Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com
Will Hall Media Conference - Louisiana Tech game week
11/15/2021 4:10:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Will Hall met with the media Monday morning following practice to discuss the team's final road game this Friday night, Nov. 19, at Louisiana Tech.
The Golden Eagles play the Bulldogs at Joe Aillet Stadium for a 7 p.m., contest. The game can be seen on the CBS Sports Network 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 Monday morning:
Opening Statement…
"Short week, so we had a nice day today. A lot of mental work, introducing the game plan. Disappointed in last week, disappointed that we lost. It was a great effort, we played extremely hard, which we've done all year. But, we had some opportunities to win the game. We really shot ourselves in the foot, and that's to take nothing away from UTSA. They've got a great program, we've got the ultimate respect for Coach Traylor and how they've built it. They built that program much like what we're building here with a lot of older guys. Our kids laid it on the line, and that they continued to do that for this university, being short-handed. But there were a lot of mistakes that can be cleaned up and we can move forward and hopefully finish this thing on the right track. We've got a huge rivalry game this week, we understand how important this game is to our fans and our university. We've got two games left to continue on what the legacy is going to be of some of these older guys that have decided to stick with this program through hard times and what the future is going to look like with these young guys. We're working extremely hard to do that and we're keeping on recruiting, baby. Recruiting and developing and pushing forward every day. With that I'll open it up."
On his conversation with Coach Traylor following the UTSA game…
"Yeah, he just talked about how hard we play and the situation we're in. He knows we're short-handed. Same thing that Coach Stockstill said, and Phil Bennett, from North Texas said, their longtime defensive coordinator. Just admiration for how hard these kids play, because they know how short-handed we are because they do the film work and see the number of kids that actually play in the games. A lot of respect, and he knows me and what we've done, and this staff has done at other places and just words of encouragement to keep building and keep doing what we're doing because it's going to happen. I told him that I have the utmost respect for him. We're building a program and it's been a really hard year and we've gone through some hard things. I appreciate him kneeling on the ball at the end there, because that showed a sign of respect and I'll forever be indebted to him for that."
On when he decided to switch the offense up…
"Probably several weeks ago, but I wanted to keep implementing our schemes. There's a lot of guys that I wanted to see - I wanted to keep teaching them what we're going to be here, you know what I mean? What we're going to be and what we're going to become offensively. Then we got to the point, after the North Texas game where I just thought that we had to have some more life and some more juice and it was time to go down the stretch and give us a chance to win for these seniors and these older guys. We've seen what we're building, we've kind of got an idea, schematically, offensively, at what we can be and what we can become moving forward. And it just became a deal of with these older guys who are stuck in it, let's give them a chance to win. From a whole program, holistically, gives us the best chance to win going down the stretch. I didn't want to sacrifice early on in the season for what we're trying to build, because we still had a lot of questions that we wanted to answer moving forward with a lot of kids. Are they good enough to play Division I college football? Can they do what needs to be done? We got a lot of those questions answered and it became, 'let's try to do whatever it takes to try to win.' We didn't have a lot of the answers. Jake Lange has played his butt off for this team, he's given us everything he can. He doesn't move around so well and we just wanted to milk the clock and give our defense more of a chance to win."
On Frank Gore Jr.'s performance…
"Frank played well; he played how we expected him to play. He made the first guy miss, he really commanded the huddle and he threw the ball well. What we're doing forces people into one-on-one coverage and we've got to make plays at wideout. We made some, had some we wish we would've made. Frank played well and he's in treatment and we've got a lot of guys we're going to play in there this week. Shoot, we might play six or seven of them back there (at quarterback). Looking back on it, I probably should have had more people ready to play at that spot, more than just Frank and Rambo (Antavious Willis) and we'll transition to that. We'll play a bunch of people back there this week, it'll be fun, it'll look like the cavalry running in there."
On the communication under center…
"Just archaic, old football. We looked like the 1961 Packers. We had a lot of false start penalties, we had a lot of issues, that's inexcusable, that's got to be corrected. We had fixed that and it rose back up. Credit to their fans, loudest place I've ever played. I've played at Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, Missouri, nothing compared to that. Only other place would probably be the Alerus Center in North Dakota, which is also a dome. They did a great job, but it's still inexcusable. We've got to get that done, we had some guys playing quarterback that hadn't played quarterback since high school. They weren't being loud enough with their clap or their cadence. That's inexcusable, those kids have owned that and they've got to fix that moving forward. And we will, we'll fix it."
