Kentucky gets one more September test at home in Week 4, and South Alabama is walking into Kroger Field with a lot more buzz than anyone expected three weeks ago. The Jaguars were picked to finish near the bottom of the Sun Belt this summer, but they’ve opened the season looking like a team with a real pulse in the league race.
That’s a big part of why this game matters. South Alabama won’t be thinking about the trip to Lexington for long - a home date with ULM is waiting next weekend - but for now, Major Applewhite’s third team in Mobile gets a chance to measure itself against Kentucky after a fast start.
The offense has been productive right out of the gate, putting up 34.7 points per game and running 70 plays in each contest. It’s a tempo-heavy attack that leans hard on the ground game, with nearly 50 rushing attempts per game.
PJ Martin has handled 54 carries for 222 yards and three touchdowns, while Keenan Phillips has added 43 carries for 226 yards and one score. Together, they’ve forced 28 missed tackles.
The idea is simple: pound the ball, stay on schedule, and use the pass game to create explosives.
The problem is that the quarterback situation is still unsettled.
Bishop Davenport entered 2025 as South Alabama’s QB1 after Gio Lopez left for North Carolina in the spring portal window. Davenport, a former Utah State transfer, has 16 career starts, 3,374 passing yards, 854 non-sack rushing yards, and 32 career touchdowns. But he was a surprise scratch in Week 3, and Applewhite said after Saturday’s home game against Ohio that Davenport was dealing with an issue that had been lingering since the Tulane game.
“He had an injury that was lingering from the Tulane game. It’s getting a lot better, and he would’ve been able to play in some capacity tonight, but I didn’t want him thinking about it too much,” Applewhite said. “It’s just one of those situations where you should go out there and be worried about executing or worry about getting what’s bothering you better.”
In Davenport’s place, Jared Hollins made his first career start and handled the job well enough. The Semmes, Ala., native and Mary G.
Montgomery product completed 13 of 20 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown against Ohio. He doesn’t bring the same rushing threat as Davenport, but he did connect on a 49-yard vertical shot and kept the offense moving efficiently.
If Davenport can’t go again, South Alabama becomes a much easier team to game-plan for.
That uncertainty matters even more because the Jags haven’t put the ball on the ground once through three games. Quarterback play has plenty to do with that, and who lines up behind center on Saturday may not be known until kickoff.
South Alabama also changed things on defense, and not in a small way. After Corey Batoon left for Missouri, Applewhite promoted linebackers coach Will Windham to defensive coordinator. Windham is now at Texas State, and Applewhite went with experience for the next move, bringing in Todd Orlando.
Orlando’s résumé is long: UConn, FIU, Utah State, Houston, Texas, USC, Florida Atlantic, and South Florida. He became available when Alex Golesh left USF for Auburn and kept D.J. Durkin on staff, which opened the door for Applewhite to reconnect with a coach he previously worked with at Houston.
So far, the results have been rough. South Alabama is sitting outside the top 100 in third down conversion rate at No. 107, red zone touchdown percentage at No. 131, yards per play at No. 132, and EPA/play at No.
- Tulane and Ohio both had their best passing games of the season against the Jags, which is not the kind of trend you want to carry into a matchup with a Kentucky offense fresh off a strong outing against Texas A&M.
There’s a coaching link in this one, too. Kentucky head coach Will Stein and Orlando were on the same Texas staff in 2017, when Tom Herman kept Stein and brought Orlando with him from Houston. That means Stein and his staff will be seeing a familiar defensive coordinator on Saturday.
Applewhite’s roster-building approach also stands out in today’s game. South Alabama has already lost major pieces through the portal, including Gio Lopez, Fluff Bothwell, Caullin Lacy, and Yam Banks, and two former Jags - Tyler Thomas and Dominic Wiseman - are now at Kentucky and will face their old team this season. That’s the reality for most Group of Six programs: lose talent, reload, repeat.
But South Alabama took a different path this offseason. Instead of going heavy on transfers, Applewhite leaned into high school recruiting and development, even with the job pressure hanging over him.
“We’re one of the fewer roster turnovers in our league, and we’re having 41 new players,” Applewhite said ahead of spring practice. “We’ve got some teams that are going to have 70-71 new players on their roster this year.”
That number still sounds big, but in modern college football it’s not outrageous. What stands out is the choice behind it.
Most coaches in a hot-seat season would try to patch things together through the portal. Applewhite didn’t go that route.
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