Almost exactly 48 hours after South Alabama head football coach Kane Wommack officially resigned to become defensive coordinator at Alabama, the Jaguars announced his replacement.

As AL.com and other outlets reported late Wednesday, Major Applewhite is the Jaguars’ new head man. He was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Wommack the last three seasons.

“I’m incredibly humbled and excited to be the next head football coach at the University of South Alabama,” Applewhite said. “My family and I love living in Mobile, and are thankful for the opportunity to further ingrain ourselves in the community here. I’m grateful to Kane Wommack for bringing me here three years ago, and I look forward to carrying on the winning tradition that has been established. I’m excited to work with the strong and proven leadership of the administration here at South Alabama. I’m anxious to get started and quickly turn my attention back to our players, and prepare them for spring ball and the 2024 season.”

The 45-year-old Applewhite, a star quarterback at Texas in the late 1990s, was previously head coach at Houston in 2017-18. He went 15-11 with back-to-back winning seasons, but was fired after a 70-14 loss to Army in the 2018 Armed Forces Bowl.

Applewhite then spent two years as an analyst on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff before joining Wommack in Mobile in 2021. He was also Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2007, co-offensive coordinator under Mack Brown at Texas from 2011-13 and again offensive coordinator under Tom Herman at Houston from 2015-16.

“Following a broad evaluation of our program, it became very clear that the best leader for us in both the short and long term is Major Applewhite,” South Alabama athletics director Joel Erdmann said. “His professional experience, his string of mentors along his path and his proven ability to recruit, develop and sustain relationships with student-athletes were all significant contributing factors to this decision. I am incredibly excited about our future, and can’t wait to work together with coach Applewhite as we continue to move this program forward.”

South Alabama set program records for scoring (33.1 per game) and total offense (440.5 yards per game) in 2023, when it finished 7-6. The Jaguars scored a school-record 59 points in their season-ending victory over Eastern Michigan in the 68 Ventures Bowl, eclipsing the 55 they scored earlier in the season vs. both Southern Miss and Louisiana-Monroe.

Applewhite also mentored the most-prolific quarterback in program history the last two years in Carter Bradley, who will play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl next month. Bradley holds virtually every single-game, single-season and career passing record at South Alabama, including career yards (5,995) and touchdowns (47).

The hiring of Applewhite appears to be popular with South Alabama players, who are now free to enter the NCAA transfer portal for 30 days because Wommack left to take another job. Several took to social media to express their happiness over Applewhite getting the job.

ESPN is reporting that Applewhite has agreed to a 5-year contract with the Jaguars. An announcement on an introductory press conference is expected to come later Thursday morning.