University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com
Will Hall Media Conference - Troy game week
9/14/2021 3:22:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Will Hall met with the media Tuesday morning following practice to discuss the team's final home non-conference contest this weekend against Troy.
The Golden Eagles entertain the Trojans this Saturday for a 6 p.m., contest at The Rock. The game will be steamed on the internet at ESPN+ and can 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…
"Obviously, the good Lord loves the Eagles, right? I mean, we got this tropical storm rolling in and we were able to get our whole practice in, which we're very thankful for. We appreciate that and that was a big blessing for us. Good Competition Tuesday, we had to adjust some things, practice-wise, to make sure we got it in, so we didn't get as much of our competition stuff as we needed in. But we got all our stuff that we want to work on Troy in, so that was good to see. Our kids had good energy and we've taken another step forward with this program."
On takeaways from the Grambling State game…
"We did a really good job blocking our gap schemes, offensively. We did not do a good job blocking our zone schemes, really could have done better. Trey (Lowe) played really well, he was 10-13, should've been 11-13 with a drop, had a touchdown pass, was really good with his accuracy and his reads. Ty (Keyes) came in and was a big boost of energy in the second half. Made some great runs, had some really good throws, we had a drop or two right there. He had one throw he'd like to have back in the endzone that should've been a touchdown. We blew it in the red zone, like I said, we should have scored some more touchdowns. Some of that was young guys coming in not really knowing what we were doing and another was just an errant throw right there that we should've had. Defensively, we played lights out. We made some mistakes, but we covered for them. We had a double move that got free and Malik covered for the guy. All in all, we played really hard. We dominated the kicking game. That's two weeks in a row that our coverage units have played extremely well and our punters and kickers have kicked really well, so we've got to keep that going."
On place kicker Briggs Bourgeois and the kicking team…
"He should've had it (on a missed 50-yard field goal), he knocked the heck out of it. Briggs has done a great job, Justin Hulett's playing well at snapper, Payton Snyder's holding well, we're protecting well. Briggs is a weapon; he's a weapon on kickoff, too. I'm just really proud of him, he's really matured as a human being. You can see how he's growing from kind of a silly boy, when I got here to being a mature young man. He's taken that responsibility very seriously, I'm proud of him."
On punter Mason Hunt…
"Didn't see it anywhere close to coming. Had no idea it was coming. Mason is doing a phenomenal job, our punt team has been incredible."
On wide receiver Jakarius Caston…
"Jakarius Caston is (assistant coach) Desmond Lindsey. He finds unbelievable diamonds in the rough, he's been doing it for 12 years. Caston is a young man from Adams County Christian that went to Hinds and had a good year there. We're really close with Larry Williams at Hinds and David King at Adams County and they just really love the kid. He's got great character, he's a guy that can play multiple positions and he's just a baller. He's a country Mississippi kid that just plays ball and he's really playing well right now."
On the health of Antoine Robinson and Darius Maberry…
"Shurdy (Robinson) had some stitches in his hand last week so he couldn't play. He's got a great opportunity to play this week. He's playing really well, he's a true-blue tough guy, so we think we'll have him back -- we're sure we'll have him back. Maberry, we're not going to have back. Maberry suffered a season-ending injury, lower extremity injury, great kid, has fought hard for Southern Miss for a long time. Tough, tough deal with him."
On Malik Shorts…
"He's played great for two games. He's Southern Miss all the way. (High School coach) Lance Mancuso, Bassfield and Jeff Davis County, to here. It's a pipeline, it's been here forever and we hope to continue it. Malik loves football. When you grow up in Bassfield, that's the ultimate amount of pressure. That's like how I grew up in Amory. On Friday nights in Bassfield, they turn out the lights because everybody is heading to the game. If you don't play well everybody in the town knows it and everybody knows your mama and your daddy and your brothers and your uncles and your cousins and you've humiliated everybody. It's an extreme amount of pressure and he's played under it his whole life and he's really flourishing right now."
