University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Football Coach Will Hall Media Conference – UAB Week
10/12/2021 3:22:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Will Hall met with the media Tuesday morning following practice to discuss this weekend's home contest against UAB.
The Golden Eagles play the Blazers at M.M. Roberts Stadium this Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. The game can be seen via Stadium and also be heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network from Learfield. Stadium is available in the Hattiesburg area over the air on WHPM 23.2 (Antenna 23) or on Comcast channel 219 as well as streamed through watchstadium.com.
Here is some of what Hall said to the media on Tuesday:
Opening Statement…
"Alright, really good competition Tuesday. I loved the energy and effort of our kids. Our kids keep pressing and moving. Outside of the Alabama game, every game that we've played has been a one-score game at halftime. We've been right there to do it. Our focus, we don't need more three-run homers. We need more singles, we need more base hits. We need more guys not swinging at bad pitches. We just need everybody doing their job. Our bad plays, our devastating plays, there's ten guys doing good, one guy's not. We've got to get over that hump if we're going to win games. That's just the team that we are. We're going to play a lot of close games. We knew that before the season started. Every single speaking function that I went to, I said that we are going to play this year is going to be a one-score game probably except for one. We just have to get over this hump and get over this mentality. Our kids are pressing and doing everything right. It's going to happen eventually. I hope that it starts this week."
On positive outlook of team despite 1-5 start...
"Everything is going good in this program except one thing. Recruiting is going great. The kids are really doing a great job in the classroom, on the field and lifting. We are improving. You can see these young guys getting better. We're playing so many guys that weren't playing early in the year because they're young and getting better and that's what you should do. Every day you practice to get better. Our mentality is right. We're moving forward. We have to get better, faster. I understand that, but we are getting better."
On the team's attitude of belief...
"They believe in how we treat them. They see the film. We are brutally honest in this program. It's not like we're telling lies. We put the film on and show it. There are three plays in that game [against UTEP] where if one guy just does what he is supposed to do, the whole game is drastically different. There were three devastating plays in that game. We had three situations where one guy just didn't do what he was supposed to do and the whole game is really different. Our kids know that. We just have to get over that hump. Teams that lose, lose for a reason. Teams that win, don't do the things that cause you to lose. You have to quit doing the things that cause you to lose before you start winning. Right now, we set our bowling pins all up and get them all just perfect and right about the time we're about to roll the ball to knock them, we slip the ball out of our hand and throw it backwards. We just have to tighten down and get everybody doing their job. It's going to get over the hump."
On frustrations of 1-5 start...
"We inherited a program. We said that we have a great vision and a very detailed plan to get this program back. I believe in all my heart that this program is way closer today than it was the day we got here. I think when you talk to me tomorrow, it's going to be way closer tomorrow. We wake up every day and control what we can control. It's coaching these kids and improving them, helping develop them as men and impactors in the community, and then recruiting like madmen. We're doing that and that's what we focus on."
On quarterback depth...
"We brought in a young man named Jake Smithhart, he's been a student coach for us. We brought him in, claimed him off waivers if you will. We took him off of the student coach roster and got him cleared through compliance last week and he is on the team now. He's our third quarterback now. Jake was a state champion at Pearl High School in 2016. He played for the great John Perry, one of the all-time great coaches in Mississippi history, who is now doing a great job in Nixon, Mo. That's what we've got. We're down to Jake Lange, Tee Webb and Jake Smithhart. Jake joined our team today and he's competing with Tee to be the backup."
On transfer portal relief being offered by NCAA...
"We can add seven more guys if we have seven guys go in the portal. We anticipate that we're probably going to have that. We'll end up being able to take 32 new guys total. If we get all the way to 32, we're going to be able to take eight more commitments in this class. That's where we're at right now. We're at 23 and probably going to put another guy that's on our team on scholarship. That'll put us at 24, which will leave us eight more spots in this class."
On UAB...
"They're a really good football team that is well-coached. I have a lot of respect for Bill Clark. He and I both came up in small college football together. He was at Prattville [Ala.] High School then he went to Jacksonville State. He was at South Alabama, while I was at West Alabama, then he went to UAB and a lot of my friends have coached for him. There's a lot of similarities in how they've built their program with how we're building ours. He's done a phenomenal job there. He's resurrected that place. I just have a lot of respect for him with the same background and track record that I've got - winning at smaller levels and moving his way up."
On 3rd quarter problems...
"The third quarter has kind of been where it's gone over, but there's instances in the first and second quarter where we've had the chance to take the lead more. I don't think it's a third-quarter issue as much as it is there's a few devastating plays. Look at the NFL, every game is a one-score game pretty much, 85-90 percent of them are. We're playing one-score game, so there's going to be about five plays that decided every one-score game. Those five plays are going to naturally happen throughout the game. We have to be ready to have 11 guys doing their job and right now we're having about nine or 10 and those things happen. Look at the reverse [against UTEP], we're there. We just have to contain it, tackle him or force him back in. It can't go for a touchdown. The fumble, scoop-n-score, should have been a touchdown for us. It was a great read by Jake [Lange]. We had [Jason] Brownlee running wide open. It's fixing to tie the game at 14-14 instead one guy doesn't block his guy and it's a fumble, scoop-n-score, the other way. It's a devastating turn of events. We're first and goal at the four and can't get the ball in the endzone that a devastating turn of events. You take those three instances away, and that's what losers do. They sit here and talk about all the things they could have done better. The whole game is different. That's the point that we're at. We're at that point where every play matters and we're learning how to sustain the mental energy over the course of a 70 snap football game to do our job every single play. The average man can't do that. That's why average people are not successful. We're training ourselves to not be average to become successful. We have to have mental energy from play one through 70 at every spot right now. We are learning to do that and we're really close."
On if adjustments need to be made...
"We've built programs before. If you look at all the great programs throughout history, they all went through this learning phase. They didn't just wake up and start winning. We're not going to deviate from our long-term plan of where we're taking this program. If there's a way to make it better in the short-term that's in that long-term plan we will do it. We're not going to do anything that sabotages where we're going as a program. We're not going to change our values. We're not going to change the way we recruit. We're not going to change the steps that we're taking."
On controlling what you can control...
"Look at all of the great dynasties, they all started out tough. We didn't want to start off 1-5. Everybody knows me and knows that, but that's what we are. We've got to keep fixing things daily and driving this ship forward with the right direction and intentions. I believe we're going that. You talk about how we practice, that's number one. How we recruit is obvious, that's number two. You can look at our depth chart and see all the kids coming back that are consistently getting better. It's going to happen. Hopefully, it's this week, but we're moving in the right direction."
