South Alabama begins the transition to FBS Thursday night against West Alabama.

I know you all have a rabid curiosity pertaining to this subject, so, you're welcome.

South Alabama kicks off the first of two transitional seasons on Thursday at 6:30 CT. The opponent is D-II West Alabama. You can watch the game on UTV44 in the Mobile area or on ESPN3.com.

USA’s football program began in 2009, playing two seasons as an unclassified NCAA program, meaning they did not fall into any of the 3 divisions recognized by the NCAA. The Jags were able to achieve a 17-0 record during those two years, including wins over FCS programs Nichols State, Georgia State, Lamar, and a 4th-quarter comeback victory at UC Davis.

The schedule is much tougher this season, with only 2 non-DI opponents (D-II UWA and Henderson St. (Ark.)), and two games against FBS foes, North Carolina State (a game that can be seen on ESPN3.com 9/17/2011 at 5 PM CT) and Kent State. South Alabama's Homecoming game against UT-Martin on October 15th will be televised by CSS, with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 CT.

In 2012, USA will be in the final year of the transition to FBS, playing a 13 game schedule, with 12 opponents coming from the FBS ranks. 2012 will see USA play 8 Sun Belt conference games and traveling to North Carolina State, Mississippi State, and Hawaii.

With the 2013 season, USA will be a full-fledged member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, eligible to compete for Sun Belt Championships and bowl games.

Be sure to check out our 2011 football trailer here.

CJ Bennett (#15) is expected to start at QB after playing in 9 games and starting 3 a year ago, throwing for 1, 189 yards and 9 TDs. An interesting aspect of being unclassified is that USA was able to give players sort of a playing redshirt year, meaning that players who had not previously redshirted at another institution could play one season without using a year of eligibility. In other words, they had 5 years to play 5. This means that CJ will be a redshirt freshman this year and could end up being a 5 year starting QB.



Another player to watch out for is Alabama transfer BJ Scott (#1), who is slated to start at the FS position. BJ, a Mobile native, is a tremendous athlete and should bolster the USA secondary along with Western Michigan transfer Damond Smith and JUCOs Charles Harris and Gabe Loper.




Another name you’ll hear a lot this year is that of running back Demetre Baker (#33). Demetre is a transfer from Georgia and will be called upon to help Kendall Houston (#29) in the running game.





The strength of the USA defense will be up the middle, with leading tackler Enrique Williams (#28) and Virginia Tech transfer Jake Johnson (#42) starting at the middle linebacker spots. Enrique came to USA a few years ago as 187 pounder but has gotten his weight up to 235 pounds through the Jag Power program. See video from that program here.




USA! USA! USA!