MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -Birmingham-Southern College coach Joey Jones was hired as South Alabama's first football coach, a move that takes him back to his native Mobile and eventually into the Sun Belt Conference.

Jones met with his Birmingham-Southern team in a closed session Thursday to tell them about his decision, according to a person with knowledge of the move who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement is to be made Friday.

Through a Birmingham-Southern spokesman, Jones said he could not comment.

The 45-year-old Jones, a former Alabama player who spent time with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and USFL's Birmingham Stallions, met with South Alabama athletic director Joe Gottfried for the third time on Wednesday and accepted the offer Thursday.

South Alabama's trustees voted in December to start a football program that will begin play in 2009. The Jaguars will transition to full Division I-A membership in 2013 as a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

Jones coached Birmingham-Southern's first football team since 1939 last year. The Division III team was 1-7 in its first season, playing almost exclusively with freshmen and sophomores. The Panthers also won two junior varsity games.