South Alabama not only started a football program from scratch a half dozen years ago, it did so with the intention to move up to FBS as fast as it could feasibly be done. That might sound like a daunting task, but USA head coach Joey Jones has done a fantastic job of incrementally leveling up his roster, putting the Jaguars in position to be a decent FBS program almost immediately.
In 2014 the Jaguars earned a bowl bid in just their second full season of FBS membership; it took five years from the team's first-ever game, way back in 2009, when they were warming up against teams at the lowest rungs of college football, for them to get to the post-season.