University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Will Hall Media Conference – Grambling State Week
9/7/2021 1:32:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss football coach Will Hall met with the media Tuesday morning to discuss the team's first home contest as the Golden Eagles head football coach.
The Golden Eagles entertain Grambling State this Saturday for a 6 p.m., contest at The Rock. The game will be steamed on the internet at ESPN3 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…
"Really good Competition Tuesday today. We had great energy and effort, and thought we had a lot of good competition. Our guys did a great job of focusing on themselves and correcting a lot of mistakes we need to correct in order to build this program back to where it's supposed to be. I look forward to watching the film and assessing it. Our leaders showed great leadership today, guys like Frank Gore, Malik Shorts, Khalique Washington, Jay Stanley, Hayes Maples. Great energy and great job of putting the previous game behind us and focusing on the task at hand. We have a really proud program coming in here that's 1-0 that played a really clean game one, only had four penalties, only had one turnover, and blocked a punt. They've done a lot of great things over the last few years. We've got our hands full and we've got to focus on us and the task at hand."
On what jumped off the tape and what he wants to correct..
"What a terrible head coach we've got. We've got a terrible head coach, and that's being addressed. We've got good kids, we got a great football program and history. We're a program that's only won three of our last 14 games. We are building it back day by day, I'm proud of our kids and our character. I'm proud of our staff, but we were a dysfunctional organization, and that falls on me only."
On how the loss sat with him over the last few days…
"Not good, I don't handle failure well. I'm not a failure, I've been a winner my whole life. I know how to win, we know how to win as a program here. Again, we are building it back. We're not a finished product, we knew we wouldn't be after that game, whether we won or lost and we are moving in the right direction."
Biggest thing they had to address following Saturday's game…
"What a pitiful head coach we have. You know what I'm saying, and that's being addressed minute by minute with me."
On if he expects depth chart changes after the game and after today…
"I don't know, we'll see on the tape today. We had some guys play really well, particularly on defense, and on offense too. Defensively, Malik Shorts played lights out, Jay Stanley played well, linebackers played well, had some really good play up front on the D-line. Offensively, we had some guys play well, we just didn't put it together. We made great in game adjustments, like we said. We drove it down the field, turned it over, we got to hold on to the football. We have got to hold on to the football like our lives depend on it, because it does. Our football lives depend on holding on to the ball. Obviously, we worked on that again, we work on it every day, there's not a day that goes by that we don't spend working ball security. But obviously, we're not doing a good job of it. We tweaked some things, but we believe in what we do is well, it's worked for a long time. Hopefully we shored up some of that today."
On if there were thoughts of putting in another QB on Saturday…
"There was, but when you go back and watch the tape, Trey played really well early. He did not run the ball well. He tried to run like a tough guy, we preach toughness in this program, and he tried to overemphasize that he was a tough guy instead of wiggling on people. He's a better runner than that. But throwing the ball, he was good early, he was dead on, hitting people right in the hands, we had some drops. Then he had a lull in the middle. And then he bounced back and played really well late. Again, I want to emphasize, the interception at the end was not his fault. Not even close to his fault. Ty is a young man that is coming on, he's number two right now. We'll watch the tape from today and go from there."
Trey Lowe being in his sixth head coach and if he needs consistency…
"He did not play as bad as what everybody thinks. If you come and watch the tape, there were a lot of things that people could have done to help him. The last pick was humiliating, and everybody thought that was on him, that's part of playing quarterback. But he had a perfect read, we were hot on an overload blitz, he makes the hot read to throw to the back and the back doesn't look and catch the ball. That's not his fault, that's the running back's fault and that's my fault for not coaching better. He played extremely hard and bounced back from extreme duress. He made a lot of big throws. He missed some throws, he missed some plays he'd like to have back. We've got to get better at the quarterback position, I'm the quarterback coach, so ultimately that falls on me."
On the play of the offensive line…
"We played pretty good right there. They've probably taken some heat from people, but some of those sacks were not their fault. Some of those sacks were the quarterback's fault, some of them were the running backs' fault. They were not the O-line's fault. They had a good plan with blitzing linebackers every play. We handled some of it, we ran the ball well early. Then we got behind and had to start throwing it a little bit and they took the run away. They rolled the eighth guy in the box all game long, which was a great plan by them. Our efficiency running the ball, if you take the sacks away, which were not all O-line issues, was pretty high."
On what he expects from Grambling State…
"A really well-coached football program. Coach Fobbs, I've known him a long time, I've worked with his brother. A tradition-rich program, much like us. They had the COVID year last year, which wasn't a good year for them, but it was COVID. They had a great year the year before, they had LA Tech beat two years ago. They played a really fundamentally sound game one. They've played one game, so have we. They played really well, we played in a humiliating fashion. Right now, they're a little better than us and we've got our hands full."
On only losing games back to back once as a head coach and how to move on from the loss…
"That's something I'm really proud of. We're going to focus on us, which we are. Brutally honestly, we're going to attack what needs to be fixed, starting with me. We've got to address those issues and get them fixed. I think we took a great step forward in that today."
