When Joey Jones became the first head coach in the history of University of South Alabama football, he knew he would need to find some experienced players to lead the program's inaugural team.

Jones had the experience of having started a program from scratch after leading Birmingham-Southern in its rebirth of football in 2007. That team was composed almost entirely of freshmen.

"I've been through this situation before, and when I started the year with so many freshmen, I told myself I'd never make that mistake again," Jones reflected. "We needed to bring some experience in here, and it was vital that we had guys on both sides of the ball that had those types of intangibles to come in and lead us."

Enter Charlie Higgenbotham and Justin Dunn. Both had played for Jones before, and both had experience on the collegiate level.

Dunn made the decision to transfer to USA from Birmingham-Southern after playing for Jones in 2007. Higgenbotham played three years under Jones at Mountain Brook High School before spending the following three years at Alabama.

"I was very excited, number one because of the type of people they are, and number two because of the type of players they are," Jones stated. "They're just great guys that I knew would come in here and lead our football team on the defensive side of the ball, as well as the whole team. They lead by their actions, what they do in the weight room and the classroom."

Dunn joined the Jags prior to spring practice and was later presented with the team's Outstanding Linebacker Award, in addition to becoming one of four players to earn the Jaguar Strength Award.

"Coming down here with a man like coach Jones, with his swagger and how he carries himself, it's just a blessing in itself," Dunn said. "He surrounds himself with good people too, so I knew he'd have it ready to go when I got down here."

Higgenbotham didn't have as much time. He joined the Jags on the first day of fall camp, just a month before their first game.

"One thing I love about him is that character is very important to him, and I think it's extremely important too," Higgenbotham said. "I know how he runs things, he does a really good job and it's always tough but you're always better for it. I really respect him as a coach, and I knew that he had surrounded himself with coaches just like him."

Some players might have struggled to get acclimated in such a short amount of time. Higgenbotham had no trouble at all.

"He's the smartest football player I've ever coached, and I said that back when he was playing for me in high school," Jones said. "He's a guy that you tell him something one time and he's got it, and he understands it on the field. When 10 guys would run the wrong way on defense he'd be the only guy making a tackle. He's just one of those guys you can't fool because he's extremely smart on the football field."

If he was learning on the fly, it didn't show. Higgenbotham was second on the team with seven tackles in the first game. The only player with more was Dunn, who had eight, as well as a program-record 3.5 tackles for loss.

"What makes guys have a lot of tackles is effort, and any time you come out and watch us play you're going to see number 45 in and around the ball all the time," linebackers coach Kurt Crain said. "That doesn't happen by accident - it's him playing hard every snap."

"He's a violent player," added Jones. "He plays the game extremely physically at middle linebacker. He's relentless flying to the football, and that's what makes him a great linebacker."

Dunn has gone on to lead the Jags in tackles in four of their five contests. He holds the program's two best single-game totals with 11 against Georgia Military J.C. and eight against Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy.

In addition to their individual performances, Dunn and Higgenbotham are responsible for the entire defense.

"Playing linebacker is such a special position because you have to do so many things," Crain said. "You're responsible for getting us lined up, getting the down and distance, and then making every tackle. That's the mentality that you have to have."

"We take it as our responsibility to make the calls and get everybody in the right spot, and we take a lot of pride in that," Higgenbotham stated. "If they don't do things right we feel like it's our fault, so we try to set a good example for the guys playing under us."

"That just kind of fell in our lap," Dunn added. "We've been there before and they're just looking for some guidance. They know the defense and they know what to do, but they look up to us because they know we've been there before."

While the duo's performance in games has been impressive, the coaches say what they've done for the program goes beyond individual statistics.

"Any time you have leadership and guys that have played before, been through some wars and battles, they know how to practice," Crain said. "They practice so hard, everybody else can look and see how hard they practice, and the other guys end up saying they want to be like that guy. They're a privilege to coach because they come to work every day, and it's been a lot of fun for me to coach them."

The younger players take notice. Behind Dunn and Higgenbotham on the depth chart are redshirt freshman, Brett Hancock and true freshmen Bryson James and Enrique Williams.

"There's no doubt they take notice," Jones said. "You look at those other linebackers - and we've got some really talented young linebackers - they look at everything they do and they hear everything they say."

"Everybody is a freshman around here, so they all think I'm an old man," Higgenbotham joked. "Justin and I are both really, really old to these guys, so we do take a mentor relationship and try to teach them everything we can. They're doing a great job picking everything up and they're becoming a lot better linebackers."

All kidding aside, the level of experience is certainly something the other players respect. Higgenbotham played in 24 games the last two seasons at Alabama, while Dunn was named second-team all-conference at Birmingham-Southern.

"It definitely helps us because we've been there before and we know what to expect," Dunn said. "We don't let things fluster us or get us confused because we've been there before, so that's the big thing with us. Everybody knows the defense, but we've been in those situations before so we know what to expect when it arrives."

"I had the opportunity to play with some very good linebackers and play under some great coaches at Alabama," Higgenbotham added. "I do my best to take what I've learned from them and apply it to my game here, as well as pass it along to the younger guys."

The duo will only don the Jaguar uniform for two seasons, but in their roles as mentors to the younger players Higgenbotham and Dunn should play a significant role for many more years as USA's football program continues to grow.

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

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