University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Coach Will Hall Media Availability – The ULM Game
10/31/2023 3:15:00 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 with ULM.
Game time is set for Nov. 4, at 3 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on ESPN+ 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:
"It's a great day, beautiful weather, and it cooled down a bit more and the sun came out. We appreciate the good Lord for that. It was a great day with a lot of energy and we really saw some young guys improving. We got a lot of good work in."
On freshman Ethan Crawford:
"He was targeted as a recruit because he was probably going to be the player of the year in Alabama until he tore his knee at the end of the year. They had a great chance to win the state title and he played for a great high school in Jamie Mitchell, a great coach in Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. We go way back all the way to when he played for Pontotoc in the early 80s when I was a young kid on the sidelines. His family and mine go way back. Ethan is a pied-piper type guy- people follow him and he's got great charisma, a great smile and a great skill set. He's a great runner, a live arm, and we've still got to work on his mechanics a little bit. He comes from a great family. Mom and Dad fed the whole team at Hillcrest and follow him everywhere, so he's got a great support system. And that's why we recruited him. He was highly recruited, a lot of people wanted him, and we won out over a lot of people like we have with so many of our young guys in our program. We've got so many young guys that were highly recruited kids, we won out on them, and they're going to be really good players as they keep progressing."
On offensive aggressiveness versus Appalachian State:
"We attacked all night well regardless of the scoreboard and that's what we want to do now and for the rest of the year. It's really what we want to be and that's what my teams have always been and we kind of got away from that here because we had played some good defense for a long time. We had some issues early on when we got here offensively with some personnel, but we want to be an attacking offense, and you saw that. Our offensive staff did a great job and our kids did too. We answered for the most part, we answered score for score, and it was just disappointing that we weren't able to win the football game. We had some opportunities to take a three-score lead, whether it was a close miss for a touchdown or a missed field goal. We just never got over the hump, and that's something we've got to continue to learn to do moving forward."
On goalline turnover versus Appalachian State:
"We had a guy wide open for a first down too, and the play before, we got a first down, and got a penalty on a bubble screen, which is devastating because we would have been first down moving the ball with a ten-point lead. We've got to get good enough where we can overcome a call that doesn't go our way. Are we there yet? No, but we're really close. We've had a lot of calls that didn't go our way this year and we've just got to get good enough. How do you get good enough? You keep practicing, you keep working, you keep recruiting, and keep growing. I think we're getting really close to getting over another hump."
On running back Kenyon Clay:
"He was arguably one of the best players on our team in fall camp and he had that knee injury right there in the last scrimmage. I thought he was done for the year, it was a terrible-looking tackle, and it speaks to what a freak he is that he was able to come back and he's fully healthy now. He's doing some great things in the kicking game and he's going to be a really good football player for us. We're excited that he's back healthy and rolling."
On recruiting focus:
"We're always recruiting, that's been the big thing since we got here. The rules were what they were. We could only sign 13 in year one and 25 in year two, so that gets 38 players that we're bringing in, and now, the way the rules are, we've got a really great chance to stack that third recruiting class on top of it. Like we talked about, we have 57 kids scheduled to be back that will be here for three years or longer. We've got a really good high school crop committed. We'll probably stick with that and might add one or two more high school guys. We've got a good transfer group right now, but we will add to that significantly. We would like to bring in at least 15 to 18 guys and I think we're moving in a great direction. We've identified some guys and we're in a good situation from a transfer standpoint and our projected portal standpoint, so we feel good about it."
On receiver Ti Mims' performance against Appalachian State:
"What you saw was our offense able to work together to free up everybody. Early in the game, we made some plays in the passing game, and all of a sudden, Frank [Gore Jr.] is running through the middle, and now Ti Mims is one-on-one in the passing game. That's the way offense is-when you get a one-on-one, you have to make a play. Now they have to go two-on-one on that guy, and this guy has a one-on-one. The give-and-take of our run and pass and RPO together was just really good. We just have got to find a way to keep it going and finish that game out."
On defensive back Jay Stanley's status:
"Jay is playing with that broken hand and he's got a cast on him. He's got an MCL injury in his knee and he played through it last week like a warrior. We expect him to play again this week. We're going to take care of him. He's played a lot of football and he's playing hurt and doing that for his teammates and for himself. We expect him to play again this week."
On matchup against ULM:
"They are a team that has had a season very similar to us. They've lost a lot of one-score games. That record could be a whole lot different. They try to establish the run and they've got good play action off of it. They have some receivers that can do some good things like we do. Defensively, they've got a defensive coordinator, Coach Koenning, who has an unbelievable resume. I've known him for a long time. He did a great job at Troy and bounced from there to West Virginia when Troy went over ten games so many times. He was a defensive coordinator for Ron Zook at Illinois when they were seventh in the country in defense. He was at North Carolina when they were so good, so he has just an unbelievable resume from a defensive coordinator standpoint, one of the top in the country. They do a lot of hard things to get ready for and they utilize the personnel the best they can and I've got a lot of respect for them."
