The postgame report: Jax State 23, Middle Tennessee 13

Jax State piled up 517 total yards Saturday night and never punted. The Gamecocks also scored 23 points — a number that should have been considerably higher given the volume of offense they produced.

Caden Creel accounted for 360 total yards. He completed 19-of-27 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown and rushed 12 times for 119 yards and another score, including a 48-yard run that was Jax State's longest of the season. Lucas Farrington added 94 yards on 12 carries as the Gamecocks averaged 7.1 yards per rush.

But two Creel interceptions and a fourth-and-goal failure from the 3-yard line kept Jax State from pulling away. The Gamecocks trailed 13-10 in the third quarter before scoring the final 13 points to beat Middle Tennessee 23-13 in their CUSA opener at AmFirst Stadium.

WHAT IT MEANS

Jax State is 4-0 in CUSA openers since joining the league in 2023, all four at home. More importantly, the Gamecocks are 1-0 in what Charles Kelly has made clear will be a competitive conference race. The offense can move the ball against anyone. The question entering the open date is whether Jax State can convert that volume into touchdowns. One touchdown on five red-zone trips is the number that defines this game more than the 517 yards.

THE TURNING POINT

Middle Tennessee took a 13-10 lead at the 10:11 mark of the third quarter when Roman Gagliano hit Markus Allen for a 32-yard touchdown on a nine-play, 75-yard drive that opened the second half. The Blue Raiders' PAT attempt — a rush by Ashton Logan — failed, leaving the score 13-10. Jax State answered with 10 points in a 4 1/2-minute span. Garrison Rippa hit a 31-yard field goal to tie it at 13 with 5:43 left in the third. Then Creel found Deondre Johnson on a 38-yard deep post for a touchdown with 1:15 remaining in the quarter, putting the Gamecocks ahead 20-13 for good.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Good: The rushing attack. Jax State ran for 276 yards on 39 carries (7.1 average) with six players carrying the ball. Creel's 48-yard run set up the first field goal. Farrington posted career highs with 12 carries for 94 yards. Cedric Kouemi added 13 yards on two carries. Kelly said afterward that this is what he envisioned for the running back room — a committee approach that produced without depending on any one back.

Bad: Red-zone efficiency. Jax State reached the red zone five times and scored four times but managed only one touchdown. Three of those four scores were Rippa field goals. The Gamecocks failed on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line in the first quarter when Khristian Lando was stopped for a two-yard gain on a rush up the middle. A team averaging 7.8 yards per play should not settle for 23 points on 517 yards.

Ugly: The two interceptions. Creel's first came on Jax State's opening possession — the Gamecocks had driven from their own 25 to the Middle Tennessee 35 before Kalen Woods picked off a pass at the MTSU 21. The second came on the final play of the first half with Jax State trying to set up a field goal. James Johnson intercepted Creel at the MTSU 17 and returned it 51 yards to the Jax State 32. Neither interception led directly to Middle Tennessee points, but they killed momentum and kept the Blue Raiders in the game.

THE STATS THAT MATTER

1 touchdown on 5 red-zone trips — Jax State scored on four of five red-zone possessions but only found the end zone once. Three Rippa field goals and a fourth-down stop at the 3-yard line accounted for the rest. For a team that gained 517 total yards, 23 points represents a significant conversion problem that Kelly addressed directly after the game.

0 punts — Conor Donaghy never took the field. It was the first time Jax State did not punt since Nov. 22, 2014, at Southeast Missouri. The Gamecocks ran nine possessions: two touchdowns, three field goals, two interceptions, one turnover on downs and one possession that ended with time expiring. The offense moved the ball on every meaningful possession. Converting that movement into points is the next step.

360 total yards (Creel) — Creel was 19-of-27 for 241 yards passing and rushed for 119 on 12 carries. His 360 total yards of offense accounted for 70% of Jax State's 517. The two interceptions were the blemish, but Kelly said both came from forcing the ball instead of trusting his reads. The 48-yard run in the first quarter was the longest by a Gamecock this season.

WHAT THEY SAID

Head coach Charles Kelly:

"I think we had a lot of good things that happened in the game. I do. But we can't get fascinated and have this illusion with all these results, all these yards, cuz yardage ain't going to win football games. You can have all the yards you want to, but you got to — and you can give up a minimal amount of yards on defense. That doesn't guarantee you're going to win games. You got to do the whole thing."

"Football is about points per possession. When you get more points per possession and defensively you give up less points per possession, that's how you win. So that's where we got to get better at."

