JACKSONVILLE – Defense wins championships.
 
If one of football's most-used clichés holds true, No. 2 Jacksonville State is trending in the right direction heading into the FCS playoffs.
 
The Gamecocks finished off the regular-season schedule with a 36-6 victory over Tennessee State before a Burgess-Snow Field crowd of 18,782 on Thursday night.
 
JSU carries a 10-1 overall record into the postseason and extended its Ohio Valley Conference win streak to a league-record 32 games, the longest active streak in Division I.
 
Roc Thomas and Bryant Horn each scored on long runs in a span of 64 seconds in the third quarter, and the Gamecock defense picked off two passes and recorded a safety while limiting the Tigers (6-5, 2-5) to 97 total yards.
 
Tennessee State become the fourth opponent in a row held to less than 210 yards by JSU's defense, which entered the game ranked third nationally in total defense at 243.9 yards per game.
 
"I haven't seen our guys get that excited in a long time," said Jacksonville State head coach John Grass, who improved to 41-0 all-time against non-FBS opponents in the regular season. "They've got a lot to be excited about.
 
"It's a great night when you hold somebody to 15 yards rushing and you rush for 368. The offensive line really played well, and defensively we played great the whole game."
 
Horn ran for a career-high 148 yards – including a 44-yard TD – in just over three quarters of action and also tossed a 45-yard touchdown pass to tight end Austin Cummins in the second quarter. The catch by Cummins, a redshirt freshman from Stevenson, Ala., was the first of his JSU career.
 
Jacksonville State led 10-0 at halftime.
 
Thomas sprinted 50 yards with 11:33 to go in the third quarter to increase the lead to 17-0, and Horn's TD run on the first play following a Tigers' punt stretched the Gamecocks' lead to 24-0 at the 10:29 mark in the third.
 
Jacksonville State's defense held TSU to 15 yards rushing on 28 attempts.
 
The Tigers were 0-of-12 on third-down conversions and quarterback Michael Hughes was sacked seven times, a season-best for the Gamecock defenders.
 
Hagler led Jacksonville State with seven tackles, one sack and one tackle for loss. Marlon Bridges and Joel McCandless each intercepted a Tigers pass.
 
Thomas ran for 105 yards on 14 carries (his fifth 100-yard effort in 2017), but did not return after his 50-yard TD jaunt. Thomas now has 12 rushing touchdowns this year.
 
Cade Stinnett made field goals of 19 and 33 yards, and Tramel Terry completed the scoring when he ran eight yards for a touchdown with 11:06 left.
 
Next up is the Gamecocks' fifth-straight appearance in the FCS playoffs (eighth overall since moving to Division I).
 
The field for the 2017 NCAA Division I Football Championship will be unveiled on Sunday at 10 a.m. on ESPNU. The one-hour FCS Selection Show will reveal the 24 teams selected to participate for this year's championship, with the top eight seeds receiving a first-round bye. Opening round games are set for Nov. 25.
 
The Gamecocks will watch the selection show on the fifth floor of Meehan Hall, the JSU Stadium Tower. The public is welcome to attend the show and watch with the players, coaches and support staff. Doors will open at 9:30 a.m.
 
Tickets for the Gamecocks' first game in the playoffs will go on sale on Monday, starting at 9 a.m. General admission tickets will be $20, but if purchased in advance at www.jsugamecocksports.com will cost just $15. Stadium Club tickets will be $75 to the public and $60 to 2017 Stadium Club season ticket holders.

 
Jacksonville State Postgame Notes – Tennessee State
November 16, 2017 • Burgess-Snow Field • Jacksonville, Ala.

