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UWF Argos Close Out Season In GSC Title Game Loss To No. 1 Valdosta
November 17, 2024
by Bill Vilona, Argos correspondent
A season of promising expectations for the UWF football team ended Saturday night with a final roadblock.
Unbeaten, top-ranked Valdosta State jumped to a 21-0 lead in the third quarter and cruised its way to a 28-7 victory against the No. 16-ranked Argos to clinch the Gulf South Conference title and No. 1 region seed for the NCAA Division II playoffs.
After six consecutive wins that followed a 1-2 start, the Argos (7-3) will likely miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
UWF hoped it could recapture some road magic at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium where the Argos beat the Blazers in 2022 to help seal a playoff berth, then in 2019 in post-season on way to UWF’s historic national championship run.
But after a scoreless first quarter, the Blazers (10-0) seized control on their senior night. They scored touchdowns on consecutive possessions in the second quarter for a 14-0 halftime lead. They added a third TD midway through the third quarter to further solidify a grip on the game.
“Didn’t play well,” said UWF coach Kaleb Nobles, who returned to his alma mater for the first time as a head coach. “We just didn’t do enough. I take full responsibility. I didn’t do enough, personally. Our guys gave everything they had. We have to find ways to keep getting better.”
The Argos gained a brief surge of hope when quarterback Marcus Stokes broke free on a 31-yard touchdown run with 4:53 left in the third quarter.
After UWF’s defense forced a stop, the Argos drove near midfield and faced 4th-and-5 from the 48. But on the conversion attempt, running back T.J. Lane was stuffed two yards shy of the first down.
VSU then methodically drove nine plays, 50 yards and ate up 5:18 on the clock to score on Alfonso Franklin’s 1-yard run to put the game away. The drive was part of the Blazers’ 204 yards rushing, led by Blake Hester who had 118 yards on 21 carries and one touchdown.
“They ran the ball pretty well, did stuff in the run game that I don’t think they’ve done all year and we didn’t answer the call,” said Nobles, a 2015 Valdosta State graduate, who then used his post-grad year in 2016 to be the Argos quarterback in their inaugural season.
The Blazers produced 358 yards total offense in the game. UWF’s defense entered ranked No. 2 nationally in Division II, yielding just 205.9 total offense yards per-game.
VSU senior quarterback Sammy Edwards completed 14 of 20 passes for 154 yards and two scores. Neither team had a turnover Saturday.
Edwards was one of 30 seniors that VSU honored before the game.
“I’ll give (VSU) offensive line credit. They’re a good team and do a lot of things well,” Nobles said. “This one definitely hurts.”
Meanwhile, the UWF offense struggled the entire night. Stokes completed 11 of 24 passes for 129 yards. He was sacked twice.
Javon Swinton was UWF’s leading receiver with three catches for 47 yards, including the longest pass play for UWF on a 33-yard reception.
Stokes became the Argos leading rusher with 57 yards on nine attempts. The Blazers held the Argos’ tailback tandem of TJ Lane (33 yards) and Jay Sharp (16 yards) in check.
“We didn’t win some down-field throws and had a couple missed blocks on our offensive line that really affected us,” Nobles said. “When you do those things against a good team, those things get exposed. We know we can’t do that against a good team like Valdosta State.”
The Argos returned home following the game Saturday and will have post-season meetings beginning Monday as they now plan for the 2025 season.
UWF was seeking its first outright GSC title Saturday. The Argos would have won the tiebreaker with a win.
The Blazers celebrated their 12th outright GSC title and first since getting back-to-back conference championships in 2018 and 2019 seasons. The win elevated VSU to its fifth undefeated regular season in school history.
UWF ends with its seven consecutive winning season in the program’s eight-year history. The Argos have won seven or more games in six of those years.
“The message is, I’m just proud of them,” Nobles said. “Everybody wrote us off and didn’t think we had a chance to do anything after we lost to Grand Valley State (on September 28). I told the team I’m proud of them for how they responded, giving themselves to be in this game. I told the seniors how proud I am of them, and how excited I am to be their head coach.”
Photo: Emily Miller/UWF for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
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