PHOTO GALLERY

JACKSONVILLE – Junior quarterback Eli Jenkins rolled up more than 340 yards of total offense and scored five touchdowns to lead top-ranked Jacksonville State to a 42-20 victory over Murray State in the 2015 regular season finale.
 
With the win the Gamecocks secured an outright Ohio Valley Conference Championship for the second-straight year, improving to 10-1 overall and 8-0 in the OVC.
 
Jenkins threw for 212 yards and two touchdowns on 15 of 30 passing, but it was his legs that put most of the points on the board, as he rushed for 130 yards on 11 carries and tied his career high with TD runs of seven, 24, and 65 yards. Josh Barge caught both touchdown passes and finished the game with seven catches for 92 yards.
 
The two touchdowns gave Barge the single-season JSU record for touchdown receptions with 11, continuing a long line of receiving records for the junior, who already holds the career record for receptions (189) and is closing in on the record for receiving yards. His two touchdown catches on Saturday were his fifth career multi-touchdown game, breaking Ronald Bonner's school record of four.
 
Senior linebacker Dawson Wells had 11 tackles to lead a Jax State defense that would finish the day with seven sacks for a total loss of 33 yards.
 
Senior Chris Landrum, Sr., notched seven tackles, including a school-record 4.5 tackles for a loss, and forced a fumble. He had 2.5 sacks. The Sweet Water, Ala., native ran his career total to 33.5, breaking Warren Blair's record of 32.0 from 1995-97.
 
Senior Troymaine Pope made the most of his final regular-season start, rushing for 82 yards on 17 carries. He scored the first touchdown of the game on a 22-yard run with 7:49 left in the first quarter. He now has 1,092 yards on the season, moving from 15th to eighth on JSU's single-season list, while his 2,680 career yards move him past Reginald Goodloe for fifth on the career list.
 
Murray State responded with a 10-play drive that reached the JSU 10-yard line, but the defense held, and the Racers Connor Mitchell kicked a 27-yard field goal to cut the score to 7-3.
 
The Gamecocks answered with a seven-play touchdown drive, highlighted by a 43-yard pass from Jenkins to Markis Merrill and capped by Jenkins' seven-yard touchdown run. He would later connect with Barge on a 13-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to give JSU the 21-3 halftime lead.
 
Despite the many superlatives for the Gamecocks, however, there was some uneven play that kept the outcome in doubt until late. In the second quarter, Jaylen Hill returned an interception 45 yards to give JSU possession at the Murray State 23, Jenkins threw his only pick of the day on the very next play when he was intercepted by DeQuinten Spraggins at the 10-yard line.
 
The Gamecocks also lost two fumbles on the day, including one inside the five that was picked up by Racers lineman Demetrius Mason and returned one yard for Murray State's first touchdown, cutting the JSU lead to 21-13 in the third quarter.
 
The Gamecocks responded with a four-play drive that covered 82 yards and ended when Jenkins raced around the right to find the end zone from 24 yards out. He extended the lead again with a 27-yard pass to Barge in the third quarter, but Murray State would cut that lead again h with a 35-yard touchdown pass from KD Humphries to Dominique Rhymes.
 
After the ensuing kickoff gave the Gamecocks the ball on their own 35, Jenkins would cap the scoring for the day with a 65-yard touchdown run, his longest of the season.
 
Murray State (3-7, 2-6) finished with 398 yards of total offense, including 310 through the air. Humphries completed 22 of 45 pass attempts with one interception.
 
Jax State will now learn its postseason plans on Sunday morning, when the NCAA FCS Championship Selection Show will air on ESPNU at 10 a.m. CT. The team will host a watch party on the fifth floor of JSU Stadium with doors opening at 9:30 a.m. Admission is free.