On team morale…
"Our morale has been good all year. Obviously, we don't like losing, but we understand where we're headed as a program. We understand what the vision is and how we're building it. These kids know we're treating them right, they know how we're recruiting. You can see how well recruiting is going, we got another big-time commitment today who had a lot of SEC, Power 5 offers. We're recruiting at a higher level than that's been recruited here in a long, long time, maybe the highest it's ever been recruited. And we're pushing these kids more than they've been pushed in a long time. They're responding to that and we're pushing forward. We're just short-handed. We've got to overcome that, we can beat ourselves, and we've got to keep going."
On if this season is fun for him…
"No, it's fun. It's fun to see the kids respond. It's always fun when you see kids growing and getting better and playing for each other. It's more fun because it gives us a chance. Is it what we want to be? No. Is it what we're going to be? No. I've been a top-40 offense everywhere I've been, I've been a top-10 offense a lot, we probably had the greatest offense in Division II history in 2013. It's not what we're going to be, they'll come a day when we light this scoreboard up here and we'll have to replace all the bulbs in it. But that's not going to happen this year. For our team, we need to milk and pound it and try to pound out two wins going down the stretch."
On if he was surprised that Frank Gore Jr. could throw as well as he did…
"We weren't. We knew he could throw it and you reduce it to one-on-one. They have to play one-on-one if they're going to outnumber in the run game, so it's pretty simple football. I had John Cox say the other day when he was interviewing me that it was quite the chess match, and I said 'no, John, it's really more checkers than chess.' We're snapping it to the running back, they've got to play no safeties to have enough to stop the run, and if they do they've got to be one on one. We've got to be able to throw it and make a play, so it's very simple football. It's what you'll see at any 1A high school game every Friday night. Hopefully we can keep going with it and it'll give us a chance to win."
On how important the culture is when recruiting…
"It's huge, because everybody that we recruit has somebody in their home or somebody in their school that knows our staff and what our character is about. So, they're constantly selling who we are and where we're going to go. There's already belief built, so that's what's been huge. Now, when kids come to campus on official visits and they meet with our players and they see how happy they are and how they know they're taken care of and how much they believe, it's just kind of the final straw in the haystack, if you will. We're not building a team, we're building a program. Anybody can be good for one year, but teams that do it right and build programs are consistently good, year after year after year. The Clemson's, the Alabama's, you know what I'm saying? Those teams are doing it consistently, they're not just a flash in the pan. That's what we're building here. We're excited about where we're going, we've got to continue to improve."
The Golden Eagles play the Bulldogs at Joe Aillet Stadium for a 7 p.m., contest. The game can be seen on the CBS Sports Network 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 Monday morning:
Opening Statement…
"Short week, so we had a nice day today. A lot of mental work, introducing the game plan. Disappointed in last week, disappointed that we lost. It was a great effort, we played extremely hard, which we've done all year. But, we had some opportunities to win the game. We really shot ourselves in the foot, and that's to take nothing away from UTSA. They've got a great program, we've got the ultimate respect for Coach Traylor and how they've built it. They built that program much like what we're building here with a lot of older guys. Our kids laid it on the line, and that they continued to do that for this university, being short-handed. But there were a lot of mistakes that can be cleaned up and we can move forward and hopefully finish this thing on the right track. We've got a huge rivalry game this week, we understand how important this game is to our fans and our university. We've got two games left to continue on what the legacy is going to be of some of these older guys that have decided to stick with this program through hard times and what the future is going to look like with these young guys. We're working extremely hard to do that and we're keeping on recruiting, baby. Recruiting and developing and pushing forward every day. With that I'll open it up."
On his conversation with Coach Traylor following the UTSA game…
"Yeah, he just talked about how hard we play and the situation we're in. He knows we're short-handed. Same thing that Coach Stockstill said, and Phil Bennett, from North Texas said, their longtime defensive coordinator. Just admiration for how hard these kids play, because they know how short-handed we are because they do the film work and see the number of kids that actually play in the games. A lot of respect, and he knows me and what we've done, and this staff has done at other places and just words of encouragement to keep building and keep doing what we're doing because it's going to happen. I told him that I have the utmost respect for him. We're building a program and it's been a really hard year and we've gone through some hard things. I appreciate him kneeling on the ball at the end there, because that showed a sign of respect and I'll forever be indebted to him for that."
