UWF Football: Argos 'responded to the challenge' in conference-opener against West Georgia

The University of West Florida flipped the script on Saturday.

For the first time during the UWF-West Georgia series, which dates back to the Argos’ first season in 2016 as rivals in the Gulf South Conference, the home team won. The first seven games of the series, whoever was on the road took a much happier trip home with another tally in the win column.

This time, the eighth meeting between the two programs, the host Argos took a dominant 49-21 win on Saturday at Pen Air Field, sending the visitors away with a loss.

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It was a game where UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles went against his former head coach at Valdosta State, David Dean – now in his seventh season at West Georgia – and the Argos’ offense put its foot on the gas pedal, and rarely let off.

“We’ve been forever good friends. I have great respect for him. He’s done a lot for the GSC, won a lot of games. He’s coached at a high level. … We talked for awhile before the game, got a chance to wave (at) his family in the stands,” Nobles said of the relationship with Dean. “It’s good to break a little streak and be able to get that monkey off our back a little bit. At the end of the day, it’s just about us being at our best. Whatever we’re wearing, whoever we’re playing, location – I don’t care if we’re playing on grass, turf or parking lot – we’ve got to be at our best.”

Once the Argos scored with 6 minutes, 9 seconds left in the first quarter – a quick 1-yard run from C.J. Wilson that was set up by a 25-yard pass from Peewee Jarrett to John Jiles on the sideline, just falling out of bounds as his feet stayed in bounds – it was almost like they couldn’t stop.

The Wolves scored on the ensuing UWF drive when Jalen Bussey had the ball stripped and Jeremy Smith ran into the end zone. But for nearly the next 26 minutes of game time, UWF controlled the pace.

And after a rough Week 3 outing at Florida A&M, Nobles said he was “very excited” about how the team “responded to the challenge” of West Georgia. On Friday and early Saturday, he said he could tell the players were “locked in” for the evening’s contest. “I’m not surprised at what happened, but very excited about how we performed tonight,” the head coach added, referring to the 49 points scored.

But the defense faltered a little bit toward the end, allowing two West Georgia touchdowns on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter. While the game's fate was already decided well before those scores, Nobles said there's still work to be done on the defensive side of the ball.

The Argos did stuff the Wolves on their final offensive drive when they were at the UWF 6-yard line, sealing the final score.

“Obviously coming off the loss, we want to challenge the guys to improve and get better. It starts in practice,” Nobles said. “Gotta finish a little better. We’re talking a full 60 minutes – I thought we played about 52 to 51 minutes. We’ve got to finish. But I’m excited about where we’re at.”

Of the Argos’ six remaining touchdowns, three were scored in the air while two came on the ground. The defense also got in on the action with a 27-yard pick-six from Ralph Ortiz, after West Georgia quarterback Cameran Brown was hurried and tried to throw it away.

“Any time we can score on defense, it raises your chances of winning the game enormously,” Nobles said.

“What we talked about, we had a bad ending to the FAMU game. We’ve got to prove ourselves this game. We’ve got to come out firing, foot on the gas and continue the whole game,” Oritz said of the defense’s preparation during the week. “That’s what we came to do. The defense was firing from all cylinders – defensive line, linebackers, defensive backs. We just kept it going.”

The Jiles-Jarrett connection

Standing alone, Jarrett had 298 yards passing with three touchdowns, plus 35 yards on the ground. He went 20-for-27 in the air, completing his second multi-touchdown game of the season.

Of those 298 yards, Jiles had more than half – 175 yards receiving, to be exact. On eight receptions, Jiles recorded two touchdowns.

After working together a lot during the summer – plus working after practice every day – the Jiles-Jarrett duo have built a sense of trust, both players said.

“(Jiles’) first couple days here, we were already on the field together,” Jarrett said. “We’re on the same page. Good things happen when him and all the rest of our receivers get the ball in their hands.”

“I trust (Jarrett) to make a throw,” Jiles said. “I’m going to go out and make a play and execute.”

During the game, Jarrett had some heads-up awareness and was sacked just one time for a minimal loss of three yards. There were a few times as well that the quarterback, under an immense amount of pressure, fired off a pass to a running back just a couple yards ahead of him to avoid getting hit.

Those passes either returned the ball to the line of scrimmage, or a shifty running back grabbed a few yards down the field.

“Each play, we’ve got five to seven guys of protection. … The biggest factor is myself. If there’s one person coming at me, I pride myself on not getting tackled by one person,” Jarrett said. “Really, being able to make a play, if I feel like the pocket collapses or I feel like a guy has free access to me, I’m going to make him miss. I pride myself on that.”

