University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Will Hall Media Conference – UTEP Week
10/5/2021 3:18:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Will Hall met with the media Tuesday morning following practice to discuss this weekend's homecoming tilt with UTEP.
The Golden Eagles play the Miners at M.M. Roberts Stadium this Saturday for a 6 p.m. The game can be streamed through ESPN3 and also 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 Competition Tuesday. Good energy, we're getting closer as a program to getting some results on the field. Our culture is going great, we're doing the good things off of the field, we've just got to keep going. We've got to keep building. We're nowhere near where we want to be, we're nowhere near where Southern Miss should be as a football program. Obviously, we lost another quarterback this past week. Ty (Keyes) is out. He's going to be out for some time. I'm not ready to give a definite yet, but he'll be out for an extended period with a lower extremity injury. He's a great young man. He's played in four games, we'll get him back at some point and we'll assess it then with whether we're going to play him or maybe try to redshirt him or what. Just depends on what's happening and when we do get him back. We've got Jake Lange right there and we've got Tee Webb. We've lost three quarterbacks. We lost Jack Walker, then we lost Trey Lowe, now we lost Ty. It is what it is. Nobody's feeling sorry for us, I'm not feeling sorry for us and we've got to find a way to get it done. Jake came in and played admirably, we'll keep moving and we'll gear the offense towards him and we'll keep pushing this program forward."
On if Jake Lange will start…
"Yes. Not a lot of other options."
On Tee Webb…
"Tee Webb is number two. Ty passed him up and then Jake passed him up. He was number two going into fall camp, then Ty beat him out and then Jake him out. They played better."
On takeaways from Jake Lange's performance…
"Jake has a ton of charisma, he has a ton of leadership. Jake was in the office until three o'clock in the morning watching film when we got home the other night. He's a gym rat, he's going to be a coach. He's got all those things you want. He's not the biggest guy in the world, he doesn't have the strongest arm, he's limited in some of those ways, but he tries to overcome it with his brain. Jake is going to maximize everything that God has given him. If he falls short, it's not going to be because of any effort-related issue with him. Our players love him and we're going to gear the offense around him and keep charging forward."
On Lange's attributes…
"He's really accurate, really tough and understands the offense. Those are his attributes."
On the quarterback situation…
"We're building a program. The good Lord didn't say 'Hey Will, you're going to get the Southern Miss job and it's going to be smooth.' He never said that. He said 'I'm going to give you this job and I'm going to give you an opportunity to touch a lot of people's lives and build it the right way,' and that's what we're doing. We're on our fourth quarterback on game six. It is what it is. We've got to find a way to take what we've got and win. I love these kids, I love the way they're working. We're not going to make excuses, we're just going to keep building every day. Brick-by-brick and relationship-by-relationship. Is it what we wanted? No. But that's just not the way life goes."
On developing freshman quarterbacks…
"You just keep coaching. Every day they get a little bit smarter and a little bit better. We're freshman quarterback gurus. We were really excited about moving forward with Ty, that's going to take a step back now. That's not what the good Lord had in store for us at this time. We're going to move forward with Jake. We've got a great quarterback committed that'll be here in January, we can't talk about that right now, we'll start coaching him too. We're a quarterback-driven program. We will recruit great quarterbacks, we will develop great quarterbacks. If Alabama and Ohio State lost three quarterbacks, they would be going through a little bit of turmoil. And they recruit better than anybody in the country. That's the hand we're dealt, we're going to play it to the best of our ability."
On if Jake reminds Coach Hall of himself…
"A little bit, I was probably a little better runner than Jake, no offense to Jake. He's a bit bigger than me. He's a gym rat, he had a few mistakes that we can clean up. Having a week of practice with gearing the offense-- obviously, we had geared the offense toward Ty's skillset, which is way different than Jake's. Now we'll gear it towards Jake's which will allow him to hopefully have more success."
