Saturday’s game at Oklahoma State will double as a trip home for two key South Alabama football players.

Jaguars tight end Lincoln Sefcik spent much of his youth living near the OSU campus in Stillwater — his father, Tim, played linebacker for the Cowboys in the early 1990s — before moving 65 miles away to Enid when he was in high school. Meanwhile, linebacker Trey Kiser grew up in the southern Oklahoma town of Sulphur, but was an ardent Oklahoma State fan as a youth.

The two South Alabama seniors will continue to subjugate those past loyalties when they lead the Jaguars (1-1) into Saturday’s night game vs. the Cowboys (2-0) in Stillwater. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Boone Pickens Stadium.

“You have to treat it like it’s just another game,” Sefcik said. “The only difference is I’ll have friends and family there that probably wouldn’t be able to go to any other game. I’ve been to a lot of games there, so I’m excited about it.”

While the soft-spoken Sefcik tried to downplay his Oklahoma roots and OSU connections somewhat this week, Kiser wasn’t hesitant to talk about that sort of thing. Though he was born in Norman and grew up in hardcore Sooners country, he always gravitated more toward Mike Gundy’s Cowboys.

A two-way star at running back and linebacker whose Sulphur High team played for a state championship his senior year, the now-6-foot, 224-pound Kiser didn’t get much Division I interest in the recruiting process. He instead went the junior college route at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, where he and Sefcik were teammates for two years before signing together with South Alabama in December of 2020.

“I think it’ll be a fun ordeal and fun atmosphere just to see my friends and family,” Kiser said. “Hopefully, they’re wearing some USA Jaguar gear instead of Oklahoma State gear, but I’m excited. It will be a challenge to go back and really fun to play a team that I wanted to go play college ball with.

“They love Gundy up there, with good reason. But honestly, I don’t even think he knows who I am because they didn’t recruit me at all. So hopefully, I’ll just ball out and show them what they missed out on.”

The 6-foot-3, 238-pound Sefcik has been a three-year starter in South Alabama’s two-tight end sets, totaling 49 receptions for 354 yards and six touchdowns in that time. He’s become a valuable target for Jaguars quarterback Carter Bradley in short-yardage situations, often leaking out into the flat uncovered in play-action.

Kiser was mostly a special teams player his first year at South Alabama, but took over as the first-team Stinger (weak inside) linebacker after starter Quentin Wilfawn was lost to injury in the third game of 2022. He finished the year second on the team with 76 tackles, playing well enough that Jaguars coaches were able to shift Wilfawn in the spring to fill a need at outside linebacker.

The speedy, long-haired Kiser has continued to hold down the Stinger position this season, and has 10 tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup through two games. He’ll wear the honorary No. 5 jersey on Saturday, an award given each week to a different South Alabama player in remembrance of the late Anthony Mostella.

“I probably get more comments from opposing coaches about Trey Kiser than I do any player on our team,” South Alabama coach Kane Wommack said. “It’s just the effort that he plays with. Two different head coaches made the comment that has stuck with me that he kind of ‘embodies the way we see your team playing, how hard they play, how relentless they play.’ He is the bell cow of the Swarm Defense, in terms of effort that he gives day-in and day-out, a very smart player, a great teammate and a great leader.

“I’m very, very proud of Trey Kiser, what he’s accomplished and what he’ll continue to do in this program.”

Said Kiser, “I’m proud to represent Anthony Mostella and what he means to this team. The weight that this number carries, I’m just glad to have that responsibility. The two guys that have had it before me this year (Devin Voisin and James Miller) are hard-working guys, and they set the standard every day. I’m just grateful to be that role model for this team defensively.”

South Alabama is about a touchdown underdog to Oklahoma State, which won a pair of games against the Jaguars in 2017 and 2018. This year’s Cowboys team does not look to be as explosive as those in years past, having scored exactly 27 points in each of their first two games.

Nevertheless, it’s a night road game in a hostile environment, the kind where South Alabama has not traditionally excelled. The Jaguars are 1-15 all-time vs. Power 5 competition, with the lone win at Mississippi State in 2016.

“I think we got it together a little bit offensively late in the first half and in the second half last week (vs. Southeastern Louisiana),” Sefcik said. “We figured out that we’ve just got to be more physical, and stop making silly mistakes. Things will work out on their own, and momentum built. That helped us overall confidence-wise, knowing that we’ve just got to stick to our specific job and not do your own thing, and we’ll be able to get it done.”

Another South Alabama player who is “heading home” in a way is redshirt sophomore safety Mike Harris, who spent the last three seasons at Baylor, like Oklahoma State a member of the Big 12 Conference. Harris, who grew up in Phenix City, has faced the Cowboys before, though in Waco, Texas, rather than in Stillwater.

Harris entered the season hoping to impress on special teams and perhaps get some sporadic defensive reps in an experienced South Alabama secondary. However, injuries to Jalen Jordan and Keith Gallmon have pushed Harris into regular duty in the first two games of the season.

“When my number got called, I just had to step up and do my job,” said Harris, who has five tackles so far this season. “Shout out those (older) guys because they’ve been doing a tremendous job since I’ve been here the whole time. But my number was called, and it was just my time to contribute.”

Saturday’s South Alabama-Oklahoma State game will stream live via ESPN+.