Rippa Does It Again: Late Field Goal Lifts Jacksonville State Past FIU 27-24

JACKSONVILLE, Ala.

Weekday Conference USA football has a closer, and his name is Garrison Rippa. For the second straight week, the Jacksonville State kicker was called on with the game on his foot in the final minute, and for the second straight week he delivered — a 26-yard field goal with 44 seconds remaining that lifted the Gamecocks past FIU 27-24 on Tuesday night at AmFirst Stadium.

The kick capped a 13-play, 82-yard drive that began at Jacksonville State's own 9-yard line with just over five minutes to play and the game tied at 24. When FIU's rushed 49-yard attempt to answer sailed wide right as time expired, the Gamecocks (5-2, 3-0 Conference USA) had stolen another midweek thriller, stayed alone at the top of the league and improved to 19-3 at home since joining the FBS in 2023.

A Kicker Building a Legend, One Tuesday at a Time

Rippa's resume in these spots is becoming absurd. Tuesday's winner was the sixth game-winning kick of his career in the final minute or overtime, and his fifth in the past two seasons. A week ago, he beat Kennesaw State with a 33-yarder with 52 seconds left in a championship-game rematch. His first collegiate kicks included the overtime winner in the 2023 New Orleans Bowl — Jacksonville State's first-ever bowl win, in its first FBS season.

There is a particular cruelty to what Rippa does to opponents: the drives in front of him are long, patient and almost taunting. Jacksonville State did not panic backed up at its own 9. The Gamecocks simply marched, converted, and handed their kicker a chip shot he has made a career of converting. By the time the ball left his foot, the outcome felt less like drama than routine — which, for Rippa in October midweek games, it increasingly is.

Three Ties and a Duel of Quarterbacks

The game underneath the finish was a genuine duel. Caden Creel staked Jacksonville State to a 17-7 lead with two first-quarter touchdown passes — 38 yards to Luke Gilbert on the opening drive, breaking an 11-quarter touchdown drought for the FIU defense, and 36 yards to Deondre Johnson for his third score of the season. Creel finished with 214 passing yards and the two touchdowns.

FIU answered behind JJ Kohl, who escaped pressure on third-and-15 to find Maguire Anderson for a 50-yard touchdown, then hit Anderson again from 30 yards to tie the game at 17 before halftime. Kohl threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns, and Anderson was the best receiver on the field with eight catches for 133 yards and both scores.

The second half traded blows the same way. Justus Savage, appearing for the first time this season, scored his first touchdown on a 4-yard run to restore the Jax State lead at 24-17. Devonte Lyons answered with an 8-yard touchdown run to tie it at 24 late in the third quarter. The fourth quarter then produced the game's strangest moment — an apparent FIU fumble-return touchdown off a Creel sack that was overturned on review to an incomplete pass — before the game settled, as Jax State games now do, into Rippa's hands.

The Kickers' Tale, Told From Both Sidelines

If Rippa's night was the legend growing, Robert Czeremcha's was the opposite draw. The FIU kicker, who had gone 5-of-5 just six days earlier against New Mexico State, missed a 38-yard field goal as the first half expired — points that loomed over everything after. Then, after Rippa's winner, FIU drove to the Jax State 32 in the final 44 seconds and nearly stole the game outright: Kohl's deep shot on the penultimate play was broken up in the end zone, and the Panthers had to rush their field-goal unit onto the field for the tying attempt. The snap came hurriedly, the 49-yard kick had the distance, and it drifted right. Ballgame.

The result tightens Jacksonville State's grip on the conference race. For the third straight season, the Gamecocks sit in the CUSA driver's seat at the midway point, having now taken late wins off both Kennesaw State and FIU — the two teams most likely to challenge them — in consecutive weeks. Head coach Charles Kelly said afterward the bye week ahead will be spent working on the Gamecocks themselves, fundamentals first. Jax State has just one game in the next 25 days: an October 28 trip to New Mexico State. FIU (3-3, 1-1) heads home to host Middle Tennessee State next Tuesday, still very much in the race — but carrying the memory of a night when the other team's kicker was inevitable.

More from Tuesday night: Warriors rally past Lakers in Las Vegas and Oilers beat Kings 4-1 behind McDavid.