University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Will Hall Media Availability – The Florida State Game
9/5/2023 11:37:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss head football coach Will Hall met with members of the media following practice on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. Hall discussed Southern Miss' 40-14 win over Alcorn State and looked ahead to Saturday's matchup against Florida State.
The Golden Eagles travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on the Seminoles this Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT (8:30 p.m. ET) at Florida State's Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium.
Tickets for all remaining home and away games are still available and available for purchase at SouthernMissTickets.com, by calling 1-800-844-TICK (8425) or by visiting the Pat Ferlise Ticket Office on campus.
Here is what Hall had to say to the media:
Opening Statement…
"[It was] a phenomenal Tuesday. I thought our kids had great juice today on a great Competition Tuesday. I saw a lot of young guys that continue to improve. Matt Ryals (Offensive Line / Purvis, Miss. / Purvis HS) is coming on and really competing on the O-line, [as is] Gabe Cavazos (Offensive Line / Lake Cormorant, Miss. / Mississippi State). Kolbe Cage (Linebacker / New Orleans, La. / Arizona) is coming on right there. We got some good special teams work.
We play a tremendous opponent this week, I know y'all are going to ask me about them. I mean, they're probably the best team I've ever coach against. I played [Alabama] in [2021], we did, and they played for the national title, and I think this team is a little better than them. [Alabama] was starting a true freshman quarterback at the time, he was really good and was a first-round draft pick. This guy is special. Their skill guys are and it's going to be a great challenge for us—a tremendous opportunity to go over there and represent our program the right way in an elite opponent, in an elite venue and to see how much we've grown since the last time we went over and played [Alabama] in a situation like this. I think our guys are excited about it."
On takeaways from Florida State's win over LSU…
"Yea, just no weaknesses. They're old, they're good, they're experienced. They've got a returning quarterback; I think they've got 17 starters back. They led the ACC in offense and defense last year—and they've got 17 starters back this year. Quarterback's back, they've got a great football coach. They're good in all three phases. He's [Florida State head coach Mike Norvell] built the program, they're in year four and you can see the consistent growth.
Mike inherited a situation much like me. It was a total rebuild. He took a lot of criticism in year one, but he stayed true to himself because that's who he is. Then in year two they were a little bit better, then in year three they were a lot better, and then now in year four they've got a chance to win a national title. I've got a lot of respect for how he does things. It's very similar to the build we have going here. We're in year three, they're in year four. We're a whole lot better than we were in year one. But they don't have any weaknesses. They're good everywhere, they're really good. Their skill kids don't get tackled by the first guy. Their O-line is experienced and good. Their quarterback is really good. D-line is the best I've ever coached against. Secondary is good. Linebackers run and hit—they play extremely hard for each other. It's an impressive group to watch."
On if defense has a specific plan to cover Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman…
"We're going to play defense the Southern Miss way. He's a really good football player. He's good."
On missed scoring opportunities against Alcorn State…
"Number one, we hit Brandon Hayes (Wide Receiver / Hattiesburg, Miss. / Oak Grove HS) for touchdown. He's got to—one more inch, right—he's got to bang back inside and catch that ball. His foot barely landed on the line, that was one drive. Then we threw a screen and broke it down to the three[-yard line] and [Jakarius] Caston (Wide Receiver / Natchez, Miss. / Hinds CC) got an illegal block. He blocked too high, the target zone is lower and you can't block like that anymore, so that was the penalty on that one. Then we scored on the other one, but got a holding call when we bounced it outside, which is a tough call. Not a whole lot that you can do about that. It was an inside zone that bounced. The offensive tackle's got inside leverage and that's not a call that normally gets called but it did. So, then you're first- or second-and-goal from the 20[-yard line] and there's not a lot of good calls for that. So at that point, we've got to try and make a really good play on the next down to get us back in feasibility. It was two penalties and just not quite re-stacking enough on goal line fade, and we're a lot cleaner in the red zone, so it's all things we can correct."
On second-team offensive line's performance…
"They did a good job. Man, we've got a lot of O-linemen that are young and getting better and better. It's been good to see that we have a lot of depth right there."
On if he coached alongside Florida State head coach Mike Norvell at Memphis…
"Yes, I was his tight ends coach and assistant head coach at Memphis. We go way back. He [Norvell] played at Central Arkansas while I played at North Alabama and then Chip Long was my college roommate and Chip coached for him for a long time. Chip was his tight ends coach at Arizona State when Mike was the OC and then was his first OC at Memphis, so Mike and I have known each other for a long, long time and I have great respect for him."
On chemistry between quarterback Billy Wiles and running back Frank Gore, Jr.…
"[They have] great respect for how each of them prepare. Winners like to hang out with other winners, and losers don't like to hang out with winners. Losers hate—they get intimidated by winners and how they work and they want to make excuses. Man, Frank [Gore, Jr.] (Miami, Fla. / Killian HS) and Billy [Wiles] (Ashburn, Va. / Clemson) just work. They prepare and they have worked so hard for what they're doing, and I think they have great respect for each other. They're high, high football IQ, so they can communicate in ways that others probably can't to each other."
On Rodrigues "Dreke" Clark's first game as a Golden Eagle…
"Intense competitor, really hard to tackle. Love the guy. He's a team guy all-the-way. He's really good in the kicking game. With him [Clark] (Starkville, Miss. / Memphis) and Kenyon [Clay] (Union, Miss. / Union HS) both, we felt like we had a great dynamic one-two punch to kind of spell Frank. Now, Kenyon's been banged up, he got twisted up in that second scrimmage. He's going to be well at some point early in the season, but we're really high on Dreke. He's from Starkville, Mississippi, and is just a true Southern Miss guy."
