Spencer Rattler threw for 399 yards, 217 of them to Xavier Legette, and the pair connected on two touchdowns as South Carolina survived a visit from Jacksonville State 38-28 in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday afternoon.
Legette made nine catches, including a 65-yarder late in the third quarter that knotted the game at 28-28. South Carolina (3-6) of the SEC ended a four-game losing streak and kept alive its hopes for six wins and bowl eligibility.
Rattler, who played three years at Oklahoma and is in his second with South Carolina, went over 10,000 career passing yards early in the third quarter. He completed 27 of 38 passes and was intercepted once.
With the game tied at 28, South Carolina’s Jatius Geer forced a fumble and Debo Williams made the recovery at his own 45. Mitch Jeter culminated a 10-play drive with a tiebreaking 26-yard field goal with 5:51 to play.
Jacksonville State then drove to the South Carolina 15 with 2:16 to play, but Stone Blanton picked off a Zion Webb pass and went 88 yards to seal the win.
Jacksonville State (7-3) of Conference USA entered the matchup of teams with Gamecocks mascots as a 14-point underdog, but it hung around thanks to two touchdown passes from Webb and another from Logan Smothers. Sean Brown caught scoring tosses from each quarterback.
South Carolina put up 488 yards in total offense to 421 for Jacksonville State.
Perry Carter caught a 54-yard touchdown pass from Webb to give Jacksonville State its only lead of the game at 28-21, and Anwar Lewis rushed for a 4-yard score in the second quarter.
Rattler and Tonka Hemingway, a defensive lineman in on offense, scored short rushing touchdowns for South Carolina in the first quarter.
Webb was 12-for-23 passing for 183 yards and rushed for 65 yards, Carter made five catches for 106 yards and Ron Wiggins rushed for 88 yards for Jacksonville State.
Jacksonville State trailed 21-14 at halftime but Tarnue Kekoura picked off a deep pass by Rattler on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter. The visitors then went 73 yards in eight plays, capped by Smothers’ 13-yard touchdown pass to Brown.
–Field Level Media