Reed Buys has only been at South Alabama for around 20 months, but he’s already the veteran of the Jaguars’ offensive line.

Buys is the lone senior among 15 scholarship offensive linemen on South Alabama’s 2024 roster, and one of just two returning starters for the Jaguars up front. After finishing last season at left guard, he’s slotted in to start on the right side this fall following offseason shoulder surgery that forced him to miss spring practice.

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“He’s been awesome,” offensive line coach Jason Onyebuagu said. “It’s been great to have him back here during fall camp. We’re knocking the rust off right now a little bit, but what you see in him is, you see a guy who’s played ball, who understands leverage and technique and those things to where he can put his body in the right places. And then he’s got the fight and the strain that he knows that you need to have in game situations to put him in a position to be successful.”

Buys joined the South Alabama program in January of 2023 from Mississippi State, where he played sparingly for two seasons following a stint in junior college. The Vicksburg, Miss., native got his first career start for the Jaguars at right guard in Week 2 vs. Southeastern Louisiana, before taking over on the left side in early October and starting the remainder of the season.

The 6-foot-4, 301-pound Buys injured his right shoulder during preseason camp last year, playing the remainder of the season with a brace on what was initially diagnosed as a sprained AC joint. An MRI later revealed a torn labrum, and he underwent surgery over the winter.

Now fully healthy after missing all of spring, Buys has shifted back to right guard. He said the transition is never problematic.

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“I’ve been a swing guy pretty much my whole time in college,” Buys said. “There have been practices where I was at left tackle, left guard, center, right guard and right tackle. So I’ve always been pretty comfortable with swinging back forth. We had to do it last year during a game vs. Arkansas State. I was at left guard, and then in second half I had to go to right guard. So it’s not much difference at all.”

Buys playing on the right side gives South Alabama a veteran lineman on each side of the center. Jordan Davis, a former South Carolina transfer who took over at left tackle in Week 3 last season, is the Jaguars’ other returning starter.

Purdue transfer Malachi Preciado all but won the starting center job in spring practice, with redshirt sophomore Malachi Carney emerging at right tackle. Left guard remains a competition between sophomores Kenton Jerido and Lucas Taylor, the latter a Mississippi State transfer who missed all of last season for medical reasons.

A combination of veteran holdovers (Daniel Foster-Allen, Reid Gavin, Sam Williams), redshirt freshmen (Adrian Griffin) and newcomers (Asher Hale, Logan Joellenbeck, Jayden Hobson, Hayden Dozier) have been working with the Jaguars’ second and third offensive line units. Duke transfer Ethan Hubbard has been sidelined with a hand injury for the early part of camp.

“We’re just looking for 7 or 8 guys who can go out to help us win football games,” Onyebuagu said. “In this game, especially up front in the trenches, there’s gonna be some attrition. There’s gonna be some guys banged up. So right now, early in camp, we’re focused on us getting better as a unit, whether that’s the older guys or the younger guys.”

Buys and Taylor are among five Mississippi State transfers on the South Alabama roster, a group that also includes Hobson and safeties Wesley Miller and Trent Singleton. They have continued a pipeline between Starkville and Mobile that began three years ago with James Jackson, the Jaguars’ starting center in 2021 and 2022 after beginning his career in Starkville.

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Head coach Major Applewhite has said there is no particular rhyme or reason as to why so many Mississippi State transfers have wound up at South Alabama, though Jaguars cornerbacks coach Jay Hopson once worked on the Bulldogs’ staff and defensive coordinator Will Windham is from the Starkville area. Buys said the decision to finish his career in Mobile was definitely his own.

“I took my visit here and just kind of fell in love with it,” Buys said. “It wasn’t necessarily even because some State people came here; I just fell in love with it. Now when some other guys have gotten into the portal, I have told them much I liked it, how it’s a good place. And everybody just kind of has the same reaction. This is hard-nosed program and it just feels like real football. It’s where you want to be.”

South Alabama returns to the practice field on Wednesday morning. The Jaguars will hold their first scrimmage of preseason camp on Saturday night.