South Alabama football coach Kane Wommack said Monday it’s still unclear who will start at quarterback for the Jaguars in Saturday’s home game with Arkansas State.

Senior Carter Bradley missed the first game of his South Alabama career last Thursday against Troy, sitting out with an injured knee. Freshman Gio Lopez made his first career start in place of Bradley, passing for 155 yards and rushing for 39 in a 28-10 Jaguars loss.

RELATED: 5 takeaways from South Alabama’s 28-10 loss to Troy

South Alabama (4-5, 2-3 Sun Belt Conference) is an 11.5-point favorite over Arkansas State (5-4, 3-2) on Saturday at Hancock Whitney Stadium, a key game in the Jaguars’ quest to keep their bowl hopes alive. Wommack said Bradley, Lopez and third-string quarterback Desmond Trotter will likely all receive reps with both the first- and second-team offenses in practice this week.

“Carter had a really good week last week in terms of his rehab,” Wommack said. “We’ve been really aggressive towards it; he’s been really aggressive towards it. He’s taken some snaps with the ball in his hands toward the end of last week, and over the weekend getting himself ready.

“But I think we’ll have to see what the next couple of days look like in terms of, how much is he actually going to be able to go and practice? Hopefully we don’t have any setbacks as he goes into practice. I would say for him, it would be a game-time decision.”

Prior to sitting out vs. Troy, Bradley had started 21 consecutive games since transferring to South Alabama from Toledo prior to the 2022 season, and is the Jaguars’ all-time leader in completions (442), attempts (679), yards (5,491) and touchdowns (41). He had battled knee soreness for several weeks this season, then had to be helped off the field after aggravating the injury toward the end of a 33-20 loss to Louisiana on Oct. 28.

Due in part to the short week, Lopez took nearly every first-team rep in the days leading up to the Troy game. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound left-hander from James Clemens High School in Madison showed promise, particularly against a defense as strong as the Trojans’, offensive coordinator Major Applewhite said.

“I thought he did really well, for a true freshman in a short week against one of the best defenses in our conference,” Applewhite said. “I though he played really well and I thought he played tough. … I don’t care if you’re a fifth-year senior, there’s always things you can get better at and see better and make (better) decisions.

“But by and large, it was really impressive to see a true freshman go out there and play with that kind of poise and take care of the ball. We had an interception late when we were down two scores, but that’s what’s going to happen when you’re behind. I’m very pleased with him and just excited about where he’s going to continue to grow and build. He’s got a humble heart and he works hard. So his future is bright.”

One added dimension for Lopez is mobility, something the Jaguars have not had much of at the quarterback position the last three seasons with Bradley and Jake Bentley at the controls. He’s arguably South Alabama’s most dangerous dual-threat quarterback since Ross Metheny passed for 2,622 yards and ran for 604 in 2013.

In several instances vs. Troy, Lopez was able to keep plays alive with his legs. Notably on one play in the fourth quarter, he scrambled away from pressure, got outside the pocket and threw the ball for a 32-yard gain to Jamaal Pritchett inside the 5 to help trim the Trojans’ lead to 14-10.

“The exciting thing about Gio is he brings us some different options in our running game,” Wommack said. “We can split plays — we can either block for the quarterback or block for the running back and have an option going the opposite way, whether it’s a quarterback keeper, whether we’re pitching the ball out to a running back or running a counter play into the boundary or something like that.

“There were certainly some ‘young guy’ mistakes that were out there, but what I was impressed to see is, it seemed like he knew where those mistakes were happening and he was able to get them corrected as the game was going on. You’ve got to have some of those experiences to continue to see what it looks like on game day. So I would imagine that experience will pay big dividends in our program and for him in the future.”

Kickoff for South Alabama-Arkansas State on Saturday is set for 4 p.m. The game will stream live via ESPN+.