Outside of Jiles, Jarrett connected with 10 other receivers, including a long 52-yard gain from Jared Smith and a 9-yard touchdown for Caden Leggett, who caught the ball in the end zone as he jumped in the air.

Smith’s long reception was a missile from Jarrett through a couple defenders, followed by a burst of speed down the sideline.

“The whole week, we knew that if there was a certain guy out there on the perimeter that was out there, we were going to take advantage of them,” Jarrett said.

Standing out

Jiles had some incredible receptions of his own. The 25-yard touchdown reception came as he was toward the back of the end zone. After the ball bobbled around, he reached out and grabbed the ball with one hand, keeping both feet in bounds as he fell down.

“Honestly, when I saw the ball, I was low-key surprised it was coming my way for a minute. Once I saw it in the air, I was like, ‘I gotta make a play on it,’” Jiles said. “The defender put his hand in the way, and I almost lost focus. But we’ve been locked in all week so I had to go make that play.”

Jiles also made a 64-yard reception – just one play into UWF’s drive after West Georgia scored on a scoop-and-score – that put the Argos on the Wolves’ 2-yard line. C.J. Wilson finished off the series with a quick run up the middle. It was a possession that lasted just 27 seconds and amassed 66 yards.

“I wish he would’ve gotten in the end zone, but it’s all good,” Jarrett said with a laugh. “I feel like these past couple weeks we’ve had something happen in the game and we sit on it for two, three drives and don’t overcome it right away. In that moment, we overcame it real quick and put points on the board.”

Another key reception was when Jiles caught a reception from Jarrett in the red zone, and around the 10-yard line, Jiles hurdled over a defender, going what looked like at least 10 feet in the air, to gain a few extra yards.

When asked what went through his mind before the leap, Nobles, a former quarterback, quickly interjected with a smile: “I taught him everything he knows.” Jiles also had a similar hurdle in Week 1 against Kentucky Wesleyan. “It’s a weekly thing,” Nobles added.

“I think I got a timer in my head. When I see somebody I say, ‘Jump,’” Jiles said. “It goes off, so I just jump.”

A step or two off

When push comes to shove, the UWF defense kept the Wolves at bay. Outside of the blunders toward the end, the Argos didn’t allow much.

West Georgia garnered 305 yards of total offense, 107 of which came on the ground and 198 in the air. UWF stopped starting quarterback Cameran Brown from having a successful evening, limiting him to just 35 yards and sacking him twice. He also threw an interception.

Eli Gainey, who came in during the third quarter and played a couple drives, was picked off once and limited to 44 passing yards. He was hit hard when he scrambled, coughing up the ball and giving UWF possession right back at the Wolves’ 32.

Only Whitlock found success late when the second-string defense came on for UWF late in the game, throwing for 119 yards.

“It’s always great when you don’t have to sit long on the sideline as an offense. You can get in a rhythm and go play. … You get long drives from the other team and it takes you out of rhythm a little bit. Our defense has played phenomenal,” Nobles said. “They’re doing a great job of meeting our expectations. There’s a lot of work we’ve still got to do. We’re certainly not perfect on defense. But any time they can get us the ball quicker, it’s great.”

Walker Robinson led the Argos’ defense with six tackles (4 solo, 2 assisted). He recorded half a sack for a loss of two yards, and 1.5 tackles for losses (6 yards total). Ralph Ortiz picked up three tackles, one of which was for a loss, to go with his pick-six.

Braylon Anderson also had an interception, while Byron Puryear, John McMullen and Mi’Chaun Coward all forced fumbles. McMullen and Deshawn Wilson (half) recorded sacks.

“That starts with the coaches. … Coach (Karvell) Conner, Coach Knobles, Coach (Lucas) Melo – they’ve been instilling it in us, we’ve got to get after that quarterback,” Ortiz said. “The defensive linemen and linebackers make it easier for the back seven to play. So if we keep that up, we can keep riding.”

But UWF’s defense just seemed a step or two off from sacking Brown even more. Brown used his feet to evade tackles in the backfield and gained a few yards. Nobles said UWF has do a better job of containing quarterbacks.

“We’ve got to do a good job of keeping those guys in the pocket, trying to make them passers first. … Being able to tackle in open space is something we’ve been preaching, talking about for awhile,” Nobles said. “We did a lot better tonight than we did last week. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do, and our guys are excited about that challenge to get better in that aspect.”

The No. 7 Argos (3-1, 1-0 GSC) travel to North Greenville (2-2, 1-1 GSC) on Saturday for another conference matchup.

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 wins first GSC contest against West Georgia