South Alabama begins 2023 football spring practice on Friday after an offseason without much attrition on the roster, but quite a bit in the staff room.

Of the players who started for the Jaguars in the season-ending New Orleans Bowl, 18 are back this spring. With safety Keith Gallmon and linebacker Quentin Wilfawn coming back from injuries that cost them all or most of the 2022 season, however, there are actually more returning starters than that by head coach Kane Wommack’s math.

“We really see it as 20 starters,” said Wommack, who is 15-10 in two seasons at South Alabama. “Quentin Wilfawn is going to the play the Wolf (outside linebacker) position and he’s coming back, and so is Keith Gallmon. So in my mind we’ve got 11 starters returning on defense and nine on offense.”

South Alabama will practice Friday and Saturday morning, then move into a Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine for three weeks leading up to the annual Red-White Spring Game on April 15 at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Scrimmages are set for March 24 and March 31, both Fridays.

When the Jaguars do hit the field, they’ll do so with two new coaches — cornerbacks coach Jay Hopson and special teams coordinator/assistant defensive backs coach Tré Williams. Hopson, the former Southern Miss head coach, replaces Dwike Wilson, who ironically took a job with the Golden Eagles.

Williams is a fresh hire, with Tuesday his first official day on the job. The former St. Paul’s Episcopal School and Auburn linebacker — who spent last season as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Arkansas-Monticello — replaces Jamael Lett, who left for North Carolina.

“(Williams) checks a number of boxes, being a Mobile native that played for a great high school and had a tremendous career in the SEC at Auburn as a team captain,” Wommack said. “I played for Gus Malzahn (at Arkansas), he played for Gus Malzahn, who speaks so highly of him. … And then certainly what he has shown already in the short time in coaching, I think he’s a standout individual. When he came in for his interview, I’m listening to this 27-year-old communicate with a ton of wisdom and energy and passion about what he thinks that we can do here in his hometown with the South Alabama football program. It just felt like the stars aligned with him.”

South Alabama has also added Jon Clark — a longtime aide to Dan Mullen at Mississippi State and Florida — as assistant athletic director and football chief of staff. Kyle Skierski — offensive line coach at Nicholls State last year — joins the Jaguars as an analyst, replacing Greg Frey, who became tight ends coach at Tulsa.

Eric Collier, the longtime head coach at Theodore High School, is also officially on the job as director of football development. He will take on various “external” duties, such as high school relations, booster relations and fundraising, as well as setting up Name, Image and Likeness opportunities for South Alabama players, Wommack said.

“I’m really excited to add Eric Collier to our staff,” Wommack said. “He’s obviously very well-respected in this community and has worked to earn that respect in the way that he treats people, in the way that he works day-in and day-out. His relational skills and connections are already paying off big dividends for our program. Between his connections to high school coaches, people in this community, and then certainly in terms of what we need to do moving forward with Name, Image and Likeness opportunities for our players, I think he’s going to maximize that as well as anybody can.”

On the field, several key players will miss the spring entirely or be limited due to injuries that required offseason surgery. Among those are Wilfawn and fellow outside linebackers DK Bonhomme and Dalton Hughes, inside linebackers James Miller, Ke’Shun Brown and Chrystyile Caldwell, defensive linemen Lamondre Brooks, Nate Rawlins-Kibonge and Maurice Strong, safety Rickey Hyatt and wide receiver Javon Ivory (Wommack did note that none of the above injuries is expected to extend into the fall).

Ivory — a Grove Hill native who transferred in from Memphis — is among seven scholarship newcomers on the South Alabama roster this spring. He is joined by three fellow Division I transfers — offensive linemen Jordan Davis (South Carolina) and Reed Buys (Mississippi State) and running back Kentrel Bullock (Ole Miss), two junior-college transfers — wide receiver Shemar Sandgren and cornerback Reggie Neely — plus quarterback Gio Lopez, an early enrollee out of James Clemens High School in the Huntsville area.

Of the 22 players who started for the Jaguars in the bowl game, only wide receiver Jalen Wayne, center James Jackson, cornerback Darrell Luter and outside linebacker CJ Rias are no longer with the team. Wayne, Jackson and Luter all exhausted their eligibility and are currently pursuing pro football careers, while Rias transferred to McNeese State (where he’ll re-join defensive coordinator Tony Pecoraro, a former South Alabama analyst).

Otherwise, just about every key player is back from the South Alabama team that went 10-3 and lost just one Sun Belt Conference game in 2022. Carter Bradley gives the Jaguars an unquestioned No. 1 quarterback heading into spring for the first time in nearly a decade, while running back La’Damian Webb, wide receivers Devin Voisin and Caullin Lacey, all the tight ends and four starting linemen return from the offense that set numerous school records last season.

On defense, every key defensive lineman and linebacker returns, with Wilfawn (still recovering from neck/shoulder surgery) shifting to the outside and Gallmon back after missing the entire 2022 season with a torn pectoral muscle. The Mobile native, a three-year starter, gives the Jaguars four starters for three positions in the back end of the secondary.

“This by far has been our best offseason to date,” Wommack said. “When you have 20 returning starters that understand the expectation and set the standard for some of these newcomers, there’s been a lot of momentum that’s been carried from the 2022 season. We’re excited to jump into spring football. Our guys have an energy and excitement to build off of what we did, and I think with the experience that we have coming back both on our staff and returning players, we’ve put ourselves in a really good position heading into our third year here.”