Football Coach Will Hall Media Conference - Middle Tennessee Week
10/26/2021 1:59:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Will Hall met with the media Tuesday morning following practice to discuss this weekend's road contest at Middle Tennessee.
The Golden Eagles play the Blue Raiders at Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tenn., this Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. contest. The game can be seen via stream on ESPN+ as well as be heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network from Learfield.
Here is some of what Hall said to the media on Tuesday:
Opening Statement…
"Really good day, had a beautiful morning. I think we've really improved in a lot of phases over the last week during our bye week. Got some guys healthy and really improved, especially with some of our younger guys, getting back to fundamentals. Some of our guys that are redshirting, that are really talented, you know we're down to five games left, they can play in four and still play. Young guys like My'kal McLeod and Zay Franks, those are guys that I would expect to see playing for us as we go down the stretch because we can still play them now and they still be redshirted. That's a positive, not only for them, but for our future and what we're building. We had a good Competition Tuesday. Good spirited, we're starting to look like a football team. When we go half line and we go team run, it looks like real college football. I think we are getting better, we're seeing improvement, hope we can start seeing that on the field."
On Khalique Washington…
"Khalique's an older guy who's played for a long time. He's been beat up this season like a lot of our guys have. I think he's back coming off the off week, probably healthier than he's been in a long time, so that'll be good."
On who will be the starting QB this week…
"Jake Lange. We just pulled him out because of the way the game was going and wanted to make sure he was healthy for this week. Jake will be 100 percent."
On Antione Robinson's transfer…
"We wish him well. We expect to have more attrition as we continue to build this roster back to being a championship caliber program. That's really all I have to say, he's not the first one, he won't be the last one."
On Middle Tennessee…
"Really good program. Coach Stockstill has been there for a long time, he's done a great job. He's won a bunch of games, they've been to a bunch of bowl games. They're another established program in this league that's had the same head coach for a long time. That's why they've won, they're on a little bit of a hot streak right now, they've won several games. They've got some confidence going, they seemed to have found they're quarterback. We've got a lot of respect for them and it'll be a tremendous challenge for us."
On if the mindset is to play younger guys as the season closes…
"Our mindset is to get better every day. We are in a position now, late in the year where the young guys that are redshirting, you can play in four games. We want to make sure that if those guys are good enough to play that we are playing them so it doesn't hinder their future. But we want to put the best foot forward we can, we want to improve every day and we want to finish this season on a high note, improving every day."