On Lange wearing No. 24…
"That's the number he wanted, he's a tough guy. Doug Flutie was 22. I wore 22 at Murray State because I couldn't be No. 7 when I was there. That's the number he wanted, that's the number we gave him, it was the number that was available, so it is what it is."
On if he's ever had a more difficult start as a coach…
"Never, you know, as a head coach. Now, I've had plenty of times that we were building programs and starting off."
On the 0-5 start he had at Southwest Baptist in 2006…
"We went 1-10 that year. At West Alabama in '08, our first year there, they were coming off a 1-9 season, we went 4-8. Then year two, we won the first playoff game in school history. Like I said, the important thing is that we're recruiting at a high level and that we're seeing improvement every day. This will be the exact midpoint of this season. We've got game six coming up, we're at home at The Rock, we've to keep improving and keep getting better."
On building a program and keeping the players positive…
"It's just what we do all the time, it's not like all of a sudden. It's just how we live our life, how we want to treat people. They see it, they see the tape. We played a team that we lost to 30-3 last year, or whatever it was. We had four turnovers to zero and lost by five. We should have won the game. It's there, we've just got to correct-- we don't do the things that it takes to win football games. We play hard. We love each other. But we're not doing the things that it takes to win. That's coaching, that's everybody gearing down a little bit more, a little more attention to detail and fixing those things, and it's going to happen."
On the quarterback room…
"I just go in there and coach Jake and Tee and the guys that are available. Just like I hope my wife everyday doesn't think about all the good men she could've had, I hope she just focuses on how she's got me and she makes the most of that. I don't go into the room and go, 'Man, I wish he was here and he wish was here.' I go in there and say here's what I've got. Let's coach them and get them better."
On UTEP…
"4-1, man, they've done a great job building that program. I've got a lot of respect for a lot of their coaches. Matt Wallerstedt was with me and Coach (Lance) Ancar at UNA when we had that run. Coach Price and the special teams, Coach Warner and the offense, Michigan State. They've had a lot of successful coaches that have done a lot of great things and they've got it going on right now. It'll be a tremendous challenge for us."
The Golden Eagles play the Miners at M.M. Roberts Stadium this Saturday for a 6 p.m. The game can be streamed through ESPN3 and also 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 Competition Tuesday. Good energy, we're getting closer as a program to getting some results on the field. Our culture is going great, we're doing the good things off of the field, we've just got to keep going. We've got to keep building. We're nowhere near where we want to be, we're nowhere near where Southern Miss should be as a football program. Obviously, we lost another quarterback this past week. Ty (Keyes) is out. He's going to be out for some time. I'm not ready to give a definite yet, but he'll be out for an extended period with a lower extremity injury. He's a great young man. He's played in four games, we'll get him back at some point and we'll assess it then with whether we're going to play him or maybe try to redshirt him or what. Just depends on what's happening and when we do get him back. We've got Jake Lange right there and we've got Tee Webb. We've lost three quarterbacks. We lost Jack Walker, then we lost Trey Lowe, now we lost Ty. It is what it is. Nobody's feeling sorry for us, I'm not feeling sorry for us and we've got to find a way to get it done. Jake came in and played admirably, we'll keep moving and we'll gear the offense towards him and we'll keep pushing this program forward."
On if Jake Lange will start…
"Yes. Not a lot of other options."
On Tee Webb…
"Tee Webb is number two. Ty passed him up and then Jake passed him up. He was number two going into fall camp, then Ty beat him out and then Jake him out. They played better."
On takeaways from Jake Lange's performance…
"Jake has a ton of charisma, he has a ton of leadership. Jake was in the office until three o'clock in the morning watching film when we got home the other night. He's a gym rat, he's going to be a coach. He's got all those things you want. He's not the biggest guy in the world, he doesn't have the strongest arm, he's limited in some of those ways, but he tries to overcome it with his brain. Jake is going to maximize everything that God has given him. If he falls short, it's not going to be because of any effort-related issue with him. Our players love him and we're going to gear the offense around him and keep charging forward."
