Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com
Coach Will Hall Media Availability – The Coastal Carolina Game
11/8/2022 2:55:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss head football coach Will Hall met with members of the media on Tuesday morning following practice to discuss this Saturday's Sun Belt Conference matchup at Coastal Carolina, as well as look back at last week's game with Georgia State.
This week's game time is set for Saturday, Nov. 12, at 6:30 p.m. CT at Conway, S.C. The game can be seen on ESPNU as well as heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network by Learfield.
Here is some of what Hall said to the media on Tuesday:
Opening Statement…
"Awesome Tuesday today. Great weather, I thank the good Lord for that. Late in the year we kind of change our model, we've always done that with this staff and we've won a bunch of championships. So, late in the year we move away from competition Tuesday and go to a two Wednesday model because it's late in the year and there's less bodies and also you're late in the year, it is what it is. We had a great practice today getting ready for a tremendous opponent in Coastal Carolina. We continue to push this program forward. We had a great weekend and a great Monday yesterday of recruiting and we've got to keep developing these young guys and we're seeing a lot growth in these young ones and boy we got a great challenge this week. These guys have been—I don't know any other way to put it other than they've been the daddy of this league. They've won 11 games two years in a row. They're 8-1 this year and they have really really dominated this league for quite some time so it's obviously a tremendous challenge for us going over there. They've got a great program again this week with an unbelievable quarterback. We've got to continue to improve and continue to push forward as we build this program back."
On Tiaquelin Mims' Absence at and Jakarius Caston's Return to Practice…
"Ty Mims was a little under the weather today. He won't be out for this game, he's just under the weather. It's flu season and all that. You look at it and see all over the country there's people missing all last week. It'll be that way this week too. Caston will be back this week, which is good to have. We're excited to have him back and he's a really good football player and a good addition back to our program."
On Balancing Mims and Caston at the Slot Receiver…
"We're going to try to put good players on the field and get them the ball and go up there and play really well versus a really good football team."
On Bouncing Back After a Tough Loss…
"Well, the first game of the season we played a team that's No. 19 in the country to four overtimes. We played them better than Arkansas played them, so I don't think it was like that. We came in here Monday and we assessed the short-term problems we got as a staff, the long-term problems we've got and how we're going to address those moving forward. It was really no different than any other Monday. Whether you win or lose, you assess the good, you assess the bad and you start looking at the opponent to put a plan in place to put your best foot forward this week. We're not a finished product, everybody knows that. We've got some deficiencies that we've got to continue to coach and develop and recruit to overcome. We didn't play great Saturday—that's a more a credit to our opponent than anything else. We've got to keep driving this program forward and keep getting better."
On Quarterback Situation this Weekend…
"We're going to play a lot of them, you know what I mean. So it'll be fun to watch."
On What Southern Miss did well on Saturday…
"Just our team—we've got a great culture. You know, our kids obviously would respond, we knew they would respond. We had a lot of things happen that were in our control and some that were not in our control and our kids were embarrassed and they know they can do things different to be better so those things have been addressed. We never run from conflict here, we attack conflict here head on. We've built a great culture—I'm very proud of where we're going with this program. This time last year we were 1-8, we're 5-4 this year. We're pushing this thing forward—we're not where everybody wants us to be and we're not where we're going to be, but we are driving forward every day. We're better today than we were yesterday."
On Team Learning What it Takes to Win…
"That's been brought up because we won three in a row for the first time in a long time here. It was more of a we caught a really hot team playing well that was a really tough matchup for us. We still have deficiencies in some areas, everybody knows that. We've only had two years to be able to recruit. They were able to attack those deficiencies better than anybody we've ever played and also we had some opportunities early in the game that we didn't capitalize on. We had a fumble on the five that we could've scooped and scored but we didn't even get the ball. We dropped a punt. On the second play of the game, we had a guy wide open on a glance and he got blatantly crushed and pass-interfered and it didn't get called. Those were all in the first quarter, if we get those three plays, we may be up 10-0 instead of down 14-0. Those are excuses and it is what it is, but it was a little bit of we played a really hot team that was playing really well that matched up with us really well and our deficiencies and also we didn't make the plays early on to get it. We treat each individual play as a world of its own. We address it and move forward and we're going to continue to drive this program forward."
