South Alabama was back on the football practice field Friday morning, and no one was happier about that than Keith Gallmon.

Gallmon has returned healthy this spring after missing all of the 2022 season with a torn pectoral muscle suffered in an August scrimmage. A three-year starting safety for the Jaguars who went to high school at Mobile Christian, he had to watch from the sideline as his hometown team enjoyed its best-ever football season, going 10-3 and reaching a bowl game for the first time in six years.

“It’s huge to be back out here,” Gallmon said after the Jaguars’ first practice of the spring. “It brings so much joy to my life. This is my passion. I just love being out here with my teammates. I feel like being back out there on the field today just lifted my spirits for the rest of the week. “It was rough (in 2022). It was rough just watching. But all I could do is cheer along my teammates and be ready for this moment that I’m in right now.”

The 5-foot-9, 203-pound Gallmon was one of the mainstays of the South Alabama defense from 2019-21, starting 35 consecutive games and playing in 46 of a possible 47 games in his four-year career. He led the team with 59 tackles in 2021 and was a preseason All-Sun Belt Conference pick last year.

The injury, which resulted in surgery that left Gallmon in a bulky sling for several weeks, resulted in him taking a redshirt season for the first time in his career. Thanks to an extra year of eligibility granted to all Division I athletes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he is now back as a sixth-year senior for a veteran Jaguars team in 2023.

“It’s awesome to see Keith Gallmon out there,” head coach Kane Wommack said. “It’s hard to imagine there are people out there that would be more enjoyable to coach than Keith Gallmon. He’s a guy that … cares a ton. He’s an awesome dude that loves his teammates and he loves the game of football.

“It was such a disappointment when he got hurt right at the beginning of the season. Then a little bit later, (starting linebacker) Quentin Wilfawn gets hurt. You’ve got two very experienced football players that are going to provide a lot of production for us going into the season. I hated to lose them a year ago, but I’m really glad that they’re both back.”

If there was a silver lining to Gallmon’s injury, it’s that it allowed other safeties to get more playing time and develop into contributors. Jaden Voisin stepped into Gallmon’s leadership role at the back end of the defense, and led the team with 80 tackles, along with five pass breakups and two interceptions.

Ole Miss transfer Jalen Jordan earned more immediate playing time in 2022 at the expense of Gallmon’s injury, and finished fourth on the team with 58 tackles. Voisin, Jordan and starting Husky (nickel) safety Yam Banks — a first-team All-Sun Belt Conference pick who had a school-record six interceptions last season — are all also back for 2023, in effect giving the Jaguars four starting safeties for three positions.

“Keith Gallmon goes out, and how do you replace that experience and production?,” Wommack said. “Then, all of a sudden, in walks Jaden Voisin and you’ve got a guy that led us in tackles, had a ton of production. … And then you bring in Jalen Jordan, who had experience at Ole Miss. He played a ton of snaps for us, started for us. Those are the things that are really exciting, when you can couple those guys with Yam Banks and Keith Gallmon coming back. I think we have a pretty good nucleus of guys at the safety position.”

Said Gallmon, “I feel like we have a lot of depth, a lot of maturity in our room. Guys, they really got a chance to learn the scheme and now they’ve actually been in the scheme for a whole year and they had a great year. I feel like us coming together as a unit is going to be huge — just keeping the dial moving forward. We’re all going to rotate, we’re all going to play. So just having guys ready to play and knowing their assignment and knowing what to do when they step out on the field is big.”

South Alabama will practice again Saturday morning before taking Sunday off. The Jaguars will then settle into a Monday-Wednesday-Friday practice routine leading into the April 15 Red-White spring game at Hancock Whitney Stadium.