Texas Southern Beats Southern 24-21 on Miguel Arana's 46-Yard Field Goal at the Buzzer

Miguel Arana had to make the same kick twice. The first one, from 46 yards with one second left, split the uprights and did not count, because Southern had called timeout to freeze him. So Arana lined up again and drilled it again.

That second kick gave Texas Southern a 24-21 win over Southern on Saturday afternoon at Reliant Stadium in Houston, in front of 21,523 fans. It was the Tigers' first SWAC win of the season and it lifted them to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in league play. Southern, which rallied from 14 points down to tie the game in the fourth quarter, dropped to 3-5 and 1-3.

In 2023 and 2024, this matchup went to overtime and Southern won both. This time, there was no overtime. Texas Southern made sure of it.

The drive that ended it

Trey Holly's 2-yard touchdown run tied the game at 21 with 4:24 to play, and the smart money in the building was on a fifth quarter. Texas Southern had other ideas. The Tigers took over and assembled a 10-play, 36-yard drive that ate every second of the remaining clock. It was not flashy. It did not need to be. It just needed to get Arana into range, and it did.

Southern burned a timeout to ice the kicker. The kick was good anyway, and then it was good again. Texas Southern walked off with the win, and Southern walked off with a stat sheet that said it should have won.

How the Tigers built the lead

Southern started like the better team. The Jaguars opened with a 10-play, 81-yard drive, capped when quarterback Christian Johnson hit Damien Henderson Jr. for a 4-yard touchdown, and Henderson's 40-yard catch helped get that offense rolling early. But a blocked 37-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter and a failed fourth down deep in Texas Southern territory in the second kept Southern from stretching the lead. Those empty trips came back to bite.

Texas Southern answered in the second quarter. Jacob Washington finished a 10-play, 53-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run with 11:58 left in the half, and about three minutes later, Athean Renfro Jr. needed only two plays to cover 55 yards, the last 15 on a touchdown run. The Tigers went to the locker room up 14-7, and it could have been worse for Southern. A 68-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cam'Ron McCoy late in the half was wiped out by a holding call.

McCoy got his touchdown anyway. Early in the third quarter, the former Southern quarterback broke loose for a 41-yard touchdown run against his old team, finishing a three-play, 43-yard drive and pushing the lead to 21-7 with 10:55 left in the period. At that point, Texas Southern looked to be cruising.

Southern's comeback

The Jaguars did not fold. Johnson led a nine-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Wydell Clark Jr. with 5:47 left in the third quarter, and the 21-14 margin held into the final period.

From there, Southern leaned on Holly. The Jaguars took possession at the Texas Southern 45 and marched 45 yards in five plays, with Holly punching it in from 2 yards out and Christopher McKenna adding the extra point. In the fourth quarter, Southern also caught a break when a Johnson pass into the end zone was intercepted but wiped out by a Texas Southern pass interference penalty.

Fourteen unanswered points. Tie game. And then, Arana.

The players who stood out

Holly was the best player on the field for long stretches. He carried 35 times for more than 150 yards and a touchdown, added four catches for 29 yards, and was the reason Southern controlled the ball for most of the afternoon. On a day when the Jaguars needed someone to absorb punishment and keep the chains moving, Holly kept showing up.

Johnson was efficient, completing 11 of 18 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, and he spread the ball to five different receivers. Henderson led the way with three catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. Mike Franklin added 38 rushing yards on six carries, including a 31-yard burst.

For Texas Southern, Renfro was the workhorse. He ran 23 times for 135 yards and a touchdown and gave the Tigers a steady answer every time Southern's front tried to tighten up. McCoy did most of his damage with his legs, rushing for 71 yards and a score, while completing just 5 of 8 passes for 42 yards.

Southern's defense deserves its share of the credit, too. Linebacker Tay James was everywhere, finishing with 10 tackles, seven solo, and two sacks. Ty Lee and Hunter Schnakenberg each made seven tackles, Ckelby Givens added six in his return from a concussion, and Bryson Jennings and De'Myrion Johnson each recorded a sack. Punter Nathan Zimmer also pinned the Tigers at their own 4 with one well-placed kick.

The numbers that matter

This is one of those games where the box score and the scoreboard disagree. Southern outgained Texas Southern 317 to 260, picked up 22 first downs to the Tigers' 14, ran 66 plays to their 51 and won the passing yards battle 124 to 42. Southern recorded four sacks. Texas Southern converted just 3 of 11 third downs.

The Tigers were also penalized eight times for 102 yards, while Southern was flagged once for 15. Normally, that kind of penalty gap decides a game in the other direction.

So how did Texas Southern win? It won on the ground, out-rushing Southern 218 to 193, and it was perfect on fourth down, going 3-for-3. It hit chunk plays when it needed them, with Renfro's two-play scoring drive and McCoy's 41-yard run accounting for 14 points on just five snaps. And it committed zero turnovers. Southern's lone giveaway, plus the blocked field goal and the failed fourth down, left exactly the kind of points on the table that a team cannot afford in a three-point game. The full breakdown is in the box score on ESPN (opens in a new tab), and Southern's side of it is in the Jaguars' official recap (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Texas Southern, this was a needed result. A first SWAC win, against a rival, in front of more than 21,000 people in Houston, is the kind of afternoon that can change a season's mood. The Tigers are still 2-5, but the formula that worked here, run the ball, protect it, and trust Arana, is a formula they can repeat. Next on the schedule was Grambling State on Oct. 31.

For Southern, the frustration is obvious. The Jaguars did most things right and still lost, and at 1-3 in the SWAC, there is not much margin left. Next on the schedule was a trip to Florida A&M on Oct. 31, followed by home games against Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 7 and Alcorn State on Nov. 14 before closing with Grambling State on Nov. 28. If Holly and this defense play like this again, the Jaguars will win their share of those.

The last word

Southern's own recap put it plainly: Texas Southern earned the final score. That is true, and it is also incomplete. The Jaguars outplayed the Tigers in most of the ways that show up on paper, and they still lost because of a blocked kick, a failed fourth down and one more possession they never got.

Texas Southern, meanwhile, got exactly what it needed out of a kicker who had to prove it twice. Sometimes that is the whole game.

Sources: Southern University Athletics recap and box score, WAFB, ESPN and FOX Sports. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Kalen Williams, Kitten Media.