South Alabama Jaguars 2026 Season Preview

Applewhite's Third Year

South Alabama comes off a 4-8 season that included a 3-5 mark in Sun Belt play, and the power rating sits at 112th nationally, a real step back for the program under Major Applewhite. Year three brings no roster excuse and no easy read on direction, just a staff that needs the on-field results to look different than last fall's. The record and the ranking are the story right now, not any long-term trend.

Davenport Inherits a Lopsided Attack

Bishop Davenport is back after throwing for 2,072 yards, 12 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, but the ground game did the heavy lifting last season, ranking 18th nationally at 201 yards per game while the passing attack sat 114th at 181 yards per game. That imbalance is the real story for 2026: South Alabama's offense only cracks defenses when the run sets it up, and Davenport's job is closing the gap through the air rather than just managing a run-heavy script. The bigger issue sits on the other side of the ball, where a defense that allowed 30.4 points per game and ranked 132nd in sacks has to find pressure it did not get in 2025.

Bishop Davenport threw for 2,072 yards and 12 touchdowns against just 6 interceptions a year ago, and he comes back as the unquestioned answer at the position while South Alabama fills out the room around him with Jared Hollins, Zach Pyron and a pair of three-star Alabama products in Aaden Shamburger and Taylor Jacobs Jr. The bigger issue for 2026 is what Davenport is working with, since a passing game that ranked 114th in the country a year ago has to open up for an offense that leaned on a 201-yard rushing attack to stay respectable. If South Alabama wants to climb out of the middle of the pack in scoring, it will come from Davenport pushing the ball downfield more than he did in 2025, not from a change at the position.

Kentrel Bullock's 1,085 yards and 14 touchdowns walk out the door, and that production doesn't get replaced by one man but by a committee already on campus. Keenan Phillips (622 yards, 3 TD) and PJ Martin (326 yards, 2 TD) both return with real carries behind them, giving South Alabama a ground game that ranked 18th nationally in rushing yards per game even with Bullock hogging touches. With three 3-star backs added in Donovan Crow, Lavonte Cole and Caleb Wynn for depth rather than an immediate takeover, the job belongs to Phillips and Martin, and the offense's identity still runs through the run rather than a passing attack that finished 114th in yards per game.

South Alabama loses its top two producers at receiver, with Devin Voisin (67 catches, 775 yards, 4 TD) and Jeremy Scott (24 catches, 417 yards, 4 TD) both gone, leaving a passing game that was already 114th in the country in yards through the air with even less proven volume to lean on. Anthony Eager (40 catches, 339 yards) becomes the clear top target by default, but the depth behind him is a projection job, with Micah Woods and Brendan Jenkins combining for modest totals and four incoming three-star signees in Dominic White, Khatori Marion, Brody Jones and Jarvis Washington all needing time to translate to the field. Until one of those newcomers or a name like Tylen Campbell or Jerrian Graham forces the issue, this offense stays built around its 18th-ranked rushing attack while the passing game tries to rebuild around Eager.

South Alabama's tight end production left with Miller McCrumby, and none of the returning names beyond Rod Gibbs (6 catches, 52 yards) have logged a single catch, so this group is effectively being rebuilt through the portal. Everett Hunter arrives from Nicholls having caught 24 passes for 283 yards and 3 touchdowns, instantly the most proven pass-catcher on the depth chart, while Julius Mathis joins as an unproven high school addition. With passing offense sitting 114th nationally a year ago, Hunter's ability to become a reliable underneath target matters more to fixing that number than anything Gibbs or the unstatted returners bring.

South Alabama ran for 201 yards a game in 2025, good for 18th nationally, but the passing game limped to 114th and the front lost 12 linemen off that group, more than the 11 who return. Julius Kidd and DeShaun Gonzales are the only sophomores-or-older names back with any established seniority, and Major Applewhite is leaning on a five-man haul of three-star linemen led by Cam'Ron Thompson, Elliott Chaney and Aydan Newell to fill out the interior. With almost none of last year's identifiable pieces confirmed as starters, the ground game that carried this offense is the thing most at risk of taking a step back in 2026.

