Thursday marks the annual “Battle for the Belt” between South Alabama and Troy, and this year’s game might be the most-important ever.

The Jaguars enter the annual rivalry game at 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Sun Belt Conference, with the Trojans just behind at 5-2 and 3-1. The winner of Thursday’s game at Mobile’s Hancock Whitney Stadium will be the front-runner to claim the Sun Belt West Division title and a berth in the conference championship game Dec. 3.

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Troy has won seven of 10 in the all-time series, including five of seven since it became the “Battle for the Belt” in 2015. The Trojans enter this year’s game with four straight wins over the Jaguars overall and three straight in Mobile.

Here’s a recap of each of the 10 games in the series:

1. Troy 31, South Alabama 10 (2012)

Larry Blakeney’s Trojans held Joey Jones’ Jaguars to just 59 yards rushing and overcame three turnovers to win easily at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Corey Robinson passed for 223 yards and ran for a touchdown for Troy, which improved to 3-2 with the victory. After Trey Fetner’s 7-yard touchdown run pulled South Alabama (1-4) within 10-7 after one quarter, the Trojans scored two straight touchdowns to take control in the second. Neither team enjoyed a particularly memorable season, as Troy lost five of its final seven games to finish 5-7. South Alabama — playing its first season as a full FBS member — ended up 2-11.

2. Troy 34, South Alabama 33 (2013)

The most-closely contested of the 10 meetings between the Jaguars and Trojans was decided on Robinson’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Eric Thomas and Will Scott’s extra point with seven seconds remaining at Troy’s Veterans Memorial Stadium. South Alabama (2-3) had taken a six-point lead with just 48 seconds left on Ross Metheny’s 65-yard touchdown pass to Jeremé Jones and Metheny’s 2-point pass to Tyrell Pearson, but Troy (3-3) drove 66 yards in five plays for the win. The Jaguars had one final shot for the victory when Brandon Bridge hit Sharvarez Smith for 50 yards to the Troy 18, but the Trojans’ Keion Payne brought him down to end the game. Both teams finished the year 6-6 and did not make a bowl game despite being eligible.

3. South Alabama 27, Troy 13 (2014)

The Jaguars scored their first victory in the series behind 178 rushing yards from Kendall Houston and 107 more from Xavier Johnson at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. South Alabama (5-2) led just 10-6 midway through the third quarter before Johnson’s 14-yard TD run and Houston’s 41-yarder all but put the game away. Troy (1-7) did not get into the end zone until the one-minute mark of the fourth quarter on Dontreal Pruitt’s 8-yard pass to B.J. Chitty. The Jaguars went on to finish 6-7 after losing to Bowling Green in the Camellia Bowl, South Alabama’s first postseason trip. The Trojans finished 3-9 in the final season Blakeney’s hall-of-fame career.

4. South Alabama 24, Troy 18 (2015)

The student government associations at South Alabama and Troy added a little spice to the rivalry for the 2015 game, dubbing the rivalry the “Battle for the Belt” and commissioning a wrestling-style championship belt for each season’s winner. Cody Clements passed for 205 yards and two touchdowns to Gerald Everett as the Jaguars (3-2) jumped out to a 21-8 lead over the Trojans (1-3) in the first half and held on late for the win. South Alabama’s Akeem Lewis then stopped Troy’s Brandon Burke on fourth-and-1 at the 43-yard line to end the game. That was the highlight of the season for South Alabama, which lost five of its final seven games to finish 5-7. Troy ended up 4-8 under first-year coach Neal Brown.

5. Troy 28, South Alabama 21 (2016)

The Trojans scored 14 unanswered points in the second half to win back The Belt on the Jaguars’ home field. Mobile-area native Brandon Silvers threw for 395 yards for Troy, which took its first lead of the game on Jordan Chunn’s 1-yard touchdown run with 1:20 remaining. South Alabama (3-4) got to the Troy 27-yard line on the final play, but time expired. Chunn ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns for Troy, which improved to 6-1 with the win. South Alabama finished 6-7, losing 45-21 to Air Force in the Arizona Bowl. Troy wound up 10-3, returning to Ladd-Peebles Stadium to beat Ohio 28-23 in the Dollar General Bowl.