• JSU Captains: The entire 2017 senior class, which was represented by linebacker Joel McCandless for the coin toss. 
• Tennessee State won the toss and elected to defer to start the game.
• The Gamecocks are now 10-2 all-time against Tennessee State and are now 6-2 in Jacksonville. JSU has now won the last seven of eight meetings.
• The Gamecocks extend their winning streak in OVC games to 32 games, extending their OVC record and the longest conference win streak in Division I football. It is the second-longest conference win streak in FCS history, behind 39 straight Metro Atlantic Conference wins by Duquesne from 1999-2006.
• John Grass is now 43-7 in his career at JSU and is 40-0 against non-FBS opponents in the regular season. He has four regular-season losses in four years, all to FBS schools (Michigan State, Auburn, LSU and Ga. Tech).
• JSU's 368 rushing yards in the game extends its streak of consecutive games with at least 100 rushing yards to 48 games. JSU's last game with less than 100 yards on the ground was at Michigan State in the 2014 season opener.
• JSU has now run for at least 100 yards in 55-straight games vs. FCS foes, with the last time it failed to do so coming against Tennessee State on Oct. 12, 2013.
• Senior offensive lineman Justin Lea made his 50th straight start for the Gamecocks. The mark breaks a tie with Max Holcombe (Jacksonville State, 2011-2014) for the longest consecutive start streak in Ohio Valley Conference and Jacksonville State history. 
• With 14:48 left in the fourth quarter, Cade Stinnett made a 33-yard field goal. It's the 13th made field goal this season for the Enterprise, Ala., native, which ties him with James Esco (2010) and Joe Hix (1974) for the fourth most made field goals in a single season.  
• Austin Cummins, a redshirt-freshman tight end, scored his first career touchdown on his first career reception when the Stevenson, Ala., native hauled in a 45-yard pass from quarterback Bryant Horn with 2:00 left in the second quarter. 
• During the first half, the Jacksonville State defense allowed an average of 112.7 yards to opposing offenses. The Gamecocks have held their last three opponents to under 100 yards at halftime: Murray State (86), UT Martin (63) and Tennessee State (41). 
• For the ninth time in his career, Roc Thomas rushed for over 100 yards as he finished the game with 105 on 14 carries. The mark ties him with Rondy Rogers for fifth most in Jacksonville State history. 
• Quarterback Bryant Horn, for the first time in his career, rushed for over 100 yards as he finished the game with 148 on 13 carries. He also had 155 passing yards making it the first time in his career he's thrown for over 100 and rushed for over 100 in the same game. 
• Jonathan Hagler recorded Jacksonville State's first safety since Oct. 17, 2015 at Tennessee Tech when the linebacker came untouched off the edge to tackle Tennessee State quarterback Michael Hughes, who threw the ball backwards out of the back of the end zone. 
• Darius Jackson finished the game with 1.0 tackles for loss which gives the All-American 19.0 tackles for loss on the season. The mark ties him with Chris Landrum and Jackson for the single-season mark as both recorded 19.0 during the 2015 season. 
• Jacksonville State set a season-high in rushing yards with 368 on 47 attempts. The previous high was 323 against Murray State on Nov. 4, 2017. 
• By holding Tennessee State to 15 yards rushing, it marks the eighth time this season Jacksonville State's defense has held an opponent to under 100 rushing yards for a game. 
• For the first time since Oct. 24, 2015 at Austin Peay, Jacksonville State's defense held an opponent to under 150 yards of total offense as the Tigers finished the game with 97 total yards. 
• Jacksonville State finished with 493 yards of total offense against Tennessee State, which came into the game ranked as the No. 5 defense in the FCS.
• The 2017 Jacksonville State University senior class now has 43 wins for their career, which is one shy of the school record set by the 2016 class. However, the 2017 class has the highest winning percentage with .860.

 
Jacksonville State Postgame Quotes – Tennessee State
November 16, 2017 • Burgess-Snow Field • Jacksonville, Ala.
 
Head Coach John Grass
Thoughts on the game
"It was a great win. It was really good to see our guys so excited. Tonight was the most excited I've seen our guys in the locker room in a long time. Winning never gets old. Celebration in the locker room was really good. It's really a dominating game when you hold someone to 15 yards rushing and you rush it for over 300. We knew those short, three and four-yard runs would break into long runs and that's what happens. I have to take my hat off to Tennessee State because they played really good in the first half. They have a lot of talent and fly to the ball defensively. Our players just played really well and dominated the line of scrimmage all night."
 
Thoughts on the following week
"To get a bye week would be huge. To play on a Thursday night, that really gave us a longer stretch of time to get healthier. Those guys are really excited about the postseason." 
 
Thoughts on possible playoff seeding
"You never know what the committee is going to do. We felt like we did as much as we could do tonight. We dominated statistically. Tennessee State opened the season by beating Georgia State, which is a bowl-eligible team atop of the Sun Belt, so you think that might have to help us. There's a lot of football to be played Saturday, but we did what we could do. It should be a slam dunk that we are a top-four seed. I'm more interested in who will be on our side of the bracket. It'll be a great second-round opponent, that's for sure."
 
On the defense
"I think we knew that was going to be our strong suit coming into the year. We try to shorten the game a little bit. We are just playing great defense. We usually have an extra hat stopping the run, and that's because we have good guys in the secondary. When you make a team one-dimensional, that really opens up the possibility. To hold them to 15 yards rushing was a big task. We just have to keep doing it." 
 
On the offense
"It's like a boxing match with two heavyweights giving body blows. We are going to run the football. Eventually it'll break down a defense and we'll have success. The good thing with Bryant Horn, tonight, was that he showed he can make explosive plays. Tennessee State didn't do that tonight and he made them pay for it."