UWF Football: Argos with over 600 yards of total offense in win over North Greenville

Saturday was almost like watching a repeat of the University of West Florida football team in Week 4 – though the score was a little closer this time around.

The visiting Argos enjoyed a healthy cushion at the start. North Greenville surged to get within striking distance in the second half before a big play from quarterback Peewee Jarrett and receiver John Jiles stabilized matters.

From there, UWF scored 21 unanswered points to cap off the 48-24 victory over the Crusaders from Youth Stadium in Tigerville, South Carolina.

“Obviously, Coach Farrington (NGU head coach Jeff Farrington) has a great team. They do not quit. We knew that was going to happen,” UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles said. “We knew they weren’t going to quit. … We had to finish the game. … I told our guys, ‘Hey, we’re a couple plays away from putting this thing away.’ A couple big plays from John Jiles, then some big runs with Jalen Bussey at the end, that’s all phenomenal.”

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Toward the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Argos – leading 27-17 after a 34-yard touchdown pass from North Greenville University’s Dylan Ramirez to Cole Richardson – were in the midst of a rough start to a drive. After starting on their own 25-yard line following a touchback, back-to-back false starts put UWF back on its 15-yard line.

Then it seemed like UWF had a breakthrough when Jarrett connected with Jiles for a 33-yard pass and a much-needed first down at the 48-yard line. But as Jiles was being dragged down, North Greenville’s Jerrick Foster stripped the ball loose and ran it back to the house.

With the point-after kick, the Crusaders trailed by just three points.

On the ensuing UWF drive, C.J. Wilson had a pair of runs that got the Argos near midfield. Then Jarrett and Jiles took matters into their own hands. Jarrett fed a bullet to Jiles up the middle of the field on a short pass, who then ran through the North Greenville secondary ran into the end zone to finish a three-play drive.

After that, starting with a big sack from Kenneth Martin when North Greenville regained the ball, UWF wouldn’t be stopped.

It was similar to Week 4, when West Georgia got points on a scoop-and-score, followed by what was a two-play drive that also featured a long Jarrett-Jiles pass.

“I’m excited to see the film to see if that was a fumble or not. I told our guys, ‘We’ve got to respond.’ … I thought we did that pretty much the whole fourth quarter. From 12 minutes (left) in the fourth quarter, I thought we did a good job of finishing the game,” Nobles said. “We’ve just got to improve on that, and find that instinct to finish a game a little bit earlier.”

The Argos burst out to a 20-3 advantage at halftime after being dominant on both sides of the ball. The defense allowed one long drive from the Crusaders, which began the game. From there, the offense took over, scoring on three consecutive drives.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Quick response

Nobles has used the phrase “respond to the challenge” since the Argos’ Media Day back in August. It’s something UWF has done the last two weeks.

Against West Georgia, Jamontez Woods ran up the field before the ball was knocked loose and the Wolves ran in on a scoop-and-score for a touchdown. On the following drive, it took just two plays – a long pass from Jarrett to Jiles followed by a 1-yard run from C.J. Wilson – for the Argos to score.

It was kind of similar in South Carolina on Saturday. Jiles caught the ball, had the ball stripped and the Crusaders ran it back in to score. Then, three plays later from UWF, Jiles caught a 51-yard pass from Jarrett to give the Argos a 10-point cushion, 34-24.

“We were able to execute on offense, taking what they were giving us, getting Peewee into a rhythm,” Nobles said. “Obviously, we’ve got great players like Caden Leggett and John Jiles.”

Jarrett found Jiles for another touchdown pass on two drives later, this time for 44-yards after a handful of runs from Wilson and Woods. The defense continued to stay on top of North Greenville, with an interception from Quincy Milhomme, his second of the night.

In total, the defense recorded six sacks – Martin led the charge with a pair of sacks for a total loss of 16 yards – and three quarterback hurries. UWF limited the run game in the second half, finding Corey Watkins a few times in the backfield.

The Crusaders had 298 yards of total offense (128 rushing, 170 passing).

“Our defensive guys played phenomenal,” Nobles said. “We talked about that we’ve just got to keep trying to get our hands on the ball with tips and overthrows and things like that. … Turnovers help us score more points. … Our front seven is relentless.”

A broken record

When asked for general takeaways, Nobles didn’t shy away from bringing up the Argos’ penalty problem. UWF committed a season-high 17 penalties for a season-high 164 yards against it. It’s the fourth time in five weeks that the Argos have committed more than 10 penalties.

It’s the second time the penalty yardage has been 160 yards or greater. At McKendree, the Argos had 15 penalties for 160 yards.

“I know everybody and their mom is going to ask about the penalties, so I’m going to cut to the chase,” Nobles said. “I know we’ve got to get better on penalties and all that.”

There were a few personal fouls, including defensive pass interference, a blindside block, running into the kicker and a personal foul for making contact with an official. That was at least according to the broadcast crew at the game, which saw UWF’s Byron Puryear ejected from the contest.

The penalty came just after North Greenville scored on a 7-yard run up the middle of the field for a touchdown. Despite a lengthy discussion from the referees to both Nobles and Farrington, Nobles declined to get into the specifics of what was said during the conversation.

But on the live stream, Nobles visibly looked frustrated with the officiating crew.

“Byron’s got to be smarter. Byron’s got to make better decisions and do what he’s supposed to do,” Nobles said. “We’ve got to be better as a team overall, and that starts with coaching. I don’t really want to get into specifics on what happened.”

Entering Week 5, the Argos were ranked 153rd out of 161 teams in all of Division II football for fewest penalty yards per game (94.8 yards), as the NCAA ranks it that way as opposed to most penalty yards per game.

After the North Greenville win, the Argos now have 543 penalty yards (108.6 yards per game) on 60 penalties that have been accepted by opposing teams.

It’s a problem UWF will want to avoid against other teams – such as Delta State or Valdosta State, who are also Top-25 teams in the American Football Coaches Association Division II Coaches Poll.

“We’ll continue to talk about it and continue to try to take action during practice and let those guys know we can’t get chippy. Teams are going to try to push us and shove us, and all of that,” Nobles said. “We’ll try a couple things, methods-wise, just to try to work on that stuff in practice. At the end of the day, it’s about discipline.”

Jiles continues to thrive

Just when you thought Jiles’ top performance was in Week 4, guess again.

He was already named the Gulf South Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Week with a 175-yard night against West Georgia, and a pair of touchdowns. Just imagine what could happen after a 277-yard receiving night with a trio of touchdowns.

Add to the fact that Jiles not only recorded a school record for receiving yards in a single game – which was previously held by Quentin Randolph who had 254 yards in the 2019 Division II National Championship game – but he recorded the fourth-most receiving yards in a single game in GSC history.

The receiving yards is the most in a single game at the Division II level this season – and second among all NCAA divisions, only behind Division I New Hampshire’s Dylan Laube, who had 295 yards against Central Michigan earlier this season.

Nobles couldn’t stop talking about Jiles, noting he’s a “great kid” who stays after practice often to get extra work in. It only helps that Jiles stands at 6-foot-3 paired with a “great catch radius.”

“He stays ready for when his number’s called. … With a great player like that, you’re going to call his number a lot. He’s a phenomenal player,” Nobles said. “He comes from a great family. He’s got a great mom who we built a great relationship with. … She instilled a good character about him and good work ethic. … He’s everything you would want in a person.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF Football: Argos top North Greenville in second Gulf South Conference matchup