The Golden Eagles entertain Grambling State this Saturday for a 6 p.m., contest at The Rock. The game will be steamed on the internet at ESPN3 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…
"Really good Competition Tuesday today. We had great energy and effort, and thought we had a lot of good competition. Our guys did a great job of focusing on themselves and correcting a lot of mistakes we need to correct in order to build this program back to where it's supposed to be. I look forward to watching the film and assessing it. Our leaders showed great leadership today, guys like Frank Gore, Malik Shorts, Khalique Washington, Jay Stanley, Hayes Maples. Great energy and great job of putting the previous game behind us and focusing on the task at hand. We have a really proud program coming in here that's 1-0 that played a really clean game one, only had four penalties, only had one turnover, and blocked a punt. They've done a lot of great things over the last few years. We've got our hands full and we've got to focus on us and the task at hand."
On what jumped off the tape and what he wants to correct..
"What a terrible head coach we've got. We've got a terrible head coach, and that's being addressed. We've got good kids, we got a great football program and history. We're a program that's only won three of our last 14 games. We are building it back day by day, I'm proud of our kids and our character. I'm proud of our staff, but we were a dysfunctional organization, and that falls on me only."
On how the loss sat with him over the last few days…
"Not good, I don't handle failure well. I'm not a failure, I've been a winner my whole life. I know how to win, we know how to win as a program here. Again, we are building it back. We're not a finished product, we knew we wouldn't be after that game, whether we won or lost and we are moving in the right direction."
Biggest thing they had to address following Saturday's game…
"What a pitiful head coach we have. You know what I'm saying, and that's being addressed minute by minute with me."
On if he expects depth chart changes after the game and after today…
"I don't know, we'll see on the tape today. We had some guys play really well, particularly on defense, and on offense too. Defensively, Malik Shorts played lights out, Jay Stanley played well, linebackers played well, had some really good play up front on the D-line. Offensively, we had some guys play well, we just didn't put it together. We made great in game adjustments, like we said. We drove it down the field, turned it over, we got to hold on to the football. We have got to hold on to the football like our lives depend on it, because it does. Our football lives depend on holding on to the ball. Obviously, we worked on that again, we work on it every day, there's not a day that goes by that we don't spend working ball security. But obviously, we're not doing a good job of it. We tweaked some things, but we believe in what we do is well, it's worked for a long time. Hopefully we shored up some of that today."
On if there were thoughts of putting in another QB on Saturday…
"There was, but when you go back and watch the tape, Trey played really well early. He did not run the ball well. He tried to run like a tough guy, we preach toughness in this program, and he tried to overemphasize that he was a tough guy instead of wiggling on people. He's a better runner than that. But throwing the ball, he was good early, he was dead on, hitting people right in the hands, we had some drops. Then he had a lull in the middle. And then he bounced back and played really well late. Again, I want to emphasize, the interception at the end was not his fault. Not even close to his fault. Ty is a young man that is coming on, he's number two right now. We'll watch the tape from today and go from there."
Trey Lowe being in his sixth head coach and if he needs consistency…
"He did not play as bad as what everybody thinks. If you come and watch the tape, there were a lot of things that people could have done to help him. The last pick was humiliating, and everybody thought that was on him, that's part of playing quarterback. But he had a perfect read, we were hot on an overload blitz, he makes the hot read to throw to the back and the back doesn't look and catch the ball. That's not his fault, that's the running back's fault and that's my fault for not coaching better. He played extremely hard and bounced back from extreme duress. He made a lot of big throws. He missed some throws, he missed some plays he'd like to have back. We've got to get better at the quarterback position, I'm the quarterback coach, so ultimately that falls on me."
On the play of the offensive line…
"We played pretty good right there. They've probably taken some heat from people, but some of those sacks were not their fault. Some of those sacks were the quarterback's fault, some of them were the running backs' fault. They were not the O-line's fault. They had a good plan with blitzing linebackers every play. We handled some of it, we ran the ball well early. Then we got behind and had to start throwing it a little bit and they took the run away. They rolled the eighth guy in the box all game long, which was a great plan by them. Our efficiency running the ball, if you take the sacks away, which were not all O-line issues, was pretty high."
On what he expects from Grambling State…
"A really well-coached football program. Coach Fobbs, I've known him a long time, I've worked with his brother. A tradition-rich program, much like us. They had the COVID year last year, which wasn't a good year for them, but it was COVID. They had a great year the year before, they had LA Tech beat two years ago. They played a really fundamentally sound game one. They've played one game, so have we. They played really well, we played in a humiliating fashion. Right now, they're a little better than us and we've got our hands full."
On only losing games back to back once as a head coach and how to move on from the loss…
"That's something I'm really proud of. We're going to focus on us, which we are. Brutally honestly, we're going to attack what needs to be fixed, starting with me. We've got to address those issues and get them fixed. I think we took a great step forward in that today."
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