On Figuring Out the Quarterback Situation…
"We're going to coach what we've got and we're going to keep recruiting and we're going to wake up every day and do the Teddy Roosevelt deal. We're going to do the best we can with what we got every day and then we're going to recruit our tails off like we do at every position to keep pushing forward. We've got good kids in that room that are trying to get better every day."
On What Stands Out in Coastal Carolina Quarterback Grayson McCall's Play…
"He's a great player. He's different than (Tulane's Michael) Pratt, but he's got that IT factor like Pratt does at Tulane. They're both phenomenal football players, which is why their teams are something and one. At every level across this country, when you're great at quarterback, you've got a chance to be really really good. They've won 11, 11 and 8—30 games over the last three years and they're great at quarterback. He's a great, great player. He's a winner. He's a tough guy. Most great teams have a tough guy at quarterback and he's a tough guy you can tell that. We've got the utmost respect for him. I'm excited about meeting him because I do have a lot of respect for him."
On Containing the Quarterback Scramble…
"We've just got to tackle better. Number one, that (Georgia State) kid's a great player. He does that to everybody, not just us and the QB scramble hurts everybody. You saw Alabama a few weeks ago. QB scrambles, they're hard to deal with. We've got to tackle better. There are sometimes where we had him hemmed up and we didn't tackle well. That was the first time all year where we didn't tackle well. Probably first time since North Texas of last year where we didn't tackle well. That's something that's being addressed because that's something that we can improve immediately, and we feel like we're much better than."
On Tropical Storm Nicole's Impact on Saturday's Game…
"I've got a great operations department that handles all that. (Southern Miss Director of Football Operations) Tad Blaylock and those guys, he keeps me up to speed with our travel, but right now I'm just worried about getting in here and watching this tape and pouring everything I can into what we can do to improve our football program."
On Jordyn Mahaffey's Status…
"He's getting close. There's a chance he can play this week, if not he'll be back next week for sure."
This week's game time is set for Saturday, Nov. 12, at 6:30 p.m. CT at Conway, S.C. The game can be seen on ESPNU as well as heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network by Learfield.
Here is some of what Hall said to the media on Tuesday:
Opening Statement…
"Awesome Tuesday today. Great weather, I thank the good Lord for that. Late in the year we kind of change our model, we've always done that with this staff and we've won a bunch of championships. So, late in the year we move away from competition Tuesday and go to a two Wednesday model because it's late in the year and there's less bodies and also you're late in the year, it is what it is. We had a great practice today getting ready for a tremendous opponent in Coastal Carolina. We continue to push this program forward. We had a great weekend and a great Monday yesterday of recruiting and we've got to keep developing these young guys and we're seeing a lot growth in these young ones and boy we got a great challenge this week. These guys have been—I don't know any other way to put it other than they've been the daddy of this league. They've won 11 games two years in a row. They're 8-1 this year and they have really really dominated this league for quite some time so it's obviously a tremendous challenge for us going over there. They've got a great program again this week with an unbelievable quarterback. We've got to continue to improve and continue to push forward as we build this program back."
On Tiaquelin Mims' Absence at and Jakarius Caston's Return to Practice…
"Ty Mims was a little under the weather today. He won't be out for this game, he's just under the weather. It's flu season and all that. You look at it and see all over the country there's people missing all last week. It'll be that way this week too. Caston will be back this week, which is good to have. We're excited to have him back and he's a really good football player and a good addition back to our program."
On Balancing Mims and Caston at the Slot Receiver…
"We're going to try to put good players on the field and get them the ball and go up there and play really well versus a really good football team."
