Bubba Thompson has enrolled at South Alabama and has joined the Jaguars football team as a backup player, AL.com has learned.

Thompson, who turns 27 in June, was an all-state quarterback at McGill-Toolen Catholic School in Mobile in 2016 but has spent the last eight seasons playing professional baseball. He was a first-round pick by the Texas Rangers in 2017 and played parts of the last three seasons as a major league outfielder with the Rangers and Cincinnati Reds.

Thompson posted a video on social media Sunday showing him throwing a football at the Jaguar Training Center practice facility. Head coach Major Applewhite confirmed to AL.com that Thompson will join the team for offseason workouts and upcoming spring practices, but did not comment further.

South Alabama appears to be stacked at quarterback with rising sophomore Gio Lopez (who started 11 games in 2024), junior Bishop Davenport (who started the other two) and 2024 freshman Jared Hollins (who redshirted). Like Thompson, Lopez and Hollins were all-state players in high school at Alabama, while Davenport — a Texas native — was the most valuable player in the Jaguars’ Salute to Veterans Bowl win over Western Michigan in December.

Because Thompson never enrolled in college, he has a full five years to play four seasons at the college level. Several other former professional baseball players later transitioned to football over the years, including Hoover native Josh Magee, who played three seasons in the Houston Astros organization before becoming a standout wide receiver at UAB and South Alabama.

The 6-foot-1, 197-pound Thompson was a three-star football recruit out of McGill-Toolen and had scholarship offers from the likes of Tennessee and Ole Miss at the time. He rushed for 3,173 yards and 38 touchdowns and led the Yellow Jackets to the Class 7A state championship game as a senior in 2016, when he was teammates with future South Alabama star and current Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jalen Tolbert.

Thompson – who was involved in baseball at times for both Auburn and Alabama while in high school – reached the major leagues with the Rangers in 2022 and played 55 games that season, batting .265 with one home run, nine RBIs and 18 steals. He played 37 games for Texas in 2023 before being claimed off waivers by the Kansas City Royals in August.

He was released four times during the 2023-24 offseason, being signed at various times by the Royals, Cincinnati Reds (twice), New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. He played 17 games for the Reds in 2024 before being granted free agency after the season.

In 109 games with the Rangers and Reds, Thompson hit .232 with one home run, 13 RBIs and 27 steals in 32 attempts. In 486 minor league games, he hit .263 with 52 home runs, 226 RBIs and 135 steals.