"Anytime you start your conference schedule, you want to — that's our objective is to win the game. I just know it's going to be a long season. It's a very good conference. It's a very competitive conference and I know if we don't fix the things that we didn't do well tonight, then we're going to be crying about other results."

On Lucas Farrington:

"I told Lucas back last spring, you work hard, stick to it, use common sense — and I got that from Lauren White, by the way — but it's the truth that you'll earn playing time. ... He's got talent. We got a bunch of talented backs. But he, to his credit, he's done those things. He's worked hard. ... I kind of felt like tonight was kind of what I felt like our running back situation would be. It'd be a little bit by committee. I don't know, we wound up 276 yards rushing in a game."

On Garrison Rippa's bounce-back:

"I think — and I've shared with him — I think he got to worrying a little bit more about results, like 'Am I going to make this? Am I going to — well, I got to set up this way' — instead of just the process of doing it. No different than hitting a golf ball. You got to be balanced. You got to strike it and you got to hit it down the middle. ... Your steps ought to be the same on a 55-yard field goal as they are on an extra point."

Deondre Johnson, WR:

"Last year we weren't in this boat right now. I'm talking about like passing yardage and pass consistency in our games and obviously we're getting better with that. They lean more on our group. Our group is showing up and we just got to continue to stay consistent."

Marc Woods, S:

"We came in at halftime. We just made the adjustments we had to do. Everybody was focused on what they were supposed to look at — the assignment and their key — and the process of what you have to do to get the result and the result was right."

3 STARS

1. Caden Creel, QB, Jax State — 19-of-27, 241 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT passing; 12 carries, 119 yards, 1 TD rushing. Accounted for 360 of Jax State's 517 total yards. The 48-yard run in the first quarter set up the Gamecocks' first score and his 38-yard touchdown pass to Johnson in the third quarter put Jax State ahead for good.

2. Lucas Farrington, RB, Jax State — 12 carries, 94 yards, long of 21; 2 receptions, 24 yards. Career highs in carries and rushing yards in a game where Kelly said the committee approach is what he envisioned for the backfield.

3. Garrison Rippa, K, Jax State — 3-of-3 on field goals (27, 31, 29 yards), 2-of-2 PATs. Scored 11 points and passed Boyce Callahan for eighth on Jax State's career scoring list. Tied for seventh all-time with 250 career points.

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

The box score tells two stories. The first is an offense that moved the ball at will — 517 yards, 7.8 yards per play, zero punts, 25 first downs. The second is an offense that scored 23 points on all of that production. The gap between those two numbers is the red zone, where Jax State went 1-for-5 on touchdowns. Kelly's postgame message was direct: yards do not win games. Points per possession wins games. The Gamecocks left at least two touchdowns on the field between the fourth-down stop at the 3 and the drives that stalled into field goal range.

The running game looks like what Kelly wanted it to be. Creel ran for 119 yards. Farrington broke out with 94. Jalen Likely contributed 32 yards on seven carries. Kouemi added 13 on two. Khristian Lando had 16 on four. That is five backs touching the ball in a meaningful way behind an offensive line that helped produce 276 rushing yards and 7.1 per carry. The passing game complemented it — Creel found seven different receivers, with Darius Cannon catching six passes and Deondre Johnson delivering the biggest play of the night on the 38-yard touchdown.

Defensively, losing Walker O'Steen to an injury compounds the absence of Max Sanders at linebacker. Kelly acknowledged the defense had to adjust and said the young replacements improved as the game went along. Caleb Nix, Morven Joseph and Tre'Quon Fegans led with six tackles each. Quay Hood and Mikey Rosa combined for two of Jax State's three sacks. Middle Tennessee managed 319 total yards and scored both touchdowns through the air on Gagliano, who completed 18-of-28 for 216 yards. The run defense held Antonio Martin Jr. to 106 yards on 17 carries (6.2 average) — not dominant, but adequate against the Blue Raiders' best weapon.

Jax State is 3-2 for the first time since 2019 and 1-0 in CUSA with an open date before traveling to Kennesaw State on Oct. 7 for a CUSA rematch. The bye comes at a good time — the offense needs to sharpen its red-zone execution, the defense needs to sort out its linebacker depth and Kelly has two weeks to address both.

NEXT UP

Jax State has an open date next Saturday. The Gamecocks travel to Kennesaw State on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at Fifth Third Stadium. Kickoff at 6 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network.