Bubba Thompson has enrolled at South Alabama and has joined the Jaguars football team as a walk-on, AL.com has learned.

Thompson, who will turn 27 in June, was an all-state quarterback at Mobile’s McGill-Toolen Catholic School in 2016, but has spent the last eight seasons playing professional baseball. He was a first-round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2017, and played parts of the last three seasons as an outfielder at the major-league level with the Rangers and Cincinnati Reds.

Thompson posted a video on social media on Sunday, showing him throwing a football inside the Jaguar Training Center practice facility. Head coach Major Applewhite confirmed to AL.com that Thompson is set to join the team for offseason workouts and the upcoming spring practices, but had no further comment.

South Alabama appears set at quarterback with rising sophomore Gio Lopez (who started 11 games in 2024), junior Bishop Davenport (who started the other two) and 2024 freshman Jared Hollins (who redshirted). Like Thompson, Lopez and Hollins were all-state performers in high school in Alabama, while Davenport — a Texas native — was Most Valuable Player of the Jaguars’ Salute to Veterans Bowl win over Western Michigan in December.

Because Thompson never enrolled in college, he has a full five years to play four seasons at the college level. Various other former professional baseball players have later moved on to football over the years, including Hoover native Josh Magee, who played three seasons in the Houston Astros’ organization before becoming a standout wide receiver at UAB and South Alabama.

The 6-foot-2, 197-pound Thompson was a 3-star football recruit coming out of McGill-Toolen, and had scholarship offers from the likes of Tennessee and Ole Miss at the time. He passed for 3,173 yards and 38 touchdowns in leading the Yellow Jackets to the Class 7A state championship game as a senior in 2016, when he was teammates with future South Alabama star and current Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jalen Tolbert.

Thompson — who was committed to both Auburn and Alabama in baseball at one time or another while in high school — reached the major leagues with the Rangers in 2022, and played in 55 games that season, batting .265 with a home run, nine RBIs and 18 steals. He played in 37 games with Texas in 2023 before he was claimed off waivers by the Kansas City Royals in August.

He was waived four different times during the 2023-24 offseason, at various times being under contract with the Royals, Cincinnati Reds (twice), New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. He played in 17 games with the Reds in 2024 before being granted free agency after the season.

In 109 games with the Rangers and Reds, Thompson hit .232 with a home run, 13 RBIs and 27 steals in 32 attempts. In 486 minor-league games, he hit .263 with 52 homers, 226 RBIs and 135 steals.