On Troy…
"Troy is a really good football team. They just played a top 25 team last week in Liberty that won 11 games last year to the wire, had a great chance to beat them. Liberty is a really good football program that's won a lot of games that's got a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback and they got beat 21-13, so they're a program that's playing really well. They beat a good FCS team in Southern. They're coming in here with their lives on the line, much like we were last week. Their backs are against the wall, we expect to get a great effort and they're a proud program like we are. They've won a lot of games in their past and we've got a lot of respect for them."
On the snaps at center…
"Arvin (Fletcher) is (our) center and he's been, for the most part, really good. When you change quarterbacks, sometimes it's a little bit of inconsistency with the cadence there. Our snap issues were mostly quarterback-driven than center-driven. We're working on that to fix that, because that's obviously an issue. Pre-snap penalties and post-snap penalties signal a not well-coached football team, so any time you get a pre-snap penalty, it's a bad deal. We haven't gotten any post-snap penalties, that's good, but we've got to eliminate those. Offensively, they're hurting us."
On the O-line…
"We've got four, or really five guys that are playing at an extremely high level, with Briason Mays being the other one at left tackle with Doss. At right guard, we've got some battle right there, we're letting Coker Wright get involved with that. He's still playing center, but also battling at right guard with (Bryce) Foxworth. We'll see how the film looked today and go from there."
On after the game…
"Just relief. If you ask my wife, winning for us is just a relief so you don't feel like you did last week. We try to enjoy it, but it's just a relief that we got the job done. There was an extreme amount of pressure on us, probably most of that stems from me, but I'm not going to change. It was good to get it out of the way. But look, we're building this program. It's not easy to build a program, it's hard. We've done it before, my wife and I, this is our third time to do it. We're going to build this place back. Day by day, it takes a lot of hard work and it takes some breaks and some luck. We were just proud to get a victory for these fans and this whole university."
The Golden Eagles entertain the Trojans this Saturday for a 6 p.m., contest at The Rock. The game will be steamed on the internet at ESPN+ and can 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…
"Obviously, the good Lord loves the Eagles, right? I mean, we got this tropical storm rolling in and we were able to get our whole practice in, which we're very thankful for. We appreciate that and that was a big blessing for us. Good Competition Tuesday, we had to adjust some things, practice-wise, to make sure we got it in, so we didn't get as much of our competition stuff as we needed in. But we got all our stuff that we want to work on Troy in, so that was good to see. Our kids had good energy and we've taken another step forward with this program."
On takeaways from the Grambling State game…
"We did a really good job blocking our gap schemes, offensively. We did not do a good job blocking our zone schemes, really could have done better. Trey (Lowe) played really well, he was 10-13, should've been 11-13 with a drop, had a touchdown pass, was really good with his accuracy and his reads. Ty (Keyes) came in and was a big boost of energy in the second half. Made some great runs, had some really good throws, we had a drop or two right there. He had one throw he'd like to have back in the endzone that should've been a touchdown. We blew it in the red zone, like I said, we should have scored some more touchdowns. Some of that was young guys coming in not really knowing what we were doing and another was just an errant throw right there that we should've had. Defensively, we played lights out. We made some mistakes, but we covered for them. We had a double move that got free and Malik covered for the guy. All in all, we played really hard. We dominated the kicking game. That's two weeks in a row that our coverage units have played extremely well and our punters and kickers have kicked really well, so we've got to keep that going."
On place kicker Briggs Bourgeois and the kicking team…
"He should've had it (on a missed 50-yard field goal), he knocked the heck out of it. Briggs has done a great job, Justin Hulett's playing well at snapper, Payton Snyder's holding well, we're protecting well. Briggs is a weapon; he's a weapon on kickoff, too. I'm just really proud of him, he's really matured as a human being. You can see how he's growing from kind of a silly boy, when I got here to being a mature young man. He's taken that responsibility very seriously, I'm proud of him."