South Alabama's front lost its most productive pieces from a line that managed just 12 sacks a year ago, with Ed Smith IV (31 tackles), RJ Moss Jr. (24 tackles) and Tyler Thomas (2 sacks) all gone. What's back is thin production-wise, Stephen Johnson, Emmanuel Waller and E'Mauri Smiley combined for only a handful of tackles and single sacks apiece, so the 2026 answer leans heavily on newcomers Brayden Hurst and Tyler Wiley up front plus edge additions Christian Ross and Antwon Thomas to find the pressure this group couldn't generate in 2025. Given a unit that finished 132nd in sacks and 113th in tackles for loss, expecting an instant fix from unproven youth is a stretch, and the run defense figures to stay the bigger issue than the pass rush.

South Alabama's leading tacklers from a year ago, Blayne Myrick and Darius McKenzie, are both gone, stripping away 84 and 71 tackles from a front seven that already ranked 132nd in sacks and 113th in tackles for loss. Tirrell Johnson is the one proven piece back, coming off 54 tackles and 5.5 TFL, but the rest of the returning corps (Caleb Dozier, Chrystyile Caldwell, Parker Shattuck) combined for modest snaps, so UL Monroe transfer Seidrion Langston and his 36 tackles and 2.5 TFL from 2025 project as an immediate starter rather than depth. With three unproven true freshmen (Zechariah Hall, Tyray Darensburg, Xavious Anderson Jr.) added behind them, this group's ceiling is tied almost entirely to how fast Langston and Johnson can pair up, because the disruption numbers behind them have nowhere to go but up from 14.6% havoc.

South Alabama's safety room takes its heaviest hit in years, losing Christopher Wallace Jr. (73 tackles, 3.5 TFL) and Wesley Miller (53 tackles, 1.5 TFL) off a back end that already allowed 30.4 points per game. Dallas Young, Cole Blaylock, Damyrion Darby and Anthony Brown all return with modest tackle numbers, but none of them approach that lost production, so three-star arrivals Tomareo Johnson Jr., Teryn Green and Camen Upshaw are likely to see early snaps at safety. Jayvon Henderson anchors the corner spot after his 27-tackle, 2-TFL season, while Deon Callins and TJ Collier give Applewhite fresh corner depth even as the defense's 132nd-ranked sack total and 113th-ranked tackles-for-loss mark suggest the pressure up front will keep testing this retooled secondary in 2026.

South Alabama's kicking job is wide open after Hamilton DiBoyan's 38 points and his 6 of 9 mark walked out the door, and the answer may come from the portal rather than the incumbent. Davis Little made his only attempt last season but never got a real workload, and now has to hold off Colorado State transfer Dylan Freebury and South Carolina transfer Peyton Argent for the job. Aleksi Pulkkinen's steady 40.4-yard average gives Applewhite one settled piece in the kicking game while the placekicking picture sorts itself out.

Davenport Inherits a Purged Roster

Thirty players walked out the door, including the production that made this offense functional: Kentrel Bullock's 1,085 rushing yards, Devin Voisin's 67 catches for 775 yards, and Jeremy Scott's 417 receiving yards all need replacing with nobody obviously ready to match them. Bishop Davenport is back after throwing for 2,072 yards and 12 touchdowns, and South Alabama built almost entirely around portal fill-ins rather than name-brand transfers, with TE Everett Hunter and LB Seidrion Langston the only newcomers carrying real production into the room. Defensively the losses run just as deep, with Blayne Myrick, Christopher Wallace Jr. and Darius McKenzie all gone, leaving a defense that has to be rebuilt on the fly around whichever of the incoming three-star transfers can tackle at this level immediately.

South Alabama's Backfield Split

Kentrel Bullock's 1085 yards and 14 scores are gone, and nobody left in the room matches that workload, so the ground game now rides on Keenan Phillips and PJ Martin splitting carries behind Bishop Davenport. Davenport's 2072 yards and 12 touchdowns came with 6 interceptions in an offense that leaned on Bullock to bail him out, and without a bell-cow back, Phillips and Martin have to combine for enough production to keep defenses honest or those turnover numbers creep up again.

Applewhite's Home Chalk Problem

The market has learned not to trust South Alabama at home as a favorite, and the numbers back it up: an 0-4 cover mark in that spot, part of a 2-4 ATS home slate overall. The road is a different story, where the Jaguars covered exactly half their games including a win as a road underdog against a 4-8 backdrop. Bet the road number and stay away from Major Applewhite's team as home chalk until it proves otherwise.