Coach Will Hall Media Availability - The Louisiana Game

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss' head football coach Will Hall met with members of the media Monday morning following practice to discuss this Thursday's Sun Belt Conference primetime matchup against Louisiana, as well as last week's win over Texas State.

Game time is set for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27 at M.M. Roberts Stadium/Carlise-Faulkner Field. The game will be broadcast to a national audience on ESPN2 or heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network by Learfield.

Here is some of what Hall said to the media on Monday:

Video: https://youtu.be/M9iOzuRprzI

Opening Statement…
"Great day today with beautiful weather, I thank the Good Lord for that. Short week, obviously we lost two days and the way we do it here is this: we'll lose competition Tuesday because we're already playing two games in five days, so this is like a normal Wednesday for us. It was a great workday and we got a lot of the base game plan in. Had to work fast and I thought our kids showed up and had a ton of energy. Obviously, it's a huge game for us at home. We've put ourselves in a position to be 4-3 right here past the mid-year mark, which is the best this program has been in a long time. As we build this great program back, we're blessed to be playing in a great game past the mid-year mark that really matters in the conference standings and all that's great. Like I said, we keep continuing to grow each day. I really really hope our fans show up Thursday night because we're going to need them. We're going to need all the help we can get. We'll need the whole Southern Miss family to band together and pull together on this deal to help beat a really good team. A program that's won this league the last few years, that was picked to win this league and that's really talented and is doing a great job."

On Plan for Short Week of Practice…
"Today is a Wednesday, tomorrow will be a Thursday, the next day will be a Friday, the next day will be a Saturday. So, we're just on Wednesday. You just fast-forward through it. You get a lot of work done, you don't sleep and you just power through. It's a normal Wednesday today."

On Team Health with Quick Turnaround…
"I think we're good. We're in the middle of the year, so everybody's got bumps and bruises and banged up. We had a few guys out last week. We think we'll get some of them back this week, hopefully. We didn't lose anybody in that game, I don't think, but that's still up in the air. We're just rocking and rolling through it. Middle of the year, that's football."

On Louisiana's Offensive Improvement Last Week…
"They really exploded last week and had their best offensive performance. They got some really good coaches over there. [Louisiana head coach Michael Desormeaux] is a great friend of mine, we've worked together and he's a really smart football coach. Jorge Munoz, [Louisiana associate head coach and tight ends coach], Tim Leger, [Louisiana offensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach], those guys have been really good coaches for a long time. You knew they would eventually get it going offensively, and man they're just a really good team. They're really good in the kicking game and I have a lot of respect for them."

On Winning Record in Spite of Negative Turnover Differential…
"We knew we were going to be really good on D. We knew we were going to be really good in the kicking good. We knew we'd have to keep coming along offensively. We thought we'd be further along, but obviously our starting quarterback got hurt and got knocked out for the year again, which very rarely happens two years in a row. The way we play defensively, it doesn't always lead to turnovers because we smother you down. But what it does lead to is a lot of three-and-outs and a lot of negative plays. Then we had two fourth down stops. So, those don't count as turnovers, but really it is a turnover. There's some hidden things in there that are kind of offsetting that where defensively I think we're creating takeaways where they're not really counting as takeaways, if you will."

On Final Touchdown Pass to Chandler Pittman and Zach Wilcke's Performance…
"It was just a normal four verticals concept that we read. Zach did a great job of moving his eyes through it fast, which shows progression and growth. It was something we had run already earlier in the game. They really bracketed [Jason] Brownlee on the bender and he went outside to Pittman and made a great play. It was a great play because he did exactly what he's coached to do, which allows his talent to take over. His eyes were right, he had his eyes in the right spot at the snap, he scanned through his progression perfectly. He got to the number two in his progression really really fast. He had to vacate, and he made a great talented, because he is talented, and when his eyes are right and he's moving fast, man he can really take off. I thought he played a phenomenal first half. He was 12-for-14, one of his two incompletions was an interception where his arm got hit and he was throwing it to a guy that was wide open, it was a good read too. Came out in the second half and did not play as well in the second half until the very end. If we can carry that first half over the rest of the year and really build on that, I think Zach has a chance to really come on at the end of this year.