On punter Mason Hunt…
"Didn't see it anywhere close to coming. Had no idea it was coming. Mason is doing a phenomenal job, our punt team has been incredible."
On wide receiver Jakarius Caston…
"Jakarius Caston is (assistant coach) Desmond Lindsey. He finds unbelievable diamonds in the rough, he's been doing it for 12 years. Caston is a young man from Adams County Christian that went to Hinds and had a good year there. We're really close with Larry Williams at Hinds and David King at Adams County and they just really love the kid. He's got great character, he's a guy that can play multiple positions and he's just a baller. He's a country Mississippi kid that just plays ball and he's really playing well right now."
On the health of Antoine Robinson and Darius Maberry…
"Shurdy (Robinson) had some stitches in his hand last week so he couldn't play. He's got a great opportunity to play this week. He's playing really well, he's a true-blue tough guy, so we think we'll have him back -- we're sure we'll have him back. Maberry, we're not going to have back. Maberry suffered a season-ending injury, lower extremity injury, great kid, has fought hard for Southern Miss for a long time. Tough, tough deal with him."
On Malik Shorts…
"He's played great for two games. He's Southern Miss all the way. (High School coach) Lance Mancuso, Bassfield and Jeff Davis County, to here. It's a pipeline, it's been here forever and we hope to continue it. Malik loves football. When you grow up in Bassfield, that's the ultimate amount of pressure. That's like how I grew up in Amory. On Friday nights in Bassfield, they turn out the lights because everybody is heading to the game. If you don't play well everybody in the town knows it and everybody knows your mama and your daddy and your brothers and your uncles and your cousins and you've humiliated everybody. It's an extreme amount of pressure and he's played under it his whole life and he's really flourishing right now."
On Troy…
"Troy is a really good football team. They just played a top 25 team last week in Liberty that won 11 games last year to the wire, had a great chance to beat them. Liberty is a really good football program that's won a lot of games that's got a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback and they got beat 21-13, so they're a program that's playing really well. They beat a good FCS team in Southern. They're coming in here with their lives on the line, much like we were last week. Their backs are against the wall, we expect to get a great effort and they're a proud program like we are. They've won a lot of games in their past and we've got a lot of respect for them."
On the snaps at center…
"Arvin (Fletcher) is (our) center and he's been, for the most part, really good. When you change quarterbacks, sometimes it's a little bit of inconsistency with the cadence there. Our snap issues were mostly quarterback-driven than center-driven. We're working on that to fix that, because that's obviously an issue. Pre-snap penalties and post-snap penalties signal a not well-coached football team, so any time you get a pre-snap penalty, it's a bad deal. We haven't gotten any post-snap penalties, that's good, but we've got to eliminate those. Offensively, they're hurting us."
On the O-line…
"We've got four, or really five guys that are playing at an extremely high level, with Briason Mays being the other one at left tackle with Doss. At right guard, we've got some battle right there, we're letting Coker Wright get involved with that. He's still playing center, but also battling at right guard with (Bryce) Foxworth. We'll see how the film looked today and go from there."
On after the game…
"Just relief. If you ask my wife, winning for us is just a relief so you don't feel like you did last week. We try to enjoy it, but it's just a relief that we got the job done. There was an extreme amount of pressure on us, probably most of that stems from me, but I'm not going to change. It was good to get it out of the way. But look, we're building this program. It's not easy to build a program, it's hard. We've done it before, my wife and I, this is our third time to do it. We're going to build this place back. Day by day, it takes a lot of hard work and it takes some breaks and some luck. We were just proud to get a victory for these fans and this whole university."
Players Mentioned
PK
/ Football
Wr
/ Football
LS
/ Football
P
/ Football
RB
/ Football
OL
/ Football
WR
/ Football
DB
/ Football
P
/ Football
OL
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