A seven-hour day at Ladd-Peebles Stadium marred by a pair of lightning delays ended in disaster for South Alabama.
The Jaguars gave up the game-tying touchdown with 13 seconds left in regulation, then lost 26-23 to Idaho on Isaiah Saunders' 2-yard touchdown run in double-overtime of a game twice delayed by lightning. USA (1-3, 0-1 Sun Belt Conference) had several opportunities to win the game, but could not put away the Vandals (2-2, 1-0).
"It's tough," South Alabama coach Joey Jones said. "You fight that long, and you come up on the short end of the stick. My hat's off to Idaho. They came out and here and they fought us, they played well. But entirely too many penalties. That's on me. That's the way it is."
Xavier Johnson's 34-yard touchdown run with 5:11 to play in regulation gave South Alabama a 20-13, but Idaho drove 61 yards in 9 plays for the winning score. Quarterback Matt Linehan went 6-for-9 on the drive, hitting Alfonso Onunwor on a 10-yard TD strike to tie it with 13 seconds remaining.
In overtime, Coffey and South Alabama counterpart Gavin Patterson connected on field goals to send it to a second extra period. Patterson then missed a 43-yard attempt in the second overtime before the second lightning delay of the day halted the game for 39 minutes.
Once play resumed, the Vandals needed four plays to score the game-winning touchdown. Saunders ran for 23 yards on third-and-9, then punched it from two yards away to win the game.
"Offensively we struggled at times," Jones said. "We did some good things running the football, but we didn't score many points. We've got to look at things, how we're doing it."
South Alabama led nearly throughout regulation, getting Johnson's 2-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead with 10:46 left in the first. In addition to the two scores, Johnson ran for a season-best 155 yards on 20 carries in the game.
Coffey's 36-yard field goal and a 34-yarder by Patterson made it 10-3 after one quarter. Idaho tied it on Aaron Duckworth's 6-yard run in the second quarter, but Patterson's 24-yarder gave South Alabama a 13-10 lead at halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter, Idaho tied the game on Coffey's 34-yard field goal with 9:38 to play. That score stood until Johnson's touchdown, which came after a 2-hour, 27-minute lightning delay.
South Alabama had two defensive touchdowns nullified by penalties in the third quarter, part of a day that saw them flagged 12 times for 109 yards. A long interception return by Malcolm Buggs was wiped out by a roughing the passer penalty, while Darrell Songy's pick-6 was taken off the board due to defensive holding.
"In my opinion, the game shouldn't have been that close," Davis said. "They (Idaho) didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. We had way too many penalties. I put that on myself at the end. I have to let the receivers and everybody know that we can't have those kind of penalties down there, especially at a time like that."
South Alabama safety Jeremy Reaves had an outstanding game in a losing effort, totaling 12 tackles, three pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. The Jaguars sacked Linehan three times, but the talented Vandals senior completed 23 of 38 passes for 273 yards and a score.
Saturday's game kicked off at 1 p.m., but ended at 7:51 p.m. after all the delays. The loss drops South Alabama to 4-3 all-time in overtime games.
South Alabama travels to Louisiana Tech for a non-conference game next week.