As the Southern football team floundered through the beginning of its home opener with Savannah State on Saturday, coach Terrence Graves was looking for a spark.
Graves found it and at the same time may have found a quarterback.
Redshirt freshman Czavian Teasett came off the bench to light up the Southern offense and help the Jaguars pull away for a 42-10 victory of the Division II visitors at A.W. Mumford Stadium
With starter Noah Bodden struggling for the second consecutive game, Teasett came in and threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns as Southern asserted itself. Teasett, who prepped at Scotlandville just down the road, connected with Chandler Whitfield for a 38-yard TD to give Southern (1-1) some breathing room at halftime 16-7.
In the second half, Teasett threw scoring passes of 31 yards to Dupree Fuller and 33 to Darren Morris and completed 17 of 29 passes. Kendric Rhymes and Barry Remo scored on short touchdown runs and Joshua Griffin kicked field goals of 44, 38 and 49 yards.
“It looks like he was struggling, pressing," Graves said of Bodden. "We’ve got to get him grooved back to be the quarterback he’s capable of being. He was really pressing, trying to do a little too much. You have to try to give your team a spark so we put Teasett in, let him go and we got on track offensively.”
Graves didn’t say Teasett was the starter going forward, but the matter is certainly up for discussion.
“We’ll talk about that as a staff,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we need to do to win ballgames.”
Graves lamented his team’s overall cold start and didn’t limit his words to the offense.
“That’s what we talked about all week long,” he said. “We couldn’t play down, we had to play up to our strengths. We came out sluggish and slow in all three phases. No one was exempt. We’ve got to get that fixed in a hurry.”
Southern’s defense had another strong outing, save for an 81-yard TD run by SSU quarterback Jadon Adams on a blown blitz call. The Jaguars allowed only 65 total yards and one first down.
“The defense played well, but we started off slow,” Graves said. “We can’t give up a big touchdown like that. Can’t let an athletic quarterback get outside contain. We’ve got to pay attention to detail.
“We were playing a team that was outgunned and outmanned. We’re supposed to do that. In a perfect world, they should have had zero points. I don’t want anybody scoring.”
Teasett said he wasn’t nervous about stepping in for Bodden after the Jaguars' fourth series.
“(I was thinking), 'Just be me, play football,' " Teasett said. “I’ve been playing since I was 4 years old. I took it as playing football.”
Southern finished an ugly first half strong with scores on its last four possessions, capped by Teasett’s 38-yard TD strike to Chandler Whitfield with 1:10 left. The Jaguars had to settle for field goals of 44, 38 and 49 yards but the way the offense played Southern was fortunate to have the 16-7 lead.
Bodden looked rattled from his first pass on. He nearly threw an interception on that first throw, overthrew his next one and then did throw an interception, fumbled once and was sacked three times. He missed his first five passes before finishing 4 of 10 for 47 yards and one interception.
The Jaguars defense was lights out for all but that one TD play. Adams fumbled the snap and collided with a teammate before taking off around the left side. He appeared to be hemmed in on the sideline, but ran right past defensive back Xavier Spencer angling from the middle of the field.