lead backs.

They also could be looking for help at linebacker and offensive line.

Senior outside backer Marquise Elston suffered a mid-foot sprain in Saturday's 38-17 victory, and freshman lineman Taylor Chambers sprained an ankle the play after Coger got hurt.

"I think we have to definitely lean toward none of (them) being available for this game," JSU coach Jack Crowe said.

"There will be a new player who will have to step up this week somewhere. Somebody who is not a recognizable name will have to step up this week."

George made his pitch Saturday night. He bolted 59 yards for a touchdown with his first carry of the night — and only fourth of the season — and finished with 114 yards on 11 carries. Lindley, who at one point this season was ahead of George on the depth chart, had 45 yards on 12 carries, but Crowe expressed dismay after the game at the sophomore's inconsistency hitting the hole.

The Gamecocks went into the season looking to get some consistency in their running game. They are now ranked No. 1 in the OVC and 13th nationally. Crowe said he'd remain optimistic toward whomever he puts in the game, but the situation also will show him something about his personnel.

"I think you find out how strong your mission is sometimes by whether guys step up," he said. "I don't think there's a baseball team that hadn't had to find a pitcher somewhere for the rotation to make it into the playoffs, not a sixth man who had to have a great game for a basketball team to get to where they wanted to be, and I don't think there's any football team I've ever been around who had to find inside of its unknowns how strong and how deep the mission runs for those guys to step up with real purpose."

The Gamecocks are also still trying to find a way to put four solid quarters together.

Against the Redhawks, JSU opened a 21-3 halftime lead that was extended to 31-3 in the third. Then they lost interest. They've also had the issue decided by halftime against Alabama A&M, Chattanooga and Eastern Illinois.

"We've got to get better in the second half," quarterback Ryan Perrilloux said. "We definitely come out in the second half and kind of slowed down the pace. We don't need to look at the score coming out the second half. That's taken our focus off what we have to do in the second half.

"A lot of things go wrong in the second half, that's basically because we do come out so sharp."

Maurice Dupree's 99-yard return for a touchdown of the second half kickoff could have been the spark to ignite a big second half. Crowe called it a "statement of intent," — just like the goal line stand in the fourth quarter — but the play actually might have exasperated the situation.

"That made us slow the game down even more," Perrilloux said. "We felt like we were up. We felt like we were going to cruise on through the game."

Next: JSU at E. Kentucky
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