Now It's His Team

Charles Kelly spent all spring taking the ball out of Caden Creel’s hands.

Kelly limited the quarterback’s run game in practice, forced him to stay in the pocket and beat coverages with his arm. The head coach who watched Creel run for five straight 100-yard games last fall — who watched those legs carry Jacksonville State to the Conference USA Championship Game — decided the legs weren’t enough.

“I know what he can do when the protection breaks down,” Kelly said at the spring game. “Other coordinators are like, ‘We don’t want the protection to break down because he’s going to come out of there.’ But when we hold up, we got to be able to execute and get the ball downfield.”

At the spring game on April 12, Creel went 7 of 12 for 169 yards and two touchdowns — a 74-yard strike to Darius Cannon and a 55-yard score to Bryson Roullier.

“It’s definitely something that we wanted to work on and really implement this offseason,” Creel said. “It has gotten better but it’s still not where it needs to be and we still got some work to do. But I was impressed with what we did today vertically and it’s something that we can grow off of.”

“He’s somebody that goes out there every day and tries to make himself a better quarterback,” Kelly said. “Leaders create more leaders. Managers create followers, leaders create leaders. And I think he’s taken a big step at that.”

What the Legs Already Proved

Creel didn’t start a game until October. Gavin Wimsatt — a transfer from Kentucky who had previously played at Rutgers — had the job for the first five games. On September 27 in Hattiesburg, Kelly turned to Creel with JSU trailing Southern Miss. On one of his first real possessions, he broke a 73-yard run down the sideline. That set up his first career touchdown pass. Two weeks later he made his first start, against Sam Houston, and never gave the job back.

Five consecutive games with 100 or more rushing yards. Against Sam Houston: 24 carries, 132 yards, a game-winning field goal drive from JSU’s own 17 with 47 seconds left. Against Kennesaw State: 127 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Against Western Kentucky: 143 rushing yards — including a 70-yard touchdown — plus 204 passing yards and two scores. That one clinched the championship game berth. C-USA Offensive Player of the Week.

For the season: 1,075 rushing yards on 182 carries. Add 1,514 passing yards (130 of 211, 61.6 percent) with nine touchdowns. That is 2,589 yards of total offense and 16 touchdowns from a quarterback who had three scholarship offers out of high school — Jacksonville State, Troy and Faulkner, an NAIA school. The Alabama Sports Writers Association had named him first-team All-State as a senior at Fairhope — not as a quarterback. As an “athlete.” 247Sports didn’t rank him at all.

He redshirted his first year under Rich Rodriguez, who had nine quarterbacks on campus at the same time. Didn’t play a snap in 2024. Before 2025, his game reps came returning punts and taking wildcat snaps.

“It’s obviously been a different journey than probably any other quarterback in the country, returning punts, stuff like that,” Creel told the Anniston Star. “They asked me to do something. I’m never going to shy away.”

Where the Legs Weren’t Enough

Jacksonville State — the conference’s top scoring offense at 30.2 points per game — was scoreless through three quarters against Kennesaw State. Creel threw an interception in the end zone on a 10-play drive in the first quarter. The Gamecocks missed a 35-yard field goal in the third. Nothing was working.

Creel converted a fourth-and-2 at midfield with a seven-yard run, then broke loose for a 19-yard touchdown to give JSU its first lead at 15-12 with 4:04 left. He hit 6-8 receiver Deondre Johnson in the corner of the end zone for the two-point conversion.

It should have been enough. Kennesaw State’s Amari Odom converted a fourth-and-14 instead of attempting a 54-yard field goal. Then he hit Christian Moss for 26 yards on third-and-27. Then he found Navelle Dean for an 11-yard touchdown with 51 seconds left. Kennesaw State 19, Jacksonville State 15.

Creel rushed for 112 yards on 18 carries. He went 12 of 21 for 96 yards with the interception. His legs put the team ahead. His arm couldn’t keep them there.

The Bowl

Eleven days later, Jacksonville State played Troy in the IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl at Cramton Bowl in Montgomery. The teams hadn’t played since 2001. Troy had won the last seven meetings. Jacksonville State hadn’t beaten the Trojans since 1990.

Cam Cook — Conference USA Player of the Year, the nation’s leading rusher — was out with an injury.

He completed 14 of 20 passes — a bowl-record 70 percent — for 173 yards and a touchdown. A 22-yard strike to Brock Rechsteiner in the first quarter. Deondre Johnson caught six passes for 101 yards. The Gamecocks trailed 13-7 at halftime, shut Troy out in the second half and won 17-13. Creel was named Bowl MVP. He accepted the award, then handed it to his defensive teammates.

“I wouldn’t trade him for anybody,” Kelly said. “Listen, you always want to go into a game with the same person you’d go into a fight with. And I’d take him. Every time.”

The Gamecocks reclaimed the Ol’ School Bell for the first time since 1990.

“A lot of those times when we have those lulls, it’s because we’re getting behind the chains,” Creel said afterward. “A lot of that has to do with me and some of my mistakes, so I’ve got to be better in certain areas.”

2026

Kelly has been clear: the competition doesn’t stop.

“If you become comfortable, you don’t grow,” Kelly said.