6. South Alabama 19, Troy 8 (2017)

The Jaguars beat the Trojans for the third time in four years in a defensive struggle at Veterans Memorial Stadium, a game that came 10 days after Troy stunned LSU in Baton Rouge. South Alabama forced four turnovers — including two on punts — and recorded a safety in one of it better defensive efforts of the Joey Jones era. The Jaguars (2-4) led 19-0 before Troy (4-2) finally got on the board with a touchdown and two-point conversion midway through the fourth quarter. The Trojans missed two field goals, however, keeping the game out of reach late. Troy did not lose the rest of the season, however, finishing 11 as Sun Belt Conference champions and at 11-2 with a 50-30 victory over North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl. South Alabama stumbled to 4-8, and Jones was not retained at the end of the season.

7. Troy 38, South Alabama 17 (2018)

The final “Battle for the Belt” for Troy coach Neal Brown was hardly a contest at all, as Sawyer Smith threw for three touchdowns and ran for another at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Troy (6-2) led 16-7 after the first quarter and 31-10 midway through the second against first-year coach Steve Campbell and South Alabama. Jaguars quarterback Evan Orth threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns, but was intercepted three times. B.J. Smith ran for 170 yards and a touchdown for the Trojans, while Damion Willis caught five passes for 132 yards and two scores. Troy went on to finish 10-3 and won the Dollar General Bowl again, with Brown leaving after the season to take the West Virginia job. South Alabama wound up 3-9, losing four straight before a season-ending win over Coastal Carolina.

8. Troy 37, South Alabama 13 (2019)

First-year coach Chip Lindsey’s Trojans scored three second-half touchdowns to win a “Battle for the Belt” blowout for the second straight year at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Troy (3-3) ran for 220 yards, and Kaleb Barker threw for 194 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to Kaylon Geiger. Will Sunderland’s 29-yard interception return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter all but put the game away. South Alabama (1-6) averaged just 2.8 yards per carry on the ground and turned the ball over three times. The loss was one of nine straight for the Jaguars, who beat Arkansas State at season’s end to finish 2-10. Troy also lost four of its final six to stumble home with a 5-7 record.

9. Troy 29, South Alabama 0 (2020)

The lone shutout in the “Battle for the Belt” series came after the game was pushed back from early October to early December due to a COVID outbreak on the South Alabama team. It also spelled the end for Campbell, who was fired the following day after the Jaguars finished 4-7 with losses in five of their final six. Troy’s Gunnar Watson threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, all in the second quarter as the Trojans (5-5) built a 27-0 halftime lead at Hancock Whitney Stadium. South Alabama managed just 239 yards of offense, including a paltry 57 on the ground. The Trojans’ defense totaled five sacks and eight tackles for loss. Troy lost 42-38 to Coastal Carolina the following week, finishing 5-6 and out of bowl contention for the second straight year.

10. Troy 31, South Alabama 24 (2021)

This “Battle for the Belt” turned on a first-quarter injury, as Jaguars quarterback Jake Bentley was knocked out with two torn knee ligaments in the midst of leading South Alabama to a game-opening scoring drive. Troy (5-4) took advantage, jumping out to a 31-10 halftime lead behind three touchdown runs and a KJ Robertson pick-six. First-year coach Kane Wommack’s Jaguars (5-4) began to get back in the game behind backup quarterback Desmond Trotter, who threw two touchdown passes to Terrion Avery to cut the Troy lead to 31-21 after three quarters. Diego Guajardo added a field goal in the fourth, but the Jaguars turned the ball over on downs on their final possession. South Alabama lost its next three games to end the year at 5-7. Troy lost its last three to also finish 5-7, resulting in Lindsey being fired despite three straight wins over the Jaguars.