FINAL STATS  l  PHOTO GALLERY


JACKSONVILLE - Points were easy to come by for Jacksonville State on Saturday night.

Words to describe what happened in the final seven minutes against Eastern Kentucky, however, were much tougher to come by.

The host Gamecocks built a 24-point lead on the strength of Washaun Ealey's 83-yard touchdown run with 7:25 to play, then watched the Colonels respond with a comeback that won't soon be forgotten anytime soon in the Ohio Valley Conference.

EKU scored four touchdowns in a six-minute span, then stuffed a last-gasp JSU drive a yard short of the goal line, as it rallied for a 52-48 victory in front of 16,845 stunned fans at Burgess-Snow Field.

“A disaster,” Gamecocks wide receiver Alan Bonner said. “A total disaster.”

Head coach Jack Crowe added: “I have never seen anything like it.”

In the immediate aftermath of Ealey's run, which put him over 200 yards for the game, it looked as though JSU (5-4, 4-2 in the OVC) had positioned itself as the team to beat over the next two weeks. The Gamecocks entered the day in a three-way tie for the OVC lead along with EKU (6-3, 5-1) and Tennessee Tech, but the latter lost at home to Murray State, leaving the door ajar.

Cameron Bailey's 60-yard touchdown reception from T.J. Pryor with 6:42 remaining seemed inconsequential at the time, especially after JSU's Rodney Garrott recovered and returned the ensuing onside kick to the Colonels' 28-yard line. Crowe, in fact, took out several starters, including Ealey and quarterback Coty Blanchard.

But on fourth down, reserve running back Jordan Allen fumbled, EKU's Anthony Brown picked up the ball and 71 yards later it was 48-38.

“That was a major coaching error, to be honest with you,” Crowe said in reference to his substitutions. “(The) fumble recovery was a momentum shift.”

The Colonels recovered their next onside kick and needed only four plays to score, this time on an 18-yard Pryor-to-Justin Williams TD pass with 4:14 to go.

“It just kept snowballing on us,” Blanchard said. “Everybody on the sideline started to get a little antsy.”

The feeling intensified after the Gamecocks went three-and-out and EKU's Jeremy Caldwell returned a punt 17 yards into their territory. Two plays later, Pryor -- who had five TD passes -- hit Tyrone Goard for his third score from 37 yards out at the 1:24 mark.

“Twenty-eight points (in that span) is almost an impossible scenario,” Crowe said. “As a coach, this will be the closest to you thinking you have a game won.”

JSU still gave itself a good chance to do just that, driving 60 yards in a hurry behind the arm of Blanchard (19-of-28, 300 yards, two TDs) and the legs of Bonner (nine receptions, 205 yards, two TDs). It had a first-and-goal at the Colonels' 4-yard line with 17 seconds left, but a Blanchard scramble and a spiked pass left it with a final play from the 2.

On the game's final play, senior tailback Calvin Middleton got stopped a yard short of the goal line.

“When it came time for us to knock (them) off the ball, we didn't do it,” Crowe said. “Give credit to EKU.”

