The South Alabama Jaguars enter the 2022 football season with a wide receiver room that looks markedly different from a year ago, and senior Jalen Wayne is embracing the job of steadying it. With standout Jalen Tolbert now off to the NFL, Wayne has become the unquestioned veteran presence for a unit that features several young and largely unproven players.
Tolbert, last season’s Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year, was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the third round of the NFL Draft and is expected to compete for a starting job in Dallas this season. He set multiple school receiving records during his time in Mobile and, along with fellow departed receiver Kawaan Baker, helped anchor a South Alabama passing attack that ranked among the Sun Belt’s best in recent years.
With Tolbert gone, Wayne — the nephew of former Indianapolis Colts All-Pro receiver Reggie Wayne — is the last man standing from that group, and he says he has fully accepted the responsibility that comes with it.
“I’m definitely OK with it. I’ve been OK with it. It’s fun,” said Wayne, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior. “I like the feeling of the pressure or whatever y’all like to call it. It’s OK. I definitely like the role.”
Wayne said the transition into a vocal leadership position has come naturally after several fall practice sessions, even though it required a shift in mindset for a player who has spent most of his career focused on his own development rather than directing others.
“I’ve been kind of that way my whole career as far as worrying about what the other guys have got going on,” Wayne said. “But now that I’m in the role that I’m in, it’s a lot easier because they are looking at me as the only guy to listen to, so whatever I say kind of goes. It’s not a dictator thing, but they believe in what I say. That’s as easy as it can be as a leader.”
South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack said Wayne’s experience — both on the field and around the program — makes him the natural choice to set the tone for a receiving corps that will lean heavily on newcomers this fall.
“I think Jalen’s been around so long that he does understand the expectations, he realizes the standard and he’s seen what great wide receiver play looks like in this league, both from himself and two of his closest friends that are now in the NFL,” Wommack said, referring to Tolbert and Baker.
“Now I think it’s just a matter of elevating the overall expectations in that room with some guys that are going to contribute but don’t have the same amount of experience,” Wommack continued. “Jalen’s not the loudest guy out there on the field unless he’s really emotional, and we try to limit that as much as we can. But I think he’s a guy who understands that you have to set an example, and I think he’s come light years in that regard.”
Wommack said Wayne’s combination of talent and football IQ gives him a chance to play at a high level beyond college as well.
“Obviously, Jalen is the only real experienced wide receiver in a group of young guys that we’re going to need to step up and fill some roles of some really great receivers who have come through here over the last couple of years,” Wommack said. “I think Jalen, athletically and his understanding of what we’re doing, puts him in position to be an elite receiver in this league and pretty much any other league for that matter. He’s always been the most gifted on any field that he walks on. So for him, it’s just understanding how to be the most consistent player across the board — and I think we’ve seen a lot of steps in the right direction, just in the last year and a half on that.”
Wayne enters his final season coming off the best year of his career, having caught 53 passes for 630 yards and two touchdowns in 2021. For his career, he has hauled in 94 receptions for 1,163 yards and three touchdowns. He arrived at South Alabama after a standout senior season at Spanish Fort High School, where he recorded 28 catches for 469 yards and three touchdowns to go with 279 rushing yards. Wayne began his prep career at Faith Academy before transferring to Spanish Fort.
As for the receivers who will be counted on to replace the production South Alabama lost, Wayne said he has liked much of what he has seen through fall camp, while also pushing his younger teammates to eliminate mental mistakes.
“Caullin Lacy definitely got a lot better over the offseason; we’ve been working together,” Wayne said. “Nae’Saan Dickerson and Christian Wortham are coming along. Oakley Coleman is getting really open, he’s just got to start catching the ball and stop the alligator arm stuff. I could go on for a day, but those young guys are looking good. T.J. Davis is looking good. He was a little nervous at the beginning, but as we got on he looked pretty good.”
“I just told them at the end of the day you signed a scholarship to catch the football, so that’s what they expect of us and that’s what we’ve got to do,” Wayne said. “We ain’t O-linemen, we ain’t the quarterback, we’re the receivers, so we’ve got to catch the football. I don’t really like dealing with excuses.”
Wommack echoed his receiver’s optimism about the young talent set to join Wayne in the rotation this season.
“I’m really excited about some of the young talent. We have some really explosive players in that regard, and we also have some guys doing some things from a discipline standpoint at a high level,” Wommack said. “Devin Voisin is one that comes to mind; he is talented and he’s also just so consistent. I think our quarterbacks trust him when he’s out there on the field, and he does a great job in terms of taking care of the ball. He’s got great hands. Then you’ve got some guys like Jay’juan Townsend and Christian Wortham, who I think have tremendous upside, and how soon they fully achieve that consistency will be an indicator too of how we can utilize those guys.”
“You add those with guys like Caullin Lacy and Jalen Wayne, who are already proven receivers in this league, and I think we have a chance to have a pretty good corps instead of maybe just featuring one player or two players like we did with the two Jalens a year ago,” Wommack said.
South Alabama’s tight end group is also expected to help shoulder some of the passing-game load this season. The Jaguars return Brandon Crum, Lincoln Sefcik and Jacob Hopper, and add Ole Miss transfer D.J. Thomas-Jones, a Saraland High School product, along with Nick Ruggs and Todd Justice, giving Wommack’s offense several options at the position as it looks to replace departed playmakers.