Faced with a two-touchdown deficit on the road in a stadium in which his team had never won, South Alabama coach Kane Wommack resorted to a familiar and winning formula.

The Jaguars kept stuffing the ball into the bread basket of running back La’Damian Webb, the reigning Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week. Webb outdid himself, setting a school record with 247 rushing yards and four touchdowns — three in the final two quarters — as South Alabama rallied for a 38-31 win at Georgia Southern. The victory improved South Alabama to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Sun Belt, clinching the program’s first-ever winning season.

“A win is a win,” South Alabama quarterback Carter Bradley said. “Seven wins is a lot better than six. (Webb) is an unbelievable player, the offensive line did an unbelievable job pounding that ball, being physical up front. That’s what we wanted to build in the offseason and you’re seeing it when it’s needed in November.”

Webb carried the ball on 20 of 25 Jaguars plays before they got into victory formation for the last two. He scored on runs of 1, 5, 5 and 9 yards, the last the game-winner with 5:50 remaining to spark South Alabama’s first win in five trips to at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga.

It was also personal redemption for South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack, who was defensive coordinator of the 2017 Jaguars team that lost 52-0 in Statesboro. That loss resulted in the resignation of long-time coach Joey Jones two days later.

“It was sloppy for sure, but the physicality of our football team … man, I’m just so proud of the fight in these guys,” Wommack said. “That was truly an incredible effort in the second half.

“… The last time I was here, I felt like I let Joey Jones down. That’s weighed on me. For six years, I’ve wanted an opportunity to come back here and play physical football. For us to come in here and run it like that on a team that prides itself on being a physical football team for a lot of years — we absolutely physically dominated them in the second half tonight.”

Georgia Southern (5-3, 2-2) led 31-17 with 8:45 left in the third quarter before the Jaguars’ rally began. South Alabama drove 75 yards in 13 plays, the last three runs by Webb, including a 5-yard touchdown at the three-minute mark of the third.

South Alabama’s defense then got a three-and-out keyed by a CJ Rias sack to get the ball back with 1:15 left in the quarter. After Bradley connected for first-down passes to Lincoln Sefcik and Devin Voisin, the Jaguars went back to the ground.

Webb ran it six straight times, including a 5-yard touchdown with 11:46 left. That tied the game 31-31.

South Alabama again got a three-and-out and forced a punt, and this time stayed on the ground. Webb ran the ball six times for 73 yards on a 7-play, 78-yard drive, including runs of 13, 13 and 26 yards before his 9-yard score gave the Jaguars their first lead of the game at 38-31 with just under six minutes to play.

“We just had to do what we needed to do to win,” Webb said. “The first half, we didn’t play to our standard. The second half we had to pick it up, because we knew what was at stake. We just had to win the one-on-one battles and do whatever it took.”

Georgia Southern then drove into South Alabama territory at the 47, but Jalen Jordan stopped Eagles receiver Dalen Cobb a yard short of a first down on fourth-and-5. The Jaguars took over with 4:17 to play and ran out the clock.

Bradley hit Omni Wells for 17 yards on a swing pass on third-and-8 to push the Eagles to the brink, then Webb ran for 9 yards and 10 yards to put the game away. Bradley knelt down twice and South Alabama had arguably the biggest win in program history.

South Alabama won despite being penalized 13 times for 118 yards, including an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by offensive guard Dontae Lucas that resulted in his ejection after officials said he spit on a Georgia Southern player. The Jaguars also had numerous players miss practice during the week with flu-like symptoms.

“It was as sloppy as all get-out, and we’ve got some things we’ve got to get cleaned up,” Wommack said. “We talk about Murphy’s Law — everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. From Sunday to Thursday night in our program, that was this week. We had 31 players out with the flu, 17 of them were starters, including La’Damian Webb. We got our last player back this morning. He had to fly in on a separate plane to get here.”

In his last two games, Webb has rushed for 410 yards and seven touchdowns on 63 carries. The junior-college transfer — Alabama’s Mr. Football at Beauregard High School in 2017 — ran for 163 yards and three touchdowns in last Saturday’s 31-3 victory at Arkansas State, earning him conference player of the week honors.

Webb now has 896 yards and 13 touchdowns rushing this season, despite missing most of one game and being severely limited in another due to an oblique injury. His rushing touchdown total ties a school-record set by Brandon Ross in 2009, while his yardage is third behind only Tra Minter’s 1,057 in 2019 and Xavier Johnson’s 956 in 2015. (His 14 total touchdowns, including one on a reception, is a new program record).

“It’s a great feeling when they keep calling your number and you can put the team on your back,” Webb said. “It’s not just for me, it’s for the team — whatever I can do to help the team win.”

Georgia Southern controlled the action for the first two plus quarters, taking an early 14-0 lead on Khadry Jackson’s 43-yard pick-6 on the second play of the game and Jalen White’s 54-yard run with 9:20 left in the first. South Alabama answered with Bradley’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Wayne (a drive kept alive by Todd Justice’s 30-yard run on a fake punt), but Georgia Southern’s Kyle Vantrease hit Derwin Burgess on a 16-yard TD and the Eagles led 21-7 after one.

Webb’s 1-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter made it 21-14, but Georgia Southern went back up by 10 on Alex Raynor’s 22-yard field goal with 10:17 left in the half. Diego Guajardo’s 27-yard field goal with 3:23 left before halftime pulled the Jaguars within 24-17, then South Alabama defensive end Charles Coleman kept the score there at the break by blocking Michael Lantz’s 50-yard attempt with six seconds to go.

The two teams exchanged interceptions to start the third quarter, with South Alabama’s Yam Banks picking off Vantrease in the end zone, then Georgia Southern’s NaJee Thompson grabbing Bradley’s long throw at the 12. The Eagles then drove to go up 31-17 on Vantrease’s 7-yard strike to J-jay McAfee with 8:45 left in the third.

Georgia Southern never scored again, their last four possessions ending on two punts and the turnover on downs. Vantrease completed 26 of 45 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns, but the Eagles ran for minus-10 yards in the second half.

Bradley completed 16 of 27 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions, and was sacked four times. The Jaguars ran for 321 yards on 56 carries as a team, tied for the third-best showing in school history vs. a Sun Belt opponent.

Jordan led the South Alabama defense with 10 tackles, eight of them solo stops. Rias had the lone sack of Vantrease, and had 2.5 of the Jaguars’ six tackles for loss.

South Alabama had a chance to move into sole possession of first place on Saturday, but Troy rallied for a 23-17 victory at Louisiana. The Trojans (7-2, 5-1 Sun Belt) have the tiebreaker on the Jaguars based on their 10-6 victory in Mobile on Oct. 20.

South Alabama is back in action at home next Saturday, facing Texas State at 4 p.m. at Hancock Whitney Stadium.