The state of Alabama’s four football programs from Group of 5 conferences were a bit of mixed bag in 2023.

Jacksonville State had a massive breakthrough in its first season as an FBS program, while Troy had a second straight excellent year before a disappointing finish. South Alabama underachieved before finishing on a high note, while UAB simply underachieved.

Here’s a recap of each team’s season, in descending order of final win total (final record in parentheses):

Troy (11-3)

If you could wipe away the final three weeks or so, 2023 was another banner year for the Trojans.

For the second straight season, Troy turned a 1-2 start in a double-digit winning streak. The Trojans won their final nine regular-season games, then smashed Appalachian State 49-23 to win their second consecutive Sun Belt Conference title.

Included in that 10-game run was a sixth straight victory (this one by a 28-10 score) over arch-rival South Alabama in the “Battle for the Belt” on Nov. 2. The Trojans also went a perfect 6-0 vs. Sun Belt West competition for the second consecutive year.

Running back Kimani Vidal was named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year after setting Troy rushing-yard records for a single game (248 vs. Stephen F. Austin), single season (1,661) and career (4,010). He finished second nationally in that category, behind only Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon.

Troy was among the best defensive teams in the country in several categories, while defensive end Javon Solomon led all FBS players with 16 sacks. Vidal and Solomon both declared for the NFL draft after the season.

All that success led to the biggest loss for the Trojans, as head coach Jon Sumrall left to take the Tulane job on Dec. 8. Sumrall went 23-4 in two years at Troy, his first two years as a college head coach.

Troy hired former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker as head coach on Dec. 17. Parker faces some significant roster turnover, as the Trojans will lose at least 17 starters to graduation or the transfer portal — nine of them on defense.

Troy ended its season with a 17-10 loss to Duke in the Birmingham Bowl, snapping a five-game bowl winning streak. Despite that defeat and the personnel losses, the Trojans enter 2024 with a good amount of organizational momentum.

Jacksonville State (9-4)

In one respect, any success the Gamecocks might have during their first season of FBS play was gravy. That fact that JSU was there at all was the important thing.

The Gamecocks became Alabama’s sixth FBS program in 2023, and succeeded beyond just about anyone’s expectations. Jax State finished 9-4 and won the New Orleans Bowl in 2023, becoming the first team to do so in their debut season.

Veteran coach Rich Rodriguez proved he hadn’t lost his touch, immediately establishing Jax State as one of the top teams in Conference USA. The Gamecocks beat UTEP 17-14 in Week Zero to get off to a 1-0 start not only overall but in conference play.

Led by one of the top running games in the country and an aggressive defensive front, JSU began the season 3-0 and 6-1. Included in that run were a pair of wild comeback victories during the Gamecocks’ stretch of five straight mid-week games in late September and October.

Jax State lost conference games to Liberty and New Mexico State — the latter on a last-second field goal — to officially finish third in the CUSA standings. However, as an FBS transition team, the Gamecocks were not eligible to win the conference title.

JSU was not supposed to be bowl-eligible either for the same reason, but a lack of six-win teams nationally opened up a slot in the Dec. 16 New Orleans Bowl against Louisiana. The Gamecocks proved to be the better team most of the night, then won 34-31 in overtime on a field goal by Garrison Rippa, who was only kicking because starter Alen Karajic had entered the transfer portal.

Jax State loses some significant talent from its 2023 team, particularly at the offensive skill positions. However, it seems that Rodriguez and the Gamecocks have earned the benefit of the doubt.

South Alabama (7-6)

The Jaguars entered 2023 with extremely high expectations following a 10-3 record in Kane Wommack’s second season and the return of 20 full- or part-time starters. South Alabama was not able to live up to them, however, and was one of the more inconsistent teams in all of college football.

South Alabama proved equally capable of pulling a huge upset or losing in puzzling fashion in 2023; rarely did they win a close game. The Jaguars’ seven victories came by an average of 32.5 points, with only two of them one-score games.

Most notably, USA went on the road and hammered Oklahoma State 33-7 in Week 3, a victory that looked better as the season went along and the Cowboys began to contend in the Big 12. However, the Jaguars followed that up with a 34-30 loss to a Central Michigan team that finished 5-7.

Those were simply the two most extreme examples for the Jaguars, who also beat Southern Miss 55-3, Louisiana-Monroe 55-7 and Eastern Michigan 59-10 (in the 68 Ventures Bowl). They lost at home to a Louisiana team that finished 6-7, lost to Troy for the sixth straight season and couldn’t get a defensive stop when it really mattered in losses to Tulane, Texas State and James Madison.

Injuries were at least partly to blame, as safety Keith Gallmon and wide receiver Devin Voisin were lost for the season by Week 2, running back Braylon McReynolds missed eight games with a broken collarbone and quarterback Carter Bradley and La’Damian Webb finished the season on the shelf. Wommack wasn’t looking for excuses by season’s end, however, as he fired four assistant coaches — three who had been on his staff for his entire three-year tenure.

The Jaguars lost a number of key players to graduation and several others to the transfer portal, so expectations probably won’t be quite as high in 2024. Wommack has set the bar to an unprecedented level in his three seasons, so the fact that a team that won a bowl game is considered an underachiever is certainly progress.

UAB (4-8)

The Trent Dilfer experiment didn’t pay dividends in Year 1, as the Blazers finished with a losing record for the first time since the program’s return from its two-year hiatus in 2017.

UAB won its opener vs. North Carolina A&T before losing six of its next seven, then was eliminated from postseason contention with a 31-6 loss to Navy on Nov. 11. Shabby defense was the culprit for the Blazers, who allowed 35 or more points nine times, including in two games they won.

Dilfer, a former NFL quarterback, did show an ability to put a good offense on the field. The Blazers averaged 29.9 points per game and finished in the Top 20 nationally in yards per game, with Jacob Zeno putting together one of the better seasons by a quarterback in program history.

However, the move to the American Athletic Conference could not be in any way colored a success for the Blazers. Questions as to whether UAB can hang with a better level of competition than it faced in Conference USA will linger until next season.

Dilfer has begun to reshape his team’s roster through the transfer portal, but will need to show progress in Year 2 or UAB’s “splash hire” will be viewed as a failure.

Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.