Head Coach: Major Applewhite is entering his 2nd year as the head coach of the Jaguars with a 7-6 record. He is also 1-0 in bowl games with South Alabama. He took over pretty late in the cycle last year so his first season was a pretty solid effort and now he’s looking for more.
Program Outlook: South Alabama is still a rather young football program, they only started playing in 2009. This program got off to a remarkable start playing the sport, winning their first 19 games! This included finishing their first 2 seasons undefeated, and yes it included games against lower division teams but still an incredible start for a startup. Once South Alabama completed the transition to FBS it got a little tougher they didn’t see a winning record until a breakout 10-3 season in 2022, since then the Jaguars also concluded 2023 and 2024 with winning records. They are located in a prime recruiting area near the Gulf in Mobile but there’s a lot of competition around them. This program has new facilities and is very much on the rise.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: South Alabama ranks 62nd in the country returning 56.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. This is still pretty good considering this program had perhaps the worst spring portal period in the country. Going to the positives, key players starts with RB Kentrel Bullock, Fluff Bothwell got the headlines and transferred out but Bullock was the less talked about back in what was a strong 1-2 punch. Bullock is very much ready to lead the way. They’ll need to sort out QB after Gio Lopez left in the spring, Bishop Davenport was his backup last year and started in a close loss at Ohio so he knows the offense. Zach Pyron also comes over from Georgia Tech after briefly spending time with Minnesota. Pyron started for the Yellow Jackets in place of Haynes King against Notre Dame last year. 7th year receiver Devin Voisin returns as an experienced option for the offense, he’s become a reliable player for this program after missing lots of time early in his career due to injuries, Brendan Jenkins transfers in from Samford as a good target and there’s also former Arkansas State TE Miller McCrumby. There’s not a lot of experience otherwise but knowing this program there’s going to be a game breaker that emerges from the young guys. South Alabama was very good up front last year and some of that returns, tackle Jordan Davis was a huge recruiting win after he briefly hit the portal but returned and center Malachi Preciado is one of the better ones in the country. The defense will be led by LB Blayne Myrick he’s a beast who’s basically everywhere and Darius McKenzie is a great one as well. Georgia Tech transfer Caleb Dozier is likely to factor in too. Safety Wesley Miller will lead the backend and the portal will help a lot with the rest of the unit, ETSU transfer corner Jayvon Henderson is particularly fascinating. On the defensive line senior Ed Smith IV will lead the way but it’s very young otherwise, there’s going to be a lot of sophomores and freshmen up front but this program usually does a good job finding good young players.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: South Alabama will face a challenging schedule this year. There’s a couple headliners the Jaguars will face Auburn, the first OOC in-state FBS program the Tigers have faced since 1996 and the Mardi Gras battle against Tulane will also be interesting. North Texas beat South Alabama last year and will be tough again. Their FCS foe Morgan State, is coming off a 6-6 year but is improving each season and has frustrated FBS opponents the last 2 years. The Sun Belt schedule might not be too bad, Georgia State and Coastal Carolina on the surface doesn’t appear to be the worst draw from the East division but that can always change in such a deep conference.
Final Thoughts: What could have been? If it wasn’t for the Spring Portal South Alabama might have the best team in the Sun Belt this year but don’t overlook the Jaguars they still have a strong squad coming back. Overall South Alabama can make up for lost talent if they can clean up their play, two of their cleanest performances resulted in them routing Appalachian State in Boone and shocking Louisiana on the road but that starts with cleaning up the penalties this was one of the most penalized teams in the country last year.
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