BATON ROUGE — When Alcorn State starting quarterback John Gibbs went down with an injury in the first quarter of the Braves’ game Saturday against Southern University, Alcorn head coach Jay Hopson wasn’t worried about his offense.

Enter backup Lenorris Footman, who played far from what his title may suggest.

“We miss nothing when Lenorris comes in,” Hopson said. “Lenorris can run our offense and we are blessed to have two very good quarterbacks.”

Footman accounted for six total touchdowns and guided the Braves to a 48-7 pounding of Southern on the road.

With rain pouring down most of the game, both teams were forced to rely on their running attack.

For Alcorn, Footman led the way with a career high 274 yards on 16 carries. He also had four touchdown runs. Darryan Ragsdale also turned in a solid performance with 80 yards on 13 carries.

“It was old school football, mud, rain and all the elements,” Hopson said. “That is probably what I was most proud of was how we handled the elements.”

Alcorn took the lead early in the first quarter on a 78-yard touchdown run from Marquis Warford. It was the first play of scrimmage for the Alcorn offense.

Footman scored the first of his four rushing touchdowns later in the quarter on a 44-yard run.

Early in the second quarter, Alcorn took a 21-0 lead when Footman tossed the first of two touchdown passes, this one a 29-yard connection with Jordan Payne to give the Braves a commanding 28-0 lead.

However, the Jaguars’ Lenard Tillery, who ran for 151 yards on 32 carries, answered with the lone score for Southern on the ensuing drive.

Other than that, the Jaguars were very limited in what they could do.

“Our guys played hard and physical,” Hopson said of the Alcorn defense. “We ran around, tackled and did a good job on that side of the ball.”

Alcorn would come out firing in the second half with three third quarter touchdowns.

First, Footman gashed the Southern defense for a 17-yard touchdown run. He followed that up with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Campbell, and then finally, Footman found the end zone again on a 30-yard run.

Footman scored his final touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter on a 60-yard run.

The Braves racked up 555 yards of total offense on the night, 484 of which came on the ground.

Alcorn held Southern to just 260 yards on offense.

With the win, the Braves bounce back from a devastating loss to Grambling two weeks ago, which was something Hopson was hoping to do.

“It is always a great feeling especially because it is hard to sit on a loss for two weeks,” he said. “We really wanted to get back on the field quick and it was a great performance. We came out and played hard.”

As for Gibbs, Hopson said he hopes to know something in the near future.

“He seems OK,” Hopson said of the quarterback who sustained a leg injury. “We are just going to have him checked out and see how he’s doing.”

Next up for Alcorn is a home game against Prairie View A&M, who defeated Arkansas Pine Bluff Saturday.