Zak Yassine didn’t resemble a Southern football player during practice Tuesday.
When the redshirt senior defensive tackle lifted his helmet, he briefly looked like a player-coach instead.
He stuck out his arm and placed it on the chest of a teammate as he demonstrated proper technique during a drill with his fellow linemen. These moments aren't uncommon and are more necessary now than last season.
Senior defensive end Ckelby Givens, who led the FCS with 27½ tackles for loss last season, is the only consistent starter back on the defensive line. Of Southern’s 10 defensive tackles and seven defensive ends, nine are upperclassmen. Among the veterans, four are junior-college transfers who’ve been learning Southern’s system and culture along with the freshmen.
This is a different scenario from last year, when the defensive front in the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game — Givens, redshirt junior Jelani Davis (now at Kent State), and seniors Darrius Harry and Willie Miles — were all returners from 2023. Last season, the group helped the Jaguars finish third in the SWAC in sacks (35).
The team recognizes the newness that permeates throughout the defensive line, but it has confidence in the pieces assembled as the team gets closer to the season opener against North Carolina Central at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 23 in Atlanta.
“We’ve grown a lot,” Yassine said. “We’re a younger group. We have some younger talent that I think will really help us in the trenches.”
Coach Terrence Graves and his staff know what they’ll get from Givens. When it came to supporting him, they were intentional with the traits they targeted in the transfer portal and recruiting trail.
“We wanted more size,” Graves said. “We put an emphasis on going out and getting bigger guys, not necessarily taller guys. I think sometimes that can be overrated. You want playmakers. In a perfect world, you want 6-3, 6-4, 6-5, but now to get that on our level, a lot of times that’s a developmental guy or a guy that transferred that you just happen to get. But when you can get those guys 6-1 and a half, 6-2, 6-3, now you got the guys who play at this level and play well.”
The 6-foot-1, 285-pound Yassine is an example of how that philosophy has worked for Southern after he transferred from Lamar following the 2022 season. He was effective in 10 games last year with 23 tackles, 5½ tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries.
A new player who could follow that example is Garden City (Kansas) Community College transfer Habib Bello. The 6-3, 315-pound junior defensive tackle had 13 tackles and a sack in seven games last year and has shown signs of being a plug-and-play player at Southern.
“A big, strong guy, he can move people,” Yassine said of Bello. “He’s a mountain of a man. We call him grizzly bear.”
Bello and junior Riverside Community College transfer Darren Scott are both from the West Coast. Graves said their progress is linked to their adjustment to the humidity in Baton Rouge.
“The JUCO guys Habib Bello and Darren Scott, those guys are now ... entering their own and pretty much being acclimated to the heat coming from California to South Louisiana,” Graves said. “Those guys have started to get acclimated and you can see it. Those guys are flying around.”
Younger defensive tackles who also have impressed are redshirt freshman LSU transfer De'Myrion Johnson, true freshman Sean Wallace and redshirt sophomore Jayden Rogers, who was an offensive lineman last season.
“The young freshman from Zachary High, Sean Hamilton, I say the guy is gonna be a good one,” Graves said. “It’s gonna be hard not to play him all year.”
Southern knows that with Givens, the preseason SWAC Defensive Player of the Year, on its side, pressuring the backfield is bound to happen. With the influx of hungry new and returning players, the Jaguars have faith they can dominate upfront.
“We’re gonna get it done,” Yassine said. “I think every year we have the same questions come about, and I think every year we kind of silence those questions.”