If you didn’t know better, you might think there was no difference between the 7-4 season West Alabama had in 2015 and the 7-4 campaign of 2016.

But coach Brett Gilliland would beg to differ.

“We really felt like we were much improved last season compared to the year before, especially down the stretch and especially in our conference,” Gilliland said. “We ended up 6-2 in conference last year.

“We started slow,” he said of his Tigers’ 1-3 run out of the gate. “We had 11 new guys the first game of the year that did not start the year before on offense. It was a lot of learning each other. And there was a new offensive coordinator as well.

“We had wrinkles to iron out and it took us a little while to do that.”

The 2017 college football season is just around the corner and Alabama NewsCenter is your guide to kickoff with a five-question look at the gridiron programs across the state.

First up is West Alabama, which opens Thursday, Aug. 31, at 6 p.m. at Lenoir Rhyne.

Alabama NewsCenter: What is the outlook for this season?

Brett Gilliland: We’re excited. It looks really good. On both sides of the ball and on our special teams, we’ve got a lot of guys who played a lot of snaps for us last year. Where we went into the year last year without a lot of continuity, it’s completely the opposite this year. We do have a new defensive coordinator but he was here in the spring. Everything’s been a good fit for what we have personnel-wise and our guys have really jumped on board with the changes that there are. We feel like we’ve got a more mature team, an older team. We’re excited to get going.

ANC: What is your team’s strength?

BG: I’d put our strength in the defensive line and our depth there. We’ve got five seniors up there, a lot of good players across the board up front who are playing good football right now. They’re pretty consistent. Also, there are our offensive skill positions – our receivers and our running backs. We’ve got a lot of guys who played a lot of snaps for us last year, accounted for a lot of catches, yards and touchdowns.

UWA receiver Donta Armstrong looks to build on last year’s successes. (UWA Athletics)

Linebacker Khalia Hackett could make a big impact for the UWA Tigers this year. (UWA Athletics)

Running back Lakendric Thomas is back at UWA this year. (UWA Athletics)

UWA defensive tackle Mike Williams continues to impress. (UWA Athletics)

UWA quarterback Harry Satterwhite hands off to running back Lakenderic Thomas. (UWA Athletics)

Mississippi Valley State transfer Austin Bray is competing for the quarterback job at UWA. (UWA Athletics)

ANC: Who are your team’s standouts?

BG: Donta Armstrong is a receiver we had last year who had 91 catches and I believe two punt returns for touchdowns. He’s obviously a guy we’ve got to get going and will get going early on. Lakenderic Thomas and Rashaad Lee, both of our starting running backs, are back. They’re bright spots for us we will depend on, early on especially. Defensively, Mike Williams is a defensive tackle who just continually got better each year he’s been here. He really works hard in the off-season and it shows. Then we have some newcomers we’re excited about seeing in live action. (Linebacker) Khalia Hackett is a guy who came from Arkansas to us. Tevin Madison transferred at corner; he was at Texas Tech.

ANC: What game do your fans have circled on your schedule?

BG: Our fans always have North Alabama circled (at 6 p.m. on Sept. 23 in Florence). It’s always been a rival and they went to the national championship game last year. It’s the natural in-state rival. Obviously everybody in our conference is good. I know what our coaches and our team have circled and that’s Lenoir Rhyne (Thursday, Aug. 31, in Hickory, N.C.) because that’s the first one.

ANC: What is your lingering question?

BG: Right now, it would be quarterback. That’s the one spot that we’ve got a good competition going. We haven’t named a starter and we’ve got multiple guys getting equal reps right now. We’ve got (junior) Harry Satterwhite coming back; last year he was our backup and he ended up starting one game for us. Gabe Tiller is also a returning quarterback, our No. 3 guy last year. Then we’ve got two new guys; they didn’t go through spring and got here in the summer. Austin Bray is a transfer from Mississippi Valley State and Jacob Murphree is a freshman signee out of the state of Tennessee. That would be the biggest unanswered question, which one of those is going to be the starter.