LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Jax State struggled to keep pace with No. 22 Louisville on Saturday in a 49-14 loss.
 
The Cardinals outgained the Gamecocks 610 to 290 and did not turn the ball over.
 
After the hosts jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the 3:57 mark of the first, the Gamecocks answered Louisville's second touchdown with an 11-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in an 11-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Huff to Sean Brown at the 14:27 mark of the second quarter. Huff had a 19-yard run on 3^rd-and-8 from the Cardinals' 34-yard line to keep the drive going two plays earlier.
 
Huff was key to the Jax State offense, finishing with 160 yards and a touchdown passing and added 101 yards rushing with a touchdown.
 
Louisville was able to answer with a nine-play, 70-yard drive that ate up the next 4:33 of the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown run to push the lead back to 14. The ensuing Jax State drive resulted in a missed field goal.
 
The Cardinals took a 21-point lead at the 2:37 mark of the second with a two-yard touchdown run, but Jax State answered with 36 seconds left in the half with a 15-yard touchdown run by Huff to make it 28-14 then held the Cardinals to a 60-yard field goal attempt before halftime which fell short off the crossbar.
 
After forcing Gamecock punts on their first three possessions of the second half, Louisville only had a 48-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Shough to Chris Bell to go up 35-14 at the 8:58 mark of the quarter to show for it, but added a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to close out the contest.
 
Patrick Taylor was the top tackler for the second week in a row with 12. J-Rock Swain added 1.5 tackles for loss.
 
Jacksonville State Head Coach Rich Rodriguez
September 7, 2024
The Louisville Game  
 
Opening statement
"Just upset that we didn't play better at times, particularly with some of the missed assignments, not guarding a guy, and getting easy first downs and touchdowns. There's no excuse for that. Offensively, we had some stuff, but we didn't finish drives as well. They're (Louisville) a good team, I've got a lot of respect for the program. I mean, Coach [Jeff] Brohm is one of the best in the country. I think they'll win the league and be in the playoff, but we also felt that we had some opportunities today and didn't play our best to do that, so we've got to get that fixed."
 
On the quarterback Tyler Huff
He showed me a lot of toughness. It's his first year in the system, but he ran hard, he was seeing the field well, and when he missed something, he knew it. He'll continue to grow and get better. He gave us a chance, unfortunately we didn't run the ball very hard beside him and we didn't block well enough at certain points, but they'll all share lots of film and there will be some stuff to grow on.
 
On the defense's performance
There were moments when we played solid defense, but we gave up way too many third downs, didn't tackle well at all, we ducked our heads, and then the frustrating part was deep balls down the field. We haven't made a play on the ball yet, and five or six times we didn't guard the tight end for easy first downs. We have to watch the films and get that fixed, because you can't just gift a talented team first downs like that. You have to make them earn it and we didn't do that today.
 
 
Jacksonville State Postgame Notes – Louisville September 7 2024 • L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium • Louisville, Ky.
· Jax State Captains: Redshirt senior linebacker Lale'tia Hale, senior offensive lineman Brock Robey and redshirt senior running back Anwar Lewis.
· Jax State won the coin toss and chose to defer. Jax State won the toss and chose to defer against Coastal Carolina last week.
· The announced attendance of 48,575 at the Cardinals' L&N Stadium was the 12th-largest crowd to ever watch Jax State play.
· Starting offensive lineman Cam Jones, a redshirt senior from Knott County, Ky., is the only Kentucky native on Jax State's roster. Jones spent the past five seasons at Cincinnati and appeared in 12 games for the Bearcats in 2023. Jones started the Saturday contest against Louisville.
· Louisville was a Conference USA member from 1996-2004 and won league titles in 2000, 2001 and 2004. The Cardinals improve to 32-14 all-time against current CUSA members, including nine in a row.
· The Gamecocks' first three games this year are against teams that were bowl eligible last season. Coastal Carolina, Louisville and Eastern Michigan combined to go 24-16 in 2023.
· Louisville is the seventh football program from the Bluegrass State that Jax State has played. The others were against Eastern Kentucky (11-8 all-time), Western Kentucky (2-4), Kentucky (0-1), Kentucky State (2-0), Centre (2-0) and Union College (1-0).
· The Gamecocks fall to 0-1 head-to-head with the Cardinals. Jax State head coach Rich Rodriguez moves to 2-2 vs. Louisville in his coaching career.
· Sean Brown's second quarter touchdown was the ninth of his career. Brown finished up his 2023 season with 19 receptions for 294 yards and five touchdowns.
· Jax State quarterback Tyler Huff wrapped up his first start of the season with 101 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Huff's career high is 132 rushing yards against Chattanooga in 2022 in his time at Furman.
· The Gamecocks limited Louisville to just two sacks on Saturday. Louisville entered the game with seven sacks on the season, a mark that was the second most in the FBS.