South Alabama is expected to elevate offensive coordinator Major Applewhite to head coach, multiple sources confirmed to AL.com.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Wednesday afternoon that Applewhite was in negotiations to become the Jaguars’ next head man. An official announcement from the school could come by the end of the day.

The 45-year-old Applewhite replaces Kane Wommack, who left Tuesday to become defensive coordinator at Alabama. Applewhite was a key member of Wommack’s staff the last three seasons, in which the Jaguars went 22-16.

South Alabama put one of the best offenses in program history on the field in 2023, averaging 33.1 points and 440.5 yards per game, both figures in the top four in the Sun Belt Conference and top 27 in the country. The Jaguars scored 59 points in the season-ending 68 Ventures Bowl vs. Eastern Michigan, as well as 55 vs. both Southern Miss and Louisiana-Monroe during the regular season.

It’s the second head-coaching job for Applewhite, who was Houston’s head coach in 2017-18. He was fired by the Cougars after going 15-11 in two seasons.

In addition to his three seasons at South Alabama, Applewhite has also been offensive coordinator or co-offensive coordinator at Rice (2006), Alabama (2007), Texas (2011-13) and Houston (2015-16). He was quarterbacks coach at Syracuse in 2005 and assistant head coach/running backs coach at Texas from 2008-10 before getting bumped up to co-OC.

Applewhite replaced Tom Herman as Houston’s head coach when Herman was hired by Texas at the end of the 2016 season. He coached the Cougars in the Las Vegas Bowl (a 34-10 loss to San Diego State) that year, then went 7-5 with a Hawaii Bowl berth in 2017.

Houston went 8-5 in 2018, but Applewhite was fired after his team lost four of its final five games following a 7-1 start. The final nail was a 70-14 loss to Army in the Armed Forced Bowl, in which the Cougars gave up 508 rushing yards.

Applewhite was fired a little more than a week later. He spent the next two seasons as an analyst at Alabama, earning a national championship ring as part of the Crimson Tide’s 2020 team.

Before going into coaching as a graduate assistant at Texas in 2003, Applewhite was a highly accomplished quarterback for the Longhorns from 1998-2001. He was the Big 12′s Offensive Freshman of the Year in 1998 and Co-Offensive Player of the Year in 1999 and remains among the school’s top 5 in numerous single-game, single-season and career passing categories despite splitting time with Chris Simms for much of his final two college seasons.

Applewhite is the fourth head football coach in South Alabama history, following Joey Jones (2008-17), Steve Campbell (2018-20) and Wommack (2021-23).