On when he decided to switch the offense up…
"Probably several weeks ago, but I wanted to keep implementing our schemes. There's a lot of guys that I wanted to see - I wanted to keep teaching them what we're going to be here, you know what I mean? What we're going to be and what we're going to become offensively. Then we got to the point, after the North Texas game where I just thought that we had to have some more life and some more juice and it was time to go down the stretch and give us a chance to win for these seniors and these older guys. We've seen what we're building, we've kind of got an idea, schematically, offensively, at what we can be and what we can become moving forward. And it just became a deal of with these older guys who are stuck in it, let's give them a chance to win. From a whole program, holistically, gives us the best chance to win going down the stretch. I didn't want to sacrifice early on in the season for what we're trying to build, because we still had a lot of questions that we wanted to answer moving forward with a lot of kids. Are they good enough to play Division I college football? Can they do what needs to be done? We got a lot of those questions answered and it became, 'let's try to do whatever it takes to try to win.' We didn't have a lot of the answers. Jake Lange has played his butt off for this team, he's given us everything he can. He doesn't move around so well and we just wanted to milk the clock and give our defense more of a chance to win."
On Frank Gore Jr.'s performance…
"Frank played well; he played how we expected him to play. He made the first guy miss, he really commanded the huddle and he threw the ball well. What we're doing forces people into one-on-one coverage and we've got to make plays at wideout. We made some, had some we wish we would've made. Frank played well and he's in treatment and we've got a lot of guys we're going to play in there this week. Shoot, we might play six or seven of them back there (at quarterback). Looking back on it, I probably should have had more people ready to play at that spot, more than just Frank and Rambo (Antavious Willis) and we'll transition to that. We'll play a bunch of people back there this week, it'll be fun, it'll look like the cavalry running in there."
On the communication under center…
"Just archaic, old football. We looked like the 1961 Packers. We had a lot of false start penalties, we had a lot of issues, that's inexcusable, that's got to be corrected. We had fixed that and it rose back up. Credit to their fans, loudest place I've ever played. I've played at Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, Missouri, nothing compared to that. Only other place would probably be the Alerus Center in North Dakota, which is also a dome. They did a great job, but it's still inexcusable. We've got to get that done, we had some guys playing quarterback that hadn't played quarterback since high school. They weren't being loud enough with their clap or their cadence. That's inexcusable, those kids have owned that and they've got to fix that moving forward. And we will, we'll fix it."
On team morale…
"Our morale has been good all year. Obviously, we don't like losing, but we understand where we're headed as a program. We understand what the vision is and how we're building it. These kids know we're treating them right, they know how we're recruiting. You can see how well recruiting is going, we got another big-time commitment today who had a lot of SEC, Power 5 offers. We're recruiting at a higher level than that's been recruited here in a long, long time, maybe the highest it's ever been recruited. And we're pushing these kids more than they've been pushed in a long time. They're responding to that and we're pushing forward. We're just short-handed. We've got to overcome that, we can beat ourselves, and we've got to keep going."
On if this season is fun for him…
"No, it's fun. It's fun to see the kids respond. It's always fun when you see kids growing and getting better and playing for each other. It's more fun because it gives us a chance. Is it what we want to be? No. Is it what we're going to be? No. I've been a top-40 offense everywhere I've been, I've been a top-10 offense a lot, we probably had the greatest offense in Division II history in 2013. It's not what we're going to be, they'll come a day when we light this scoreboard up here and we'll have to replace all the bulbs in it. But that's not going to happen this year. For our team, we need to milk and pound it and try to pound out two wins going down the stretch."
On if he was surprised that Frank Gore Jr. could throw as well as he did…
"We weren't. We knew he could throw it and you reduce it to one-on-one. They have to play one-on-one if they're going to outnumber in the run game, so it's pretty simple football. I had John Cox say the other day when he was interviewing me that it was quite the chess match, and I said 'no, John, it's really more checkers than chess.' We're snapping it to the running back, they've got to play no safeties to have enough to stop the run, and if they do they've got to be one on one. We've got to be able to throw it and make a play, so it's very simple football. It's what you'll see at any 1A high school game every Friday night. Hopefully we can keep going with it and it'll give us a chance to win."
On how important the culture is when recruiting…
"It's huge, because everybody that we recruit has somebody in their home or somebody in their school that knows our staff and what our character is about. So, they're constantly selling who we are and where we're going to go. There's already belief built, so that's what's been huge. Now, when kids come to campus on official visits and they meet with our players and they see how happy they are and how they know they're taken care of and how much they believe, it's just kind of the final straw in the haystack, if you will. We're not building a team, we're building a program. Anybody can be good for one year, but teams that do it right and build programs are consistently good, year after year after year. The Clemson's, the Alabama's, you know what I'm saying? Those teams are doing it consistently, they're not just a flash in the pan. That's what we're building here. We're excited about where we're going, we've got to continue to improve."
Players Mentioned
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