On Not Going for Two Up Five Over Texas State…
"Yea, there are a lot of reasons actually. Number one, if you'll notice on the play, we scored the touchdown, we did not have a tight end in the game. That was because one of our tight ends went down on the kickoff return, the other one went down on the play before the touchdown. All of a sudden, we're down two tight ends. We take three two-point plays into every game. We would've had to run one of our two-point plays without a timeout to discuss with a tight end that's never had a rep at it. With a young quarterback and the potential to turn it over, which could've turned it into a three-point game, I just elected not to run a play with a kid that's never run it and just kick it and go up six to prevent a disaster. If they score right there in a short amount of time, we got to try and block the kick. On the first PAT, we got great pressure and was really close to blocking it, so that was all. If we would've had all our tight ends, we'd probably go for two, to be honest with you. But with the injuries that we had at the moment, and no timeout to discuss it, we just thought that was the best thing to do. Most football games are lost not won, let's just kick it and make them drive the field. If they score, they've got to make the extra point too. Maybe we'll block that. That was the deal.

On Reliability of Special Teams…
"Our punt team has been phenomenal all year and they were actually phenomenal again Saturday. We had two really really bad snaps, which led to one block being missed and the punt being way outside of the shield. The wind was blowing hard, and it affected our snapper a little bit. He came back and bounced back late in the game and snapped well. He's been snapping well all year, but the snap got Mason [Hunt] way outside of the protection. They tipped one and then the other one he looked like Christian McCaffery out there. I told Frank [Gore, Jr.] that's he's got to start working with Mason on making people miss. It was a phenomenal play, one of the plays of the game. I'm just really proud that he's here and doing a great job."

On Opportunity for the Program Growth on Thursday Night…
"There's short-term and long-term effects of it. Short-term, what it would do if we could win, it extends us to later in the year. It continues momentum. We're a program that's won four of our last five and six of our last nine. We're trending up. We're building a program the right way. A win versus a great program that's won the league the last few years, that is picked to win the league would be another step in the right direction, short-term. Long-term, does it affect where we're trying to take this program and all that? We still got a lot of work to do. We still got a ways to go with the way we're building. We've got to keep recruiting every day and that's everybody involved. We got to keep developing these young kids. So, short-term I think it's a jolt, but long-term I think we've got to stay the course no matter what it is. That's not just me, that's the whole program, that's our boosters, that's our alumni, that's our fans, that's our administration. We've just got to keep freaking digging every day."

On Importance of Packing the Stadium Thursday Night…
"It would really be huge. It'd be huge to help us win the game, and that's the number one deal. We all want to win. These kids are busting their butts, this staff is busting their butts. I really really really really really wish we'd ban together and pack it out, because it would help us win and that's what we all want. So, how can we help us win: I can work really hard to coach and develop; our players can come to work every day and continue to improve and get better and embrace the challenge; and our fans can pack this stadium when Louisiana has the ball. That's what we've all got to do right now."

On Superbacks' Role in Minimizing Turnovers…
"It's a response to everything we're going through. It's a response to Ty Keyes getting hurt. It's a response to playing a freshman quarterback and wanting to get him out to catch his breath. It's a response to trying to run the clock a little more to keep our defense fresh, that's one thing we did in this game—we dominated time of possession. We really kept our defensive snap count down. We didn't go three-and-out much. We methodically moved the ball and stayed on the field, which is a recipe for success for us right now. You don't get a lot of credit for that with fans and media and all that, but that is good complementary football and we were able to do that. I think we had 34 minutes time of possession. That's huge with how we play right now."

Coach Will Hall Media Availability - The Louisiana Game

Players Mentioned

Ty Keyes

Chandler Pittman

Zach Wilcke

Related Videos