On a beautiful night for football in Mobile, Alabama, the South Alabama Jaguars welcomed the Morgan State Bears to Hancock Whitney Stadium for the 2025 season opener. South Alabama entered the 2025 season aiming to build on the success of the last two seasons, during which the Jaguars had enjoyed back-to-back postseason bowl wins. 

Saturday’s matchup between the Bears of Morgan State and South Alabama marked the first meeting between the two schools. Morgan State, a member of the MEAC Conference, entered the matchup with South Alabama seeking to change the program’s history of going 0-9 in its nine meetings against an FBS school. 

South Alabama won the toss and elected to defer, giving Morgan State the ball first to start the game. An opening possession where the Bears opened the game by throwing the first punch to take an early 7-0 lead over South Alabama, capped off by a two-yard run from Jason Collins. South Alabama would respond with a long scoring drive capped off by a Kentrel Bullock 4-yard touchdown run to make it 7-7. South Alabama would add a 23-yard field goal to make it 10-7 with 12:54 in the second, before extending the lead to 17-7 late in the half. 

As the second half rolled around, South Alabama put together a long scoring drive capped off by a four-yard rushing touchdown from PJ Martin. Morgan State would put together a long drive of their own, capped off by another three-yard Jason Collins rushing touchdown to cut the South Alabama lead to 24-14 with 4:13 on the third quarter clock. After two stalled drives from both Morgan State and South Alabama, the Jaguars took the 24-14 lead to the 4th quarter, with the ball coming out of the television timeout. 

With 9:58 on the game clock, South Alabama’s Devin Voisin would take a punt return 46 yards to the four-yard line, giving the Jaguars a first and goal, where Kentrel Bullock would capitalize and give South Alabama a touchdown to extend the lead to 31-14 with 9:27 remaining. With 7:54 remaining in the game, South Alabama recovered a Morgan State fumble, all but securing a season-opening win over the Bears. On the ensuing play, South Alabama quarterback Bishop Davenport would connect with Devin Voisin on a 31-yard touchdown pass to extend the Jaguars’ lead to 38-14 with just 7:47 on the game clock. 

Overall, in what was an ugly game for South Alabama on Saturday, a win is a win, and the Jaguars have plenty of film to study before welcoming regional rival the Tulane Green Wave to Hancock Whitney Stadium next Saturday night under the lights with a kick-off slated for 6:00 on ESPN Plus.

Photo Credits- South Alabama Football on X