Game time is set for Nov. 4, at 3 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on ESPN+ 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:
"It's a great day, beautiful weather, and it cooled down a bit more and the sun came out. We appreciate the good Lord for that. It was a great day with a lot of energy and we really saw some young guys improving. We got a lot of good work in."
On freshman Ethan Crawford:
"He was targeted as a recruit because he was probably going to be the player of the year in Alabama until he tore his knee at the end of the year. They had a great chance to win the state title and he played for a great high school in Jamie Mitchell, a great coach in Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. We go way back all the way to when he played for Pontotoc in the early 80s when I was a young kid on the sidelines. His family and mine go way back. Ethan is a pied-piper type guy- people follow him and he's got great charisma, a great smile and a great skill set. He's a great runner, a live arm, and we've still got to work on his mechanics a little bit. He comes from a great family. Mom and Dad fed the whole team at Hillcrest and follow him everywhere, so he's got a great support system. And that's why we recruited him. He was highly recruited, a lot of people wanted him, and we won out over a lot of people like we have with so many of our young guys in our program. We've got so many young guys that were highly recruited kids, we won out on them, and they're going to be really good players as they keep progressing."
On offensive aggressiveness versus Appalachian State:
"We attacked all night well regardless of the scoreboard and that's what we want to do now and for the rest of the year. It's really what we want to be and that's what my teams have always been and we kind of got away from that here because we had played some good defense for a long time. We had some issues early on when we got here offensively with some personnel, but we want to be an attacking offense, and you saw that. Our offensive staff did a great job and our kids did too. We answered for the most part, we answered score for score, and it was just disappointing that we weren't able to win the football game. We had some opportunities to take a three-score lead, whether it was a close miss for a touchdown or a missed field goal. We just never got over the hump, and that's something we've got to continue to learn to do moving forward."
On goalline turnover versus Appalachian State:
"We had a guy wide open for a first down too, and the play before, we got a first down, and got a penalty on a bubble screen, which is devastating because we would have been first down moving the ball with a ten-point lead. We've got to get good enough where we can overcome a call that doesn't go our way. Are we there yet? No, but we're really close. We've had a lot of calls that didn't go our way this year and we've just got to get good enough. How do you get good enough? You keep practicing, you keep working, you keep recruiting, and keep growing. I think we're getting really close to getting over another hump."
On running back Kenyon Clay:
"He was arguably one of the best players on our team in fall camp and he had that knee injury right there in the last scrimmage. I thought he was done for the year, it was a terrible-looking tackle, and it speaks to what a freak he is that he was able to come back and he's fully healthy now. He's doing some great things in the kicking game and he's going to be a really good football player for us. We're excited that he's back healthy and rolling."
On recruiting focus:
"We're always recruiting, that's been the big thing since we got here. The rules were what they were. We could only sign 13 in year one and 25 in year two, so that gets 38 players that we're bringing in, and now, the way the rules are, we've got a really great chance to stack that third recruiting class on top of it. Like we talked about, we have 57 kids scheduled to be back that will be here for three years or longer. We've got a really good high school crop committed. We'll probably stick with that and might add one or two more high school guys. We've got a good transfer group right now, but we will add to that significantly. We would like to bring in at least 15 to 18 guys and I think we're moving in a great direction. We've identified some guys and we're in a good situation from a transfer standpoint and our projected portal standpoint, so we feel good about it."
On receiver Ti Mims' performance against Appalachian State:
"What you saw was our offense able to work together to free up everybody. Early in the game, we made some plays in the passing game, and all of a sudden, Frank [Gore Jr.] is running through the middle, and now Ti Mims is one-on-one in the passing game. That's the way offense is-when you get a one-on-one, you have to make a play. Now they have to go two-on-one on that guy, and this guy has a one-on-one. The give-and-take of our run and pass and RPO together was just really good. We just have got to find a way to keep it going and finish that game out."
On defensive back Jay Stanley's status:
"Jay is playing with that broken hand and he's got a cast on him. He's got an MCL injury in his knee and he played through it last week like a warrior. We expect him to play again this week. We're going to take care of him. He's played a lot of football and he's playing hurt and doing that for his teammates and for himself. We expect him to play again this week."
On matchup against ULM:
"They are a team that has had a season very similar to us. They've lost a lot of one-score games. That record could be a whole lot different. They try to establish the run and they've got good play action off of it. They have some receivers that can do some good things like we do. Defensively, they've got a defensive coordinator, Coach Koenning, who has an unbelievable resume. I've known him for a long time. He did a great job at Troy and bounced from there to West Virginia when Troy went over ten games so many times. He was a defensive coordinator for Ron Zook at Illinois when they were seventh in the country in defense. He was at North Carolina when they were so good, so he has just an unbelievable resume from a defensive coordinator standpoint, one of the top in the country. They do a lot of hard things to get ready for and they utilize the personnel the best they can and I've got a lot of respect for them."
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