New South Alabama head football coach Major Applewhite has agreed to a 5-year contract with a base salary of $825,000 per year, athletics director Joel Erdmann said Friday.

Applewhite’s salary is in line with that earned by former Jaguars head coach Kane Wommack, who left earlier in the week to become defensive coordinator at Alabama. Applewhite’s deal also includes “reasonable increases” in the salary pools for assistant coaches and off-field staff, Erdmann added.

Applewhite confirmed that Rob Ezell, tight ends coach under Wommack, has been promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach as Applewhite transitions from that role into the head-coaching position. Ezell, a former Alabama wide receiver and longtime Crimson Tide staffer who came to Mobile along with Applewhite in 2021, will also call plays for the Jaguars, Applewhite said.

“I’m always gonna have input on all three phases of the game,” Applewhite said during his introductory news conference at Hancock Whitney Stadium. “Offensively is gonna be where I would have more input. I think it’s very important that you just don’t impose yourself on things. I worked with Tom Herman at the University of Houston. I called plays for him. He was going from winning a national championship at being Alabama and Oregon and then the next year, he’s not calling plays. So that didn’t make much sense in a lot of people’s minds, but at the same time, you have other things that you’re doing as a head coach.

“The trust level that I have with Rob Ezell is extremely high. I’ll have suggestions and things like that. Of course you should as a head coach, but as a head coach, you need to understand when it’s not your time to impose yourself on the game.”

South Alabama already had five coaching-staff openings when Wommack left, as Wommack fired four assistants — wide receivers coach Michael Smith, offensive line coach Gordon Steele, running backs coach Antonio Bradford and linebackers coach Will Windham — in late December. Shortly thereafter, defensive line coach Landius Wilkerson left to take a job at Tulane.

Applewhite declined to specify other coaching roles on his staff, though the remaining staff members — defensive coordinator/safeties coach Corey Batoon, cornerbacks coach Jay Hopson and special teams coordinator Tre’ Williams — are all expected to remain at South Alabama. Various outlets reported Friday that Applewhite had hired Effrem Reed — formerly of Michigan State — as running backs coach.

Former Idaho head coach Paul Petrino, most recently offensive coordinator at Central Michigan, is also expected to be hired to the South Alabama offensive staff in some capacity. Petrino — younger brother of veteran SEC coach Bobby Petrino — was briefly on Wommack’s staff as an analyst in 2022 before getting an on-field job at CMU.

In addition, Applewhite confirmed that head strength coach Matt Shadeed — who was also assistant head coach under Wommack — has left to join Wommack at Alabama. It remains unclear as to exactly what Shadeed’s role with the Crimson Tide will be.

Applewhite said that public announcements on his full staff will come “in the near future.”

“We’re gonna have coaches and staffs that are positive, energetic, intense,” Applewhite said. “I want intensity in our building, and serious about our work each and every day. We’re gonna have men that understand we’re changing lives. We’re changing lives each and every day in the classroom, off the field in the community and obviously on the football field.”