POSTGAME NOTES
JACKSONVILLE STATE POSTGAME NOTES – MURRAY STATE
-Jacksonville State captains: LS Chad Sharp, RB Bo Billups, CB Jermaine Hough, CB Rashod Byers, WR Markis Merrill, OL Blake Burks, OL Kyron Samuels, OL Adam Wright, SLB Santavius Oden, P Hamish MacInnes, RB Troymaine Pope, LB Dawson Wells, SAF Folo Johnson, RB Miles Jones, SAF DeBarriaus Miller, LB JaJuan Lee, QB Christian LeMay, DE Chris Landrum Sr., WR Ruben Gonzalez, SLB Brandon Bender and TE Spencer Goffigan
-On Senior Day, 28 seniors were honored pregame. This year;s class is the winningest class in JSU's Division I history in terms of wins (34-12) and winning percentage (.755).
-For only the second time this season, Jacksonville State lost the coin toss. The Gamecocks are now 9-of-11 in winning the toss. With Murray electing to defer, it was the first time this season JSU has received the opening kickoff.
-JSU head coach John Grass became the first coach in Ohio Valley Conference history to start his conference career 16-0.
-JSU becomes the only school in Division I (FBS or FCS) to post undefeated conference records in each of the last two seasons. JSU and Ohio State entered the week as the only two, but the Buckeyes lost to Michigan State on Saturday.
-With the win, Jax State becomes just the third team in OVC history to have back-to-back 8-0 records in conference play. The Gamecocks join the 1993-94 Eastern Kentucky team and 1995-96 Murray State teams as the only three to do so.
-Josh Barge's third quarter touchdown reception was his 11th on the season. It breaks Maurice Dupree's (10 in 2008) for most receiving touchdowns in a single-season. It was the 17th touchdown for Barge's career, which puts him in a three-way with Ralph Jenkins (2000-03) Rusty Fuller (1980-83) and fifth all-time in JSU history.
-Josh Barge also set the Jax State school record with five multi-touchdown games for his career. He tied Ronald Bonner's mark of four a week ago.
-Midway through the fourth quarter, quarterback Eli Jenkins kept the ball and raced to the end zone for a 65-yard touchdown run. It was his longest run of the season for Jenkins as the previous high was only 40 yards. Jenkins also tied his career-high with three rushing touchdowns.
-Saturday's game was the fifth time Eli Jenkins has thrown for over 100 yards and rushed for more than the century mark. Coming into the game, JSU was 4-0 when Jenkins has such a performance.
-It's the first time in his career Eli Jenkins has thrown for more than 200 yards while also running for more than 100 yards in the same game.
-Troymaine Pope's first quarter 22-yard rushing touchdown was the 26th of his career. The score ties him with Walter Broughton (1980-83) and Terry Thomas (1985-88) for sixth most in JSU history.
-Running back Troymaine Pope finished with 78 rushing yards on 17 carries, including one touchdowns. The performance pushes the senior's single-season numbers to 1,092 yards, which is good enough for eighth on the JSU single-season rushing list, 59 yards behind DaMarcus James (2014) for seventh.
-Troymaine Pope now has 2,680 career rushing yards, passing Reginald Goodloe (2,628 from 1980-83) for fifth in school history. Jenkins now has 2,291 career rushing yards, eighth all-time.
-Senior Chris Landrum notched a school-record 4.5 tackles for a loss in the game, passing the previous mark of 4.0 held by 11 different players. He also broke the career tackles for a loss record, moving his total to 33.5 to pass Warren Blair's record of 32.0 from 1995-97.
-Landrum's school-record 33.5 tackles for a loss have totaled 134 yards, which is two away from Devin Phillips' record of 136 yards from 2005-07.
-Eli Jenkins has now passed for 2,185 yards this season, seventh-highest single-season total in school history, while his 4,942 career passing yards are fifth in the JSU books.
-Senior Dawson Wells recorded a career-high in tackles with 11 on the day. It's the first time in his career he's turned in double digit tackles in a game.
-E.J. Moss, a redshirt freshman defensive end out of Ashville, Ala., earned his first career start Saturday afternoon.
-Siran Neal, a redshirt sophomore, earned his first start of the season. 



POSTGAME QUOTES – HEAD COACH JOHN GRASS
Opening statement
"It's great to get back to this point. A lot of hard work and sweat has been put into us getting back to this point. I'm proud of our guys for that and finishing out OVC play undefeated. I'm proud of what these guys have done in putting us in a position to be the No. 1 seed and play at home during the playoffs. I'm proud of how the guys have handled themselves in the classroom and the way they've represented this University. Most teams have a let downs, or two, but this bunch has been able to play consistent. I think we played very well today. Defensively, that was an outstanding performance."
 
On being only OVC coach to start career 16-0 in conference play
"I'm just blessed. It all goes back the people around me. We have great people, coaching staff and players; they all make me proud every day. It's a lot of hard work and the way everyone represents this university on and off the field it pretty special and that's where all the credit goes. It's all about the people around you. I've said that when I took this job and all the other jobs I've taken. We have a pretty special thing here and it's good to be achieving great things."
 
If this team has a weakness
"Our guys have done a great job of the 'next man up' mentality. We always have things we can improve on and get better at. We had four or five dropped balls together and that's not us, that's not how we play. There are things we can get better at, that's for sure. We don't care about being that  team during the playoffs, we just want to go 1-0 each week and do that four times. You're done if you don't win, so we have to be ready to play."
 
On Markis Merrill's performance
"Markis (Merrill) has played through so much while he's been here. He's made so many plays for us over the past three years and is very consistent. He's an amazing athlete. He's one of the strongest guys I've ever been around. Our trainers call him Superman. All his injuries took a step away from him, but he has strong hands and makes plays. To me, he emerged a long time along because he's been making plays for us every year." 

POSTGAME QUOTES - PLAYERS
LB, Dawson Wells
On staying focused for Murray State leading in to playoffs:
"Their offense is really, really good. They had the No. 1 passing offense coming in and their quarterback is really good. We just stayed focus on playing to keep that No. 1 seed."

On reaching the preseason goal of getting back to playoffs with chance to win the title:
"It was our goal from day one this summer, we wanted to be in this spot to be able to have another shot  at going for the championship. Now we're here. It was a whole team effort. We had that one loss to Auburn, but we refocused and got back to work after that."

WR, Josh Barge
On staying focused for the final regular season game:
"It was important for us. We knew this team was going to be good, a very good offense. We didn't want to be embarrassed out here and knew we had to win to keep home field advantage for the playoffs."

On record-setting day and season performance:
"It's a blessing. Honestly, if it was up to me, I'd put the rest of the team in there with me in record books because I wouldn't have anything without them. For Eli (Jenkins) to show his trust in me and the coaches always supporting me, it's big."

QB, Eli Jenkins
On finishing season 10-1 and top-ranked team in the country:
"It's great to be the No. 1 team. We wrapped up the conference again and undefeated in the conference in back-to-back years."

Looking ahead to the FCS playoffs
"We'll get some guys healthy and stay focused during the break. Then when the day comes we'll be ready. We're going to prepare the same way; we want to go 1-0 each week. Our focus is just playing JSU football and not worrying about who we play."