JACKSONVILLE – On a day when two of the most decorated receivers to ever wear the red and white played their final game for Jacksonville State,
KJ Stepherson showed there is quality returning talent to replace them at wideout in 2020.
The redshirt junior became only the sixth player in JSU history to catch three touchdown passes in a game in the Gamecocks' 29-23 season-ending loss to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday at Burgess-Snow Field. It was EKU's first win in the series since 2012.
Jacksonville State lost four of its final five games to finish 6-6 but extended the longest active streak of finishing .500 or better in the FCS to 17 straight years.
"It's going to be a tough offseason for sure," Jacksonville State head coach
John Grass said. "I'm not happy. It will definitely be the hardest one we've ever had here.
"We've got some young guys who can step in and play. We had to throw them into the fire because of injuries. A lot of those guys had to step in and play too early."
Senior
Jamari Hester had a career-high 186 yards on nine receptions in his final outing as a Gamecock. Fellow senior
Josh Pearson, JSU's all-time leader in touchdowns receptions with 30, was banged up after making a diving catch in the first quarter and concluded his career with just two catches for 28 yards.
Hester's big day gave him 1,002 receiving yards, joining Josh Barge, Pearson and Ronald Bonner as the only receivers to eclipse the 1,000-yard milestone in a season.
Zerrick Cooper connected with Stepherson on touchdown passes of 20, 10 and 18 yards and finished his second year as Jacksonville State's starting quarterback by completing 21-of-35 pass for 311 yards.
The 21 completions gave Cooper 260 this season, eclipsing the school record (254) he established in 2018. He now has 6,820 career passing yards, moving into third place in the record book behind Eli Jenkins (7,652) and
Ed Lett (7,145).
Stepherson caught seven passes for 80 yards.
Eastern Kentucky rolled up 203 yards on the ground and outgained the Gamecocks 396-391.
Colonels kicker Sam Hayworth converted five field goal attempts, including a 50-yarder with the wind at his back in the fourth quarter. EKU also had third-quarter touchdowns on a 17-yard pass play and 1-yard run by Alonzo Booth.
The Gamecocks received the opening kickoff and wasted little time getting on the scoreboard first.
Cooper completed all four of his passes as Jacksonville State drove 79 yards in seven plays to take a 6-0 lead with 11:48 left in the opening quarter. Cooper connected with Stepherson on a 20-yard touchdown pass, but the extra point attempt was botched.
Cooper's TD pass was his 26th of the season.
Jacksonville State's offense was limited to 97 yards and a 21-yard
Bryant Wallace field goal the rest of the first half.
Hayworth kicked field goals from 34, 24 and 25 yards to account for all the Colonels' first-half scoring. Eastern Kentucky outgained the Gamecocks 179-176 through the first two quarters.
Wallace's 21-yard field goal finished off a 14-play drive that consumed more than five minutes and gave JSU a 9-6 lead with 5:07 left before intermission.
Zack Woodard and
Jalen Choice led Jacksonville State's defense with a game-high 11 tackles each.
Jacksonville State opens the 2020 season against Florida International, a member of Conference USA, on Sept. 5 at Riccardo Silva Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla.
Jacksonville State Postgame Notes – Eastern Kentucky
November 23, 2019 • Burgess-Snow Field • Jacksonville, Ala.
- JSU Captains: The senior class, R-Sr. Safety Marlon Bridges, Sr. WR Marlon Byrd, Sr. LB Jalen Choice and Sr. LS Josh Brady represented Jax State for the coin toss.
- Eastern Kentucky won the toss and deferred to the second half.
- The Gamecocks finished 6-6 on the season and extended the programs non-losing season streak to 17 seasons, the longest current streak in the FCS.
- The Colonels snapped a six-game losing streak to Jax State. The win was the seventh all-time for EKU and the fourth on JSU's home turf.
- Junior QB Zerrick Cooper now has thrown for 6,820 yards in his JSU career, moving past Montressa Kirby (1995-98) for third place in the school's record book.
- Cooper completed 260 passes for the 2019 season, surpassing his record from last season (251). He finished the game 21-of-35 for 311 yards and three touchdowns. Through two seasons, Cooper has accumulated 60 TD passes. In 2019 alone, he tallied 28 TDs through the air.
- In his final game as a Gamecock, WR Jamari Hester had a career-high 186 receiving yards on nine catches. Hester concluded his career ranked third on the programs career TDs list with 22.
- Redshirt junior KJ Stepherson collected three TD passes from Cooper and finished the season with six TDs on the season.
- Sophomore LB Zack Woodard led the JSU defense with 11 total tackles, including a stop for a loss.
- Senior Safety Marlon Bridges finished his Gamecock career with 296 tackles. Bridges posted five tackles against EKU.
Jacksonville State Postgame Quotes – Eastern Kentucky
November 23, 2019 • Burgess-Snow Field • Jacksonville, Ala.
Head coach John Grass
Thoughts on the game
"The way the season ends sums up how the season went all year. We're definitely not going to let it define our seniors, though. We wanted to win it for them. It was just the way it went, though, and we appreciate the men they are and the quality people they are. My hat's off to EKU. These were two teams not playing for anything but playing hard, physical football, and we just didn't play good enough to win. I hate it for our guys, but I will always remember the things they've done off the field for our program and the men they are."
On the struggles between the offensive line and running game
"The offensive line has got to get better. We only had two returning starters with a couple of injuries throughout the season, so that hurt us. We had a good day running the ball in the first half with 67 yards rushing in the second quarter, but just couldn't get it going in the second half."
On how this season affects the offseason
"A lot of our guys haven't even been through a full offseason. They're definitely about to get their feet wet in this one as it is going to be tough. We don't try to make a living playing all freshman, but we have had to play too many of them this year. You just can't put a price tag on how important it is to get those guys into the offseason and work with them. Especially with the offensive line. It'll be a good offseason for them, but it will be a tough one, no question about it.
KJ Stepherson, Wide Receiver, Redshirt Junior
On the end of the season
"It's really frustrating taking these losses. We really wanted to go out on a win for our seniors but ended up disappointed. The loss to UT Martin weighed heavy on our team and it has just been really hard to come back from that."
Jamari Hester, Wide Receiver, Redshirt Senior
On his senior season
"It has been a roller coaster with all the ups and downs. Even in the games that we lost there were times that we could have been up on the scoreboard, but some plays just didn't go our way. We just have to come back next season and rebuild because all of our young guys know what it takes to be on top of the OVC."
Jalen Choice, Linebacker, Redshirt Senior
On second-half, red-zone troubles
"We just had to keep getting stops and letting the offense get that close. We just couldn't get the job done today though."
