NEW ORLEANS – Gerald Everett and Jeremy Reaves were named preseason first-team all-Sun Belt Conference on Friday, leading a contingent of eight members of the University of South Alabama football program who were recognized.

Joining the duo as second-team selections were Roman Buchanan, Kalen Jackson, Xavier Johnson, Josh Magee, Aleem Sunanon and Curtis Williams.  Voting was done by the league's 11 head coaches and selected members of the media.

Everett — who is on the John Mackey Award Preseason Watch List — led the Jaguars a year ago with 41 receptions for 575 yards and eight touchdowns, as well as with 12 total scores.  A first-team all-conference selection and member of the Sun Belt All-Newcomer Team, he was sixth among tight ends nationally in receiving yards per game and 11th in catches per contest after recording multiple receptions in all but one of the Jags' 12 outings.  His season highs of eight catches for 164 yards in a victory at eventual Mountain West Conference champion San Diego State were the most by a Jaguar last fall, while he scored multiple touchdowns both in a win at Troy and against SBC champion Arkansas State.

Reaves is South's leading returning tackler from the 2015 campaign after posting a career-best 96 stops, a total that included eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage.  He was voted second-team all-league following his first season as a starter in the defensive backfield after adding six passes broken up, two interceptions and three forced fumbles as he ranked among the top 20 in the Sun Belt in four different statistical categories.  Reaves — a member of the Jim Thorpe Award Preseason Watch List — recorded a double-digit tackle total on four occasions a year ago, with a career-best 11 against Appalachian State in addition to collecting 10 at SDSU and against both Nebraska and North Carolina State.

Buchanan is coming off a season in which he was a second-team all-Sun Belt selection as a defensive back after finishing with 67 stops — including three for loss — and a pair of interceptions.  The first junior ever to be voted a team captain, he paced USA with a career-high 11 tackles in the Nebraska contest, matching that total versus ASU, while recording nine stops against NCSU and a game-high-tying seven at Georgia Southern in the final road game of the year.

In his first season with the program, Jackson was named honorable mention all-league at linebacker after leading the Jaguars with 8½ tackles behind the line; he finished with 72 total stops and intercepted two passes as well.  He was credited with a career-best 12 stops against ASU to pace South in the category, posted seven tackles against league foes Louisiana-Lafayette, Georgia State and Georgia Southern, and was the conference's Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week after finishing with six solo stops — with two of those for a loss — and an interception at Troy.

Jackson made the preseason all-Sun Belt team as a defensive back with Buchanan at linebacker after the two switched positions in the spring.

Johnson — who is on the Preseason Watch List for the Paul Hornung Award — earned preseason honors on the all-conference squad as a return specialist, coming off a season in which he set a school record with an average of 31.36 yards per kickoff return.  He tied the program mark with a 100-yard run back of the second-half kickoff for a score to help spark a rally from a 24-0 deficit in a Homecoming win over Idaho, ending the contest with a school-record 289 all-purpose yards, while finishing with 120 yards on three kick returns at Georgia State.

Last fall, Magee averaged 21.91 yards per catch, a figure that ranked fourth nationally and was second on USA's season record list, after catching 23 passes for 504 yards and three scores.  The wideout led the Jags with six receptions for 147 yards — both career-high totals — against the Cornhuskers in the second game of the season, going on to finish with a game-best 118 yards on three catches in the Jaguars' victory at Troy while giving the team a seven-point halftime lead against ASU with a 76-yard touchdown reception late in the second quarter.

Sunanon has twice been chosen honorable mention all-conference as a placekicker including a year ago after posting a team-leading 80 points; he converted all 32 extra-point attempts and was 16-of-19 on field goal tries.  The league's Special Teams Student-Athlete of the Week twice in the first three weeks of the season, he was third in the SBC in field goals per game while finishing seventh in scoring and ended the campaign by connecting on six field goals in a row.

Williams started all 12 games on the offensive line at left tackle after joining the program in the spring of 2015, posting 42 pancake blocks while earning a grade of 80 percent or better in all but one outing.  He received a season-best 96 percent mark and was credited with five knockdowns — both the best figures on the team — following the Jags' defeat of Louisiana-Lafayette, had a 92 percent grade and five pancakes in a win over Idaho the previous week and was credited with a 90 percent mark against postseason bowl participants Arkansas State and Appalachian State.

The Jaguars were predicted to finish seventh in the Sun Belt preseason poll released on Thursday.  They will open the season on Saturday, Sept. 3, at Mississippi State, with the contest set to kickoff at 11 a.m. (CDT) on the SEC Network.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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