By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – For the first time in his career with the Southern Jaguars, junior quarterback Dray Joseph knew he wouldn’t be involved in a timeshare. Then-head coach Stump Mitchell made it clear before the 2012 season that Joseph would be his starter. The Jags offense would be his show to star in.

It was a hit. Joseph, an Edgard native and former West St. John quarterbacking standout, put together a breakout season, passing for 2,511 yards and 25 touchdowns. He led the Southwest Athletic Conference in passing yards per game (233) and total offense (2,640 yards) while completing 58.5 percent of his pass attempts. Despite attempting 147 more passes than the season prior, Joseph cut his interceptions from nine to seven.

And in his final game of the season, he lifted Southern over Grambling in the Bayou Classic, passing for five touchdowns and 284 yards in a 38-33 victory. It ended a four-game losing streak for the Jaguars in the Classic.

His 2012 performance has netted Joseph some national attention. Recently, the College Football Performance Awards organization announced Joseph was on the preseason watch-list for the 2013 CFPA Football Championship Subdivision Quarterback Award. Joseph was one of 32 passers to earn the nod

Prior to 2012, Joseph never had the full reins of the Jaguar attack. In 2011, he split time with then-freshman passer J.P. Douglas. But after outplaying Douglas in a preseason quarterback competition – Joseph was intercepted just twice in all fall drills that preseason, while Douglas was picked off eight times – Mitchell told Joseph that he’d earned the job outright. There would be no further need for the former Ram to look over his shoulder. Mitchell was replaced as head coach after an 0-2 loss to the season, but new head coach Dawson Odums kept Mitchell’s originally quarterbacking plan in place.

“It let me relax, more than anything,” said Joseph. “I could go out and play and not obsess about making a mistake. When you think so much about mistakes, that’s when they happen.

“I played too carefully before. Last year, for the first time, I was playing at full speed.”

So, too, could his teammates. No longer constantly having to adjust on the fly to a pair of quarterbacks that bring different styles, Joseph and his pass catchers were finally able to mature together.

“I became more of a leader. There was less confusion between me and the guys,” said Joseph.  “Before, they didn’t know if I’d be the guy on this down or that play. But last year, we grew together. That rapport we built with one another went a really long way.”

Under Odums, Southern showed major improvement. The SU program has struggled recently, but the Jaguars went 4-5 down the stretch under Odums, with three of their five losses coming by five points or less.

Individually, Joseph’s performance also took off.

Through two games, he’d amassed just 277 total passing yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. But from there, he continued to improve, culminating with a sensational final month that saw him toss 14 touchdowns against one interception and pass for 1,098 yards over a four-game stretch. Extrapolated over a full 11 game season, that would have put him at more than 3,000 passing yards, 38 touchdowns and two interceptions – not reasonable expectations for anyone, for sure, but an indication of how well Joseph played to close the season.

West St. John football coach Robert Valdez coached Joseph during his junior and senior seasons with the Rams. He said Joseph’s mental toughness keys his success.

“This is kid who has always been scrutinized,” said Valdez. “At West St. John, people criticized him for not being fast enough, not having a strong enough arm … but all he did was win. He didn’t get many offers aside from Southern, and when he went up there, the question was whether he’s college quarterbacking material.

“But Dray hears all of it, and he internalizes it. He uses it to drive him. And when you look at the success he’s had, you realize that he’s made a habit of proving people wrong.”

Joseph stands at just 6-foot-1-inches but is built at a solid 213 pounds, making him a challenge to bring down in the pocket or open field.

“He’s a physically imposing figure,” said Valdez. “The way he trains and keeps his body up … he’s intensely motivated and self driven.”

The Bayou Classic win highlighted his late charge. It was Joseph’s first start in a Bayou Classic game, though he had played in split duty for two years prior. His five touchdown passes came up just shy of the Classic record of six.

Southern trailed 14-0 in the game and it appeared as though its Bayou Classic losing streak might reach five. But the Jaguars turned the tide in dominating fashion, scoring 38 of the game’s next 44 points. Southern held off a late Grambling surge to seal the victory.

“Once I catch fire, I feel like I’m hard to stop,” said Joseph. “My wide receivers did a great job and made a lot of big plays. It was the first time we beat them since I’ve been here. I enjoyed myself.”

The long time rivalry between the schools also leads to some good-natured trash talk between Joseph and his father, Greg, currently a West St. John assistant baseball coach who attended Grambling.

“We always clown about it,” said Joseph of his father. “The first few years, he’d tell people that he wins no matter who wins. But he’s more pro-me than anything. As long as I do well, he’s happy.”

The charge to end the season has heightened expectations around the Southern program, not the least of which are Joseph’s own. He needs 27 touchdown passes to break the school’s All-Time record for career scoring tosses, and a 3,000 yard season to eclipse the career passing yardage total. Joseph wants to do that and a little more: he said he’s shooting for a 3,300-yard, 32-touchdown season.

But, he said, those individual goals are a small part of a much bigger goal. An engineering major, Joseph now hopes to help engineer a winning season and, in the process, a SWAC conference championship.

“This nucleus has been here playing together, many of us, for three years now,” said Joseph. The games we lost were close.

“This is the hardest we’ve ever worked since coming here. This team’s also more family oriented than ever before. We enjoy hanging out with one another off the field, and that wasn’t always the case.”