On Lange's attributes…
"He's really accurate, really tough and understands the offense. Those are his attributes."
On the quarterback situation…
"We're building a program. The good Lord didn't say 'Hey Will, you're going to get the Southern Miss job and it's going to be smooth.' He never said that. He said 'I'm going to give you this job and I'm going to give you an opportunity to touch a lot of people's lives and build it the right way,' and that's what we're doing. We're on our fourth quarterback on game six. It is what it is. We've got to find a way to take what we've got and win. I love these kids, I love the way they're working. We're not going to make excuses, we're just going to keep building every day. Brick-by-brick and relationship-by-relationship. Is it what we wanted? No. But that's just not the way life goes."
On developing freshman quarterbacks…
"You just keep coaching. Every day they get a little bit smarter and a little bit better. We're freshman quarterback gurus. We were really excited about moving forward with Ty, that's going to take a step back now. That's not what the good Lord had in store for us at this time. We're going to move forward with Jake. We've got a great quarterback committed that'll be here in January, we can't talk about that right now, we'll start coaching him too. We're a quarterback-driven program. We will recruit great quarterbacks, we will develop great quarterbacks. If Alabama and Ohio State lost three quarterbacks, they would be going through a little bit of turmoil. And they recruit better than anybody in the country. That's the hand we're dealt, we're going to play it to the best of our ability."
On if Jake reminds Coach Hall of himself…
"A little bit, I was probably a little better runner than Jake, no offense to Jake. He's a bit bigger than me. He's a gym rat, he had a few mistakes that we can clean up. Having a week of practice with gearing the offense-- obviously, we had geared the offense toward Ty's skillset, which is way different than Jake's. Now we'll gear it towards Jake's which will allow him to hopefully have more success."
On Lange wearing No. 24…
"That's the number he wanted, he's a tough guy. Doug Flutie was 22. I wore 22 at Murray State because I couldn't be No. 7 when I was there. That's the number he wanted, that's the number we gave him, it was the number that was available, so it is what it is."
On if he's ever had a more difficult start as a coach…
"Never, you know, as a head coach. Now, I've had plenty of times that we were building programs and starting off."
On the 0-5 start he had at Southwest Baptist in 2006…
"We went 1-10 that year. At West Alabama in '08, our first year there, they were coming off a 1-9 season, we went 4-8. Then year two, we won the first playoff game in school history. Like I said, the important thing is that we're recruiting at a high level and that we're seeing improvement every day. This will be the exact midpoint of this season. We've got game six coming up, we're at home at The Rock, we've to keep improving and keep getting better."
On building a program and keeping the players positive…
"It's just what we do all the time, it's not like all of a sudden. It's just how we live our life, how we want to treat people. They see it, they see the tape. We played a team that we lost to 30-3 last year, or whatever it was. We had four turnovers to zero and lost by five. We should have won the game. It's there, we've just got to correct-- we don't do the things that it takes to win football games. We play hard. We love each other. But we're not doing the things that it takes to win. That's coaching, that's everybody gearing down a little bit more, a little more attention to detail and fixing those things, and it's going to happen."
On the quarterback room…
"I just go in there and coach Jake and Tee and the guys that are available. Just like I hope my wife everyday doesn't think about all the good men she could've had, I hope she just focuses on how she's got me and she makes the most of that. I don't go into the room and go, 'Man, I wish he was here and he wish was here.' I go in there and say here's what I've got. Let's coach them and get them better."
On UTEP…
"4-1, man, they've done a great job building that program. I've got a lot of respect for a lot of their coaches. Matt Wallerstedt was with me and Coach (Lance) Ancar at UNA when we had that run. Coach Price and the special teams, Coach Warner and the offense, Michigan State. They've had a lot of successful coaches that have done a lot of great things and they've got it going on right now. It'll be a tremendous challenge for us."
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