If there weren’t a lot of offensive fireworks in Saturday’s South Alabama spring football game, that was by design.

The Jaguars intentionally played it close to the vest in their first spring game under coach Major Applewhite. There were two touchdowns during the two 20-minute “halves” of regular scrimmaging, then three more in the red zone “lockout” period.

In between was a lot of incomplete passes and interceptions, but no apparent new injuries. Offensive coordinator Rob Ezell and defensive coordinator Will Windham were under orders from Applewhite to keep things simple, he said.

“What I wanted to see today specifically was just be vanilla,” Applewhite said. “We don’t need to show anything. Call it from a napkin. I just want to see these guys play fast, use our base fundamentals, communicate, get plays in and out, get plays communicated on the field with each other and just play fast. Just continue to make base calls while we’re out there that we can operate with.

“I tied both of Rob’s hands behind his back and cut them off today in terms of what he could call, and Will did the same thing. I was pleased with the effort they gave. It’s sometimes hard for the average fan to go out there and watch it because it’s so vanilla and watered down, but I was proud of the intensity the guys had out there on the field.”

All three quarterbacks on the roster played Saturday, combining to complete just 13 of 41 passes for 166 yards and one touchdown. Gio Lopez, who entered the spring as the frontrunner to start in 2024, did not complete any of his 13 passes and was also intercepted once.

Redshirt sophomore Bishop Davenport — last year’s scout-team quarterback — completed just 4 of 13 passes for 41 yards and was picked off twice, but did break loose for a 55-yard touchdown run. True freshman Jared Hollins was easily the most-productive of the three (though he was facing mostly the second-team defense), completing 9 of 15 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown — including a 25-yard touchdown to Andrew Bench — and an interception.

“I felt like I could have did better; we always do,” Davenport said. “But overall, I feel like we got better today. We fought some adversity today and we’ve got to make better plays, but in the long run it’ll help out for us, it’ll be good for us to have days like this.”

Said Lopez, “I just got better with everything schematically and then just knowing what I’m supposed to be doing, taking it day-by-day. Of course there’s humps in the road, but I feel like I got better each day.”

Applewhite said he was not discouraged by Lopez’s lack of production on Saturday, intending to judge his performance during the spring as a whole. However, the South Alabama coach conceded the team’s starting quarterback battle with continue into the fall, as will competition at other positions.

“All three of those guys are out there competing,” Applewhite said. “There’s just so much football, so much time now with the portal, guys coming in and going out. We feel good about the players that we have that can play above the line football at that position. So we’re really looking at all of those positions right now in that way.

“There’s so much stuff that could happen with finals and portal in June and July, that to make some decisions now is premature. Let’s get through the summer and see where the development is there and once we get in the August months and start seeing scrimmage one and two, we can start defining our roster.”

Davenport led all rushers with 60 yards on five carries, and also scored a 1-yard touchdown in the red zone period. The other red zone scores were Laith Marjan’s 34-yard field goal, PJ Martin’s 2-yard touchdown and Dorian Smith’s 2-yard touchdown.

“Today is a small portion of the whole spring,” Lopez said. “You don’t show what you’ve fully got at the spring game. I feel like we had a really great spring. Everything we did to like today is just a small portion of what we have to show during the season.”

Many of the Jaguars’ top offensive players — including running back Braylon McReynolds, tight end DJ Thomas-Jones and wide receiver Jamaal Pritchett — played only a handful of snaps on Saturday, in the interest of long-term health. South Alabama was also without a number of likely starters or rotational players on the offensive and defensive lines due to injury or offseason surgery.

The defense did manage a number of big plays on Saturday, including two interceptions by safety Brian Dillard, and one each by Lardarius Webb and Jamarrien Burt. The Jaguars also totaled four sacks, six tackles for loss and three pass breakups.

“We’re growing a lot from each scrimmage to this spring game,” safety Jaden Voisin said. “Our defense is just coming together really good. It’s hot outside and I could tell that didn’t really affect us today. So that’s really nice to see.”

“It was just about being consistent. That’s what we teach out there. We’ve been doing this for a month and (spring game) is the last thing, so everybody’s excited to do it. We just came out here and showed what we could do.”

South Alabama opens the 2024 season at home Aug. 31 vs. North Texas.