Jamall Hickbottom is the last man standing on the South Alabama football team, in at least one respect.

Hickbottom is one of 15 scholarship sixth-year “super” seniors on the Jaguars’ roster, but the only one whose ties to the team date back to the Joey Jones era. Hickbottom committed to South Alabama during the summer before his senior season at Mobile’s Williamson High School, which proved to be Jones’ last as Jaguars’ head coach.

Hickbottom signed South Alabama under Jones’ successor, and played three seasons for Steve Campbell. The defensive lineman is now headed into his third year under the direction of Kane Wommack, and has seen plenty during his career.

“We’ve got a whole lot of leaders, a whole lot of people that been through things, know what to do,” Hickbottom said. “We played a whole lot of snaps, so we’re able to lead the younger guys to follow us. We have their back, they have our back. So it’s good to have a lot of sixth-year players. We know what we’re talking about. We know what we’re doing. And it’s good.”

Of those 15 “super” seniors, four of them are on the defensive line. Hickbottom, Maurice Strong, Charles Coleman and Jamie Sheriff all signed with the Jaguars under Campbell, Sheriff as a junior-college transfer in 2020 and the other three as high school recruits in 2018.

The Jaguars’ defensive line has been arguably the strongest position group on the team in each of the last two seasons, and figures to again carry the load in 2023. Along with the four seniors, 2019 signees Wy’Kevious Thomas and Brock Higdon, 2020 signee Carlos Johnson and more recent imports such as Lamondre Brooks and Ed Smith will all have major roles this fall.

“I came in as a linebacker, so transitioning to the defensive line was a process for me,” Hickbottom said. “I redshirted my freshman year at linebacker, then got moved to the D-line and was like fifth-string. So I had to work my way all the way back up. It was a process and a grind for sure. We’ve all had our share of ups and downs.”

Said Wommack, “There is no substitute for experience. You can understand our plays, you can understand our concepts, our culture, all those things, but until you’ve gone out in games and you’ve had moments of adversity and triumph, to be able to respond into the season, I think it changes the expectation for everybody in the program. And to have that institutional knowledge here for these younger players, guys that have come in five, six years behind these sixth-year guys, it’s pretty awesome to be able to learn from the wisdom of these older players.”

The other veterans are spread throughout the roster. Quarterback Desmond Trotter, offensive tackle Josh McCulloch and safety Keith Gallmon were also part of that 2018 signing class (as was center Reggie Smith, albeit as a walk-on), while tight end Lincoln Sefcik and linebacker Quentin Wilfawn later joined the program as junior-college transfers.

Five other “super” seniors have come on-board as Division I transfers since Wommack took over prior to the 2021 season. As with thousands of players across the country, they got an extra year of college football eligibility due to a blanket NCAA rule passed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that marred the 2020 season.

Quarterback Carter Bradley came from Toledo, while running back La’Damian Webb transferred in from junior college after previously spending time at Florida State. Linebacker James Miller followed Wommack from Indiana, while short-yardage running back Marco Lee transferred from Virginia Tech and kickoff specialist Jacob Meek joined the program after previously being at Louisiana-Monroe and Texas Tech.

“When you talk about the standard in which we operate, there’s been continuity in our team,” Wommack said. “A lot of that has just been retention from the transfer portal. We’ve gained a lot of good players and we haven’t lost players. And if we continue to do that, I think we’re setting our program up for long-term success.

“We came in at a time that not everybody was utilizing the transfer portal in 2021. I thought we utilized it as good as anybody, when you look at the landscape of Group of 5 football, the Sun Belt (Conference) itself and now those players that were a little bit more experienced coming in than freshmen in 2023, are huge contributors to our program. So there’s a piece of the transfer portal, there’s a piece of development. But I think you’ve got to have both those things out of the high schoolers and transfer guys. It puts us in a really good position.”

There are 21 players remaining on the South Alabama roster from Campbell’s final season of 2020, when the Jaguars went 4-7. Wommack’s first team finished 5-7 before breaking through with a 10-3 record and New Orleans Bowl berth in 2022.

There has been normal attrition the last two years through graduation or injury-related retirements, though it’s undeniable the talent level has increased to arguably its highest level in the program’s 14-year history. Those who have stayed are now able to take pride in the fact they’ve helped transform the Jaguars from a program that had never finished with a winning record before 2022 into one that is among the favorites to win the conference championship this season.

“The program has come a long way,” said Gallmon, like Hickbottom a Mobile native. “Being a high schooler around here, I was able to watch what Joey Jones’ teams were doing. And then with (Wommack), we had two good years with him. Just seeing the change in the university and seeing the change in the football team and how we act and how we go about things, it’s just been good to see.”

South Alabama is back on the practice field Thursday for what will be the first day in full pads. The first scrimmage of preseason camp is set for Saturday at Hancock Whitney Stadium.

South Alabama’s 15 “Super” Seniors