South Alabama is bowl-eligible, thanks to an emphatic 28-0 Senior Day victory over Marshall on Saturday at Hancock-Whitney Stadium.

The Jaguars (6-5 overall, 4-3 Sun Belt) forced turnovers on the first two series of the game and held the Thundering Herd (5-6, 2-5) to just 201 yards of total offense, 80 in the first half. South Alabama finishes the regular season at Texas State next week, then can start planning for a second straight bowl trip, a first in program history.

“Sometimes in college football, it can be really distracting trying to get that sixth win,” South Alabama quarterback Carter Bradley said. “Winning is tough — don’t get me wrong. It’s tough. But adding in the fact that both teams were trying to get bowl-eligible, four our guys to lock in this week and do what we just did, it’s a credit to our coaches getting us prepared.”

Senior La’Damian Webb ran for 117 yards, scored a touchdown both rushing and receiving and had a two-point conversion for the Jaguars, who pitched the first shutout in program history against an FBS team. South Alabama also got 126 yards on nine receptions from Caullin Lacy and 17-for-23 passing with two touchdowns for Bradley, another senior.

Marshall not only had trouble moving the ball all night against South Alabama’s defense, but turned it over three times. The Thundering Herd went 3-for-16 on third and fourth down, rushed for just 42 yards and never got inside South Alabama’s 20-yard line.

“I’m very proud of our defense,” head coach Kane Wommack said. “They’re playing at a really high level right now. They’re playing fast, playing aggressive. We’re attacking the ball, we’re attacking the quarterback. And we were situationally dominant tonight on third and fourth down, and they never got in the red zone.”

South Alabama thoroughly dominated the first half on defense, intercepting three passes. Jalen Jordan and Jaden Voisin picked off Cole Pennington passes on the Thundering Herd’s first two possessions, setting up Diego Guajardo field goals of 37 and 43 yards for a 6-0 Jaguars lead at the 8:38 mark.

South Alabama then forced Marshall to punt, and Lacy returned the ball to the South Alabama 49. Four plays later, Bradley threw 25 yards to Jamaal Pritchett for a touchdown, then found Webb for two points and a 14-0 lead after one quarter.

The Jaguars added another touchdown after another good Lacy return set them up at the 50. Braylon McReynolds ran 35 yards to put the ball in the red zone, then Bradley hit Webb on an 8-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to make it 21-0 at the break.

Marquise Robinson intercepted Pennington in South Alabama territory on the final play of the half. That gave the Jaguars three interceptions in a game for the first time this season.

“It was long overdue, man,” said Jordan, another of South Alabama’s seniors. “It made me feel good about myself just being able to help the defense out on that first drive and just being able to contribute. And then we just executed all night as a defense and were able to get off the field on third down.”

The only scoring of the second half came on Webb’s 6-yard touchdown run with 10:15 to play. Webb’s 117 yards gave him 1,017 for the season, making him the first South Alabama back to top the 1,000-yard mark twice in his career.

South Alabama outgained 197-42 rushing, and held the ball for nearly 36 1/2 minutes of game time. The Jaguars began the second half with a drive that ended on fourth down at the Marshall 1, but ate more than six minutes off the clock.

After Marshall turned the ball over on downs at the South Alabama 28 with 7:30 remaining, the Jaguars ran out the clock with a 13-play drive. South Alabama scored its first shutout over any opponent since a 45-0 victory over Alabama A&M in 2017, when Wommack was the Jaguars’ defensive coordinator.

“Shutouts are really, really hard,” Wommack said. “They’re really, really hard — especially when you start to have a (big) lead. Because typically you’re going to take out a few (starters) in that situation and (the opponent) is going to be more aggressive. They’re gonna go for it on fourth down, they’re gonna throw the ball down the field. And really, the whole fourth quarter (Marshall was) doing those things. I’ve seen a lot of 7-point games, because you end up giving up something in the end.

“So it’s really, really hard to do that, and it was pretty impressive to be able to do that tonight. And as a defensive guy, shutouts are just fun.”

Lacy wound up with 198 all-purpose yards — including 72 on four punt returns — a season-high. Jack Martin averaged 45.2 yards on four punts, while Guajardo was perfect on two field goals and two extra points.

South Alabama honored 23 seniors in pre-game festivities, including one surprise addition in safety Yam Banks. Banks, a redshirt junior, said he is “truly undecided” as to whether or not he will return for a fifth college season or seek to turn pro.

“I’m thinking about declaring (for the NFL draft), leaning towards it,” said Banks, who was on the preseason Watch List for the Reese’s Senior Bowl. “But it could be a possibility that I play a fifth year and stay.”

Kickoff for South Alabama-Texas State is set for 6 p.m. next Saturday at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos, Texas. The game will be televised live by NFL Network.