Football has taken Major Applewhite a lot of places in his life.
He played quarterback and later coached at Texas. He was an assistant at Rice and head coach at the University of Houston. He was signed by the New England Patriots and was once an analyst at Alabama, the football team he loved as a kid and whose star running back, Major Ogilvie, he was named after.
Now in his first season as head coach at South Alabama, football brings Applewhite back home. To Baton Rouge and to Tiger Stadium, where the former Catholic High star quarterback will lead his upset-seeking Jaguars against the No. 14-ranked Tigers in a 6:45 p.m. game Saturday on the SEC Network.
Like most coaches, Applewhite was eager to downplay the personal element of the LSU-USA matchup when he spoke to reporters Monday in Mobile.
“It’s a great opportunity to go win,” Applewhite said. “I would like to be 3-2. It’s a great opportunity for our team to go into a big stadium. It’s one of those memory things, but really, it’s another game, another opportunity for our players to go out there and fight and get ready to go against the quality opponent.”
But there are memories. Ties that bind. Formative ones when he was growing up as a young boy and probably imagining for a moment here or there what it would be like to be 1980s LSU star quarterback Tommy Hodson.
“I spent every Saturday that I could there over in the south end zone, watching every LSU game that I could,” said Applewhite, 46. “I didn’t grow up an LSU fan, but I pulled for LSU any time they weren’t playing Alabama.”
South Alabama was supposed to play at LSU in 2020 for the first time, but the game was canceled when the Southeastern Conference opted to have its teams play a 10-game all-SEC schedule amidst the pandemic.
Now the Jaguars are finally here, with Applewhite as their coach. Eventually, he had to admit, there are some personal feelings attached to this one.
“I love Tiger Stadium,” he said. “All my friends were LSU fans growing up. My junior and senior year in high school, I’d go over there and throw seven-on-seven with LSU players. I just loved growing up there. It was a great experience.”
Though after leaving Catholic he went and played quarterback for the Longhorns, Applewhite eventually made it to Alabama. He was Nick Saban’s first offensive coordinator there in 2007, calling plays in a nip-and-tuck thriller in Tuscaloosa in which LSU prevailed 41-34, a win that kept the Tigers on pace for that season’s national championship.
After serving as head coach for two seasons plus one bowl game at Houston (his record from 2016-18 at UH was 15-11), Applewhite returned to Alabama as an offensive analyst under Saban in 2020 and ’21. He then moved on South Alabama under Kane Wommack and succeeded him as head coach there when Wommack left to become new Bama coach Kalen DeBoer’s defensive coordinator.
The first couple of games were rough for Applewhite’s Jaguars. A 52-38 season opening loss at home to North Texas was followed by a 27-20 loss at Ohio.
But the past two weeks the USA offense — led by redshirt freshman quarterback named Gio Lopez and a colorfully named freshman running back known as Fluff Bothwell — has taken off like a moon rocket with “USA” stamped on the side of it.
Two weeks ago, the Jaguars obliterated Northwestern State 87-10 in Mobile, piling up 620 yards total offense while setting school and Sun Belt Conference records for points in a game. Last Thursday, South Alabama went on the road and routed Appalachian State 48-14, jumping out to a 28-0 lead on the Mountaineers on their home turf.
That’s a combined score of 135-24 in two games. Considering the LSU defense’s propensity for still giving up big plays, the Tigers should be considered somewhat of a wary 21-point favorite.
Somewhat. South Alabama, which has only been an FBS program since 2012, is just 1-7 all-time against ranked opponents and 1-6 against the SEC. Applewhite knows as well as anyone the challenge facing his Jaguars.
“Since the beginning of time, they’ve always been extremely athletic,” he said of LSU. “They run well, they rush the passer, they’re stout at the point of attack. They’re gonna get off the bus playing man coverage, and on third down they’re going to come after the quarterback.
“Offensively, … they’ve always had good wide receiver play. The backs are solid. I know they’ve had some injuries, but the guys they’re playing are still pretty damn good. And the quarterback is super-accurate; he can really deliver the ball.
“When they’re hitting on all cylinders, they’re really tough to beat.”
On all those Saturdays when he was sitting in the south end zone of Tiger Stadium, one wonders if Applewhite dreamed of leading a team out of that southeast visitor’s tunnel and beating LSU?
On this Saturday night, he will get his chance to do just that.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 08:34:00
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