On Bouncing Back After a Tough Loss…
"Well, the first game of the season we played a team that's No. 19 in the country to four overtimes. We played them better than Arkansas played them, so I don't think it was like that. We came in here Monday and we assessed the short-term problems we got as a staff, the long-term problems we've got and how we're going to address those moving forward. It was really no different than any other Monday. Whether you win or lose, you assess the good, you assess the bad and you start looking at the opponent to put a plan in place to put your best foot forward this week. We're not a finished product, everybody knows that. We've got some deficiencies that we've got to continue to coach and develop and recruit to overcome. We didn't play great Saturday—that's a more a credit to our opponent than anything else. We've got to keep driving this program forward and keep getting better."
On Quarterback Situation this Weekend…
"We're going to play a lot of them, you know what I mean. So it'll be fun to watch."
On What Southern Miss did well on Saturday…
"Just our team—we've got a great culture. You know, our kids obviously would respond, we knew they would respond. We had a lot of things happen that were in our control and some that were not in our control and our kids were embarrassed and they know they can do things different to be better so those things have been addressed. We never run from conflict here, we attack conflict here head on. We've built a great culture—I'm very proud of where we're going with this program. This time last year we were 1-8, we're 5-4 this year. We're pushing this thing forward—we're not where everybody wants us to be and we're not where we're going to be, but we are driving forward every day. We're better today than we were yesterday."
On Team Learning What it Takes to Win…
"That's been brought up because we won three in a row for the first time in a long time here. It was more of a we caught a really hot team playing well that was a really tough matchup for us. We still have deficiencies in some areas, everybody knows that. We've only had two years to be able to recruit. They were able to attack those deficiencies better than anybody we've ever played and also we had some opportunities early in the game that we didn't capitalize on. We had a fumble on the five that we could've scooped and scored but we didn't even get the ball. We dropped a punt. On the second play of the game, we had a guy wide open on a glance and he got blatantly crushed and pass-interfered and it didn't get called. Those were all in the first quarter, if we get those three plays, we may be up 10-0 instead of down 14-0. Those are excuses and it is what it is, but it was a little bit of we played a really hot team that was playing really well that matched up with us really well and our deficiencies and also we didn't make the plays early on to get it. We treat each individual play as a world of its own. We address it and move forward and we're going to continue to drive this program forward."
On Figuring Out the Quarterback Situation…
"We're going to coach what we've got and we're going to keep recruiting and we're going to wake up every day and do the Teddy Roosevelt deal. We're going to do the best we can with what we got every day and then we're going to recruit our tails off like we do at every position to keep pushing forward. We've got good kids in that room that are trying to get better every day."
On What Stands Out in Coastal Carolina Quarterback Grayson McCall's Play…
"He's a great player. He's different than (Tulane's Michael) Pratt, but he's got that IT factor like Pratt does at Tulane. They're both phenomenal football players, which is why their teams are something and one. At every level across this country, when you're great at quarterback, you've got a chance to be really really good. They've won 11, 11 and 8—30 games over the last three years and they're great at quarterback. He's a great, great player. He's a winner. He's a tough guy. Most great teams have a tough guy at quarterback and he's a tough guy you can tell that. We've got the utmost respect for him. I'm excited about meeting him because I do have a lot of respect for him."
On Containing the Quarterback Scramble…
"We've just got to tackle better. Number one, that (Georgia State) kid's a great player. He does that to everybody, not just us and the QB scramble hurts everybody. You saw Alabama a few weeks ago. QB scrambles, they're hard to deal with. We've got to tackle better. There are sometimes where we had him hemmed up and we didn't tackle well. That was the first time all year where we didn't tackle well. Probably first time since North Texas of last year where we didn't tackle well. That's something that's being addressed because that's something that we can improve immediately, and we feel like we're much better than."
On Tropical Storm Nicole's Impact on Saturday's Game…
"I've got a great operations department that handles all that. (Southern Miss Director of Football Operations) Tad Blaylock and those guys, he keeps me up to speed with our travel, but right now I'm just worried about getting in here and watching this tape and pouring everything I can into what we can do to improve our football program."
On Jordyn Mahaffey's Status…
"He's getting close. There's a chance he can play this week, if not he'll be back next week for sure."
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