POST-GAME NOTES
- Captains for the Gamecocks: senior RB Calvin Middleton, junior DB Brooks Robinson, senior DE Jamison Wadley.
- Jacksonville State won the toss and deferred to the second half.
- JSU honored its 17 seniors prior to the game - Jawann Booker, Calvin Middleton, James Shaw, Thomas Darrah, Jason Horton, A.J. Davis, Cole Doolittle, Jordan Allen, Brannon Byrd, Rodney Garrott, Marquis George, Michael Ellis, Justin Howard, Brandon Rogers, Chris Nesbitt, Monte Lewis and Jamison Wadley.      The senior class entered the game with  494 games played.
- Since joining the OVC in 2003, the Gamecocks are 6-3 on Senior Day at Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium.
- Today's game marked the 900th in the history of the JSU football program, one that features an all-time record of 502-358-40 record.
- The Gamecocks are now 91-57-3 during the month of November since the 1964 season. Under Jack Crowe, JSU has a 22-16 record during the 11th month of the year.
- Washaun Ealey's 83-yard TD run in the fourth quarter was the longest rushing play of the season for JSU.
- With Ealey's career-best 217 yards (previous best was 183 at Georgia Tech, while at Georgia) he now has 999 yards on the season, the most since former Gamecock Clay Green accumulated 1,083 yards in a single season. It's the seventh time that a Jax State tailback has posted 200-plus yards in a single contest and just the fifth individual to reach the 200-yard plateau.
- Ealey's 83-yard TD scamper in the fourth quarter is the fourth longest rush for a touchdown and is the longest rush in the school's Division I history.
- The Gamecocks combined for 609 total yards on offense, which is the second most in the school's Division I history and the most since 646 yards vs. Samford on Nov. 6, 2004.
- Jax State has now scored on its first possession of the game in two-straight games and have produced points on its opening drive in four games this season.
- PK James Esco remained perfect on the season with his sixth and seventh field goals of the season after connecting on a season-long 42-yard kick in the opening quarter and adding a 34-yard kick in the third quarter.
- Sophomore QB Coty Blanchard rushed for his tenth TD of the season with a 19-yard scamper in the second quarter. It marks the seventh game this season in which Blanchard has scored a rushing touchdown. Blanchard also tossed for a career-best 300 yards on 19-of-28 passing, including his ninth and tenth TD passes of the season.
- Blanchard has now rushed and thrown for a touchdown in three games this season and in back-to-back contests.
- Colonel RB Matt Denham became the first opposing rusher to record over 200 yards on the ground against JSU since Murray State's Chad Cook finished with 213 yards rushing on Oct. 8, 2005.
- Senior CB A.J. Davis tacked on his fifth interception of his career and first of the 2011 season with his 39-yard interception return in the third quarter.
- Senior RB Calvin Middleton scored his 21st touchdown of his career, moving into a tie for fourth all-time for career TDs with Bubba Long (1966-69). His scoring mark is fourth-most in JSU's Division I history.
- Junior WR Alan Bonner, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Saturday, had a day to remember with a career-high nine catches for 205 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He had scoring plays of 74 and 31 yards.
- Bonner's 205 receiving yards is the second most in the school's Division I history, just behind Ronald Bonner's 210 yards against Texas State on Nov. 15, 1997.
- Bonner's nine catches ranks third-most in JSU's Division I history and the most since Maurice Dupree hauled in nine passes at Georgia Tech (Aug. 28, 2008).

JSU BY THE NUMBERS
2 - Straight years that JSU has produced 300 yards of passing against Eastern Kentucky.

3 - Games this season the JSU defense has recorded  multiple interceptions.

5 - Washaun Ealy becomes the fifth Jax State player all time to rush for over 200 yards in a single game.

12 - Interceptions this season by the JSU defense, which leads the Ohio Valley Conference.

21 - Points off Eastern Kentucky's three turnovers in the third period.

27 - OVC games since Jax State has lost two consecutive league games.

52 - The most points scored against the Gamecocks since Mississippi State put 50 points on the scoreboard on Sept. 14, 2002.

JSU Head Coach Jack Crowe
Eastern Kentucky – Nov. 5, 2011
“Giving up 28 points in the fourth quarter is almost an unbelievable scenario, so we are looking at a 24 point margin with seven minutes left to play. As a coach this is a real lesson that when you think you got the game won when you are up 24 points with seven minutes left.”

“I made some substitutions on fourth down and quiet honestly didn't kick the field goal because I didn't want to have it blocked and it was just the most conservative thing to do. I took some people out of the game and put some people in the game and that was a major coaching error to be honest with you.  I would like to think whoever we put in uniform out there on the game day can take care of certain responsibilities and that is certainly not the case.”

“I think that 71-yard fumble recovery was just a momentum shift that we never could turn back the other way. When you lose two on-side kicks and give up some major passing yards it does fall to the guys that were in position that didn't make those plays, but I am the one who is responsible for positioning us.  My thought was to put seniors in the game since it was the last game.”

Alan Bonner
Junior - WR
“I feel like I am a senior and it's only my junior year, it happened last year and the same two teams came back and got us this year.  I don't have any words to describe the emotions going on in the locker room right now, the emotions I do see in the locker room right now is - a disaster - a total disaster.”

“Everything turned so quickly because we got conservative, we relaxed and they still had some fight in them, we let up and they kept fighting.  I played my heart out and left it on the field for the seniors.”


Coty Blanchard
Sophomore – QB
“I thought I saw an opening come up and I tired to hit it real quick and get it but they did a good job on closing down”

"We got up with four seconds and got the ball spiked and the last play we converted on it all night except we ran it a different way and then we ran it left again so that was the second time we had ran it. It worked perfect Calvin got 50 or 60 yards on it the first time, so we were pretty confident in it and if it happens again we are going to give the ball to him again.”