South Alabama, WMU kick off bowl season in Montgomery

South Alabama and Western Michigan will face each other in football for the first time when they meet Saturday night in the IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl in Montgomery, Ala.

However, the men leading both programs do have some familiarity with one another: Both were on Nick Saban's first staff at Alabama in 2007. Jaguars first-year head coach Major Applewhite was Alabama's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach and Broncos second-year head coach Lance Taylor was an offensive graduate assistant for Saban.

South Alabama is going to a bowl game for the third consecutive season and fifth time since the program started in 2009.

"That says a lot about our program and where we're headed," Applewhite said.

Western Michigan is going to a bowl game for the first time since 2021 and for just the 12th time in the program's 119-year history. A victory would be the program's third in a bowl.

"We want to leave a legacy for our seniors," Taylor said.

He has 26 seniors, and the Broncos' experience was something Applewhite pointed to when he addressed the challenge of facing his team's opponent.

Both teams met the minimum standard for bowl eligibility by finishing 6-6, the Jaguars by winning their second-to-last game before losing their finale to Texas State and the Broncos by beating rival Eastern Michigan in the regular-season finale.

South Alabama finished 5-3 in the Sun Belt, and Western Michigan ended up 5-3 in the Mid-American Conference.

Both teams went on the road to play up in class in their nonconference schedules. The Jaguars lost at then No. 14 LSU 42-10 on Sept. 28, and the Broncos began the season with consecutive losses to Wisconsin, 28-14, and Ohio State, 56-0.

Western Michigan won its first four MAC games after Taylor's first team won four games overall last season. However, the Broncos subsequently lost a home game against Northern Illinois and road games against Bowling Green and Central Michigan for a three-game skid before the victory over Eastern Michigan.

"Progress is not always linear. You're going to have ups and downs," Taylor said. "We didn't fracture when we lost three games in a row, we came together and bonded together found a way to get bowl eligible."

The Salute to Veterans Bowl is the first FBS bowl of the season and comes just 14 days after Western Michigan's last game and 15 days after South Alabama's last game.

"It's more or less a bye week," Applewhite said.

He added that there are "pluses and minuses" to playing in mid-December and having a smaller break than has traditionally been the case between the end of the regular season and bowl games.

"You lose opportunities to bring recruits in," Applewhite said. "Also you lose the accumulation of practice that you get by playing in a later bowl game."

Western Michigan led the MAC in scoring (29.4 points per game) behind first-team all-MAC running back Jaden Nixon (12 touchdowns, 6.6 yards per rush) and first-team linemen Addison West and Jacob Gideon.

South Alabama ranks second in the Sun Belt and 20th in the country in scoring (34.8). First-team Sun Belt receiver Jamaal Pritchett led the conference in catches (91) and receiving yards (1,126) while making nine touchdown receptions.

--Field Level Media