{"id":405095,"date":"2026-09-20T03:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T03:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/405095\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T03:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T03:12:12","slug":"nixs-punt-return-td-clutch-interception-by-lyles-lift-jacksonville-state-over-georgia-southern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/405095\/","title":{"rendered":"Nix’s punt return TD, clutch interception by Lyles lift Jacksonville State over Georgia Southern"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. (AP) \u2014 Caleb Nix<\/a> returned a punt 75 yards for the go-ahead score, Tristan Lyles<\/a> had a game-saving interception in the red zone, and Jacksonville State<\/a> erased a 14-point halftime deficit en route to a 31-27 victory over Georgia Southern<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Weston Bryan’s<\/a> three rushing touchdowns in the second quarter gave Georgia Southern a 24-10 halftime lead but Jacksonville State rallied with 21 points in the second half. Caden Creel<\/a> hit Deondre Johnson<\/a> with an 18-yard touchdown pass and Lucas Farrington<\/a> ran 26 yards for a score prior to Nix’s electric punt return.<\/p>\n

Trailing 31-27, the Eagles drove 62 yards in 12 plays but Lyles put an end to the threat when he picked off a Max Johnson<\/a> pass at the 15-yard line with 1:52 showing on the clock.<\/p>\n

Creel threw for 194 yards with two touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing for the Gamecocks (2-2).<\/p>\n

Johnson was 23-for-33 passing for 187 yards and David Mbadinga<\/a> had 103 yards rushing for the Eagles (1-2).<\/p>\n

It was Jacksonville State’s first win against Georgia Southern, which had won the first five games in the series.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Georgia Southern: vs. No. 22 Houston next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville State: vs. Middle Tennessee next Saturday. \u2014-<\/p>\n

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Ala. (AP) \u2014 Caleb Nix returned a punt 75 yards for the go-ahead score, Tristan Lyles had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4667,154088,143,161064,53557,71378,24168,116,118,117,4642,161062,161063,161060,161061],"class_list":["post-405095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-caden-creel","tag-caleb-nix","tag-college-football","tag-david-mbadinga","tag-deondre-johnson","tag-event_recap","tag-georgia-southern-eagles","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville-state-gamecocks","tag-lucas-farrington","tag-max-johnson","tag-tristan-lyles","tag-weston-bryan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}