South Alabama held its first scrimmage of spring practice on Friday at Hancock Whitney Stadium, and it followed a familiar pattern.

The defense dominated early, then the offense began to roll late. The Jaguars are now two week through spring practice, with another scrimmage April 7 and the annual Red-White spring game set for April 15.

“I was really pleased with how our defense came out,” head coach Kane Wommack said. “We talked about playing with a swagger and an energy. I thought we were inconsistent a year ago in how we started games. You can point to a couple of opportunities that I didn’t think that we came out of the gate well, but we really did today. That was great to see — the players, coaches brought a ton of energy on that side of the ball.

“Offensively, we probably made some poor decisions early, and then got into a rhythm there and were able to run the football pretty effectively. We made some great decisions in the red zone at quarterback. You see some of the experience starting to pop out. So all in all, it was a pretty exciting scrimmage. It was really good. It was physical, and for the most part, we came out healthy, which is also huge.”

Among the big defensive plays were a leaping interception by safety Jaden Voisin, as well as a pass breakup at the line by defensive tackle Jamall Hickbottom. Much of the offensive production came in red zone “lockout” drills toward the end of the scrimmage.

With 11 players who started in either 2022 or 2021 back this season, it’s perhaps no surprise the Jaguars defense would enjoy such success. Among those returnees is safety Keith Gallmon, who missed all of last season with a torn pectoral muscle suffered in fall camp.

“I think the defense was ahead of the offense, but I’ll give it to the offense since they won the red zone lockout (period),” Gallmon said. “We’ve got to do better in the red zone. We’ve got to make plays down there.

“It’s exciting to be back … It’s about been since a year since (the injury) happened, so I was just happy to come out here and fly around and actually be involved making tackles. It was fun. It was a good day.”

On offense, La’Damian Webb ran for two touchdowns, while Braylon McReynolds ran for another. Quarterback Carter Bradley did not throw a touchdown pass, but hit Devin Voisin for a huge gain vs. the first-team defense.

Desmond Trotter, South Alabama’s veteran second-string quarterback, did not scrimmage due to what Wommack termed “personal issues.” That left freshman Gio Lopez to take most of the second-team snaps, and he threw a touchdown pass to tight end DJ Thomas-Jones in his first career scrimmage.

“I think we’re a whole lot more comfortable this spring than last spring,” Bradley said. “But guys are excited to get back and ready to get back into football. It’s just, You’ve got to continue to get better every day and that’s the main goal — and just getting more consistent.”

South Alabama takes the weekend off before returning to the practice field on Monday.