On Davis Dalton's performance…
"Davis is going to be a really good football player, highly recruited young man out of MRA, a great high school program under Herbert Davis. He redshirted last year but played in a few games and then had a hamstring injury in fall camp and came back and looked good in this game. He's got a bright future for us."
On going from an FCS team to a top-10 team in the country…
"I can't remember—in my first year here, we played [Alabama], who'd we play the week before. We played Grambling, didn't we, yea. So, we went Grambling to [Alabama].
On if preparation is the same against Florida State as it was against Alabama in 2021…
"Well, we're a way better program than then now. I think each team is its entity in it of itself. It's like having two children: you raise them the somewhat the same with the same principles, but they're still different and you've got to handle them different. This team is so much different than the [2021] team in what we can attack each day, what we can accomplish in each day. In that time, we were still laying the slab of our foundation and smoothing it out. Now, we're trying to construct a house on that slab. This Florida State team is good, they're really good. That [Alabama] team ended up being great and they smoked us that day, but they were building to that. They had a true freshman quarterback. They had a lot of newcomers at the time. This Florida State team is old and veteran and really really good. It's a great challenge for us and one that we're excited to roll it out there and see what we've got."
The Golden Eagles travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on the Seminoles this Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT (8:30 p.m. ET) at Florida State's Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium.
Tickets for all remaining home and away games are still available and available for purchase at SouthernMissTickets.com, by calling 1-800-844-TICK (8425) or by visiting the Pat Ferlise Ticket Office on campus.
Here is what Hall had to say to the media:
Opening Statement…
"[It was] a phenomenal Tuesday. I thought our kids had great juice today on a great Competition Tuesday. I saw a lot of young guys that continue to improve. Matt Ryals (Offensive Line / Purvis, Miss. / Purvis HS) is coming on and really competing on the O-line, [as is] Gabe Cavazos (Offensive Line / Lake Cormorant, Miss. / Mississippi State). Kolbe Cage (Linebacker / New Orleans, La. / Arizona) is coming on right there. We got some good special teams work.
We play a tremendous opponent this week, I know y'all are going to ask me about them. I mean, they're probably the best team I've ever coach against. I played [Alabama] in [2021], we did, and they played for the national title, and I think this team is a little better than them. [Alabama] was starting a true freshman quarterback at the time, he was really good and was a first-round draft pick. This guy is special. Their skill guys are and it's going to be a great challenge for us—a tremendous opportunity to go over there and represent our program the right way in an elite opponent, in an elite venue and to see how much we've grown since the last time we went over and played [Alabama] in a situation like this. I think our guys are excited about it."
On takeaways from Florida State's win over LSU…
"Yea, just no weaknesses. They're old, they're good, they're experienced. They've got a returning quarterback; I think they've got 17 starters back. They led the ACC in offense and defense last year—and they've got 17 starters back this year. Quarterback's back, they've got a great football coach. They're good in all three phases. He's [Florida State head coach Mike Norvell] built the program, they're in year four and you can see the consistent growth.
Mike inherited a situation much like me. It was a total rebuild. He took a lot of criticism in year one, but he stayed true to himself because that's who he is. Then in year two they were a little bit better, then in year three they were a lot better, and then now in year four they've got a chance to win a national title. I've got a lot of respect for how he does things. It's very similar to the build we have going here. We're in year three, they're in year four. We're a whole lot better than we were in year one. But they don't have any weaknesses. They're good everywhere, they're really good. Their skill kids don't get tackled by the first guy. Their O-line is experienced and good. Their quarterback is really good. D-line is the best I've ever coached against. Secondary is good. Linebackers run and hit—they play extremely hard for each other. It's an impressive group to watch."
On if defense has a specific plan to cover Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman…
"We're going to play defense the Southern Miss way. He's a really good football player. He's good."
On missed scoring opportunities against Alcorn State…
"Number one, we hit Brandon Hayes (Wide Receiver / Hattiesburg, Miss. / Oak Grove HS) for touchdown. He's got to—one more inch, right—he's got to bang back inside and catch that ball. His foot barely landed on the line, that was one drive. Then we threw a screen and broke it down to the three[-yard line] and [Jakarius] Caston (Wide Receiver / Natchez, Miss. / Hinds CC) got an illegal block. He blocked too high, the target zone is lower and you can't block like that anymore, so that was the penalty on that one. Then we scored on the other one, but got a holding call when we bounced it outside, which is a tough call. Not a whole lot that you can do about that. It was an inside zone that bounced. The offensive tackle's got inside leverage and that's not a call that normally gets called but it did. So, then you're first- or second-and-goal from the 20[-yard line] and there's not a lot of good calls for that. So at that point, we've got to try and make a really good play on the next down to get us back in feasibility. It was two penalties and just not quite re-stacking enough on goal line fade, and we're a lot cleaner in the red zone, so it's all things we can correct."
On second-team offensive line's performance…
"They did a good job. Man, we've got a lot of O-linemen that are young and getting better and better. It's been good to see that we have a lot of depth right there."
On if he coached alongside Florida State head coach Mike Norvell at Memphis…
"Yes, I was his tight ends coach and assistant head coach at Memphis. We go way back. He [Norvell] played at Central Arkansas while I played at North Alabama and then Chip Long was my college roommate and Chip coached for him for a long time. Chip was his tight ends coach at Arizona State when Mike was the OC and then was his first OC at Memphis, so Mike and I have known each other for a long, long time and I have great respect for him."
On chemistry between quarterback Billy Wiles and running back Frank Gore, Jr.…
"[They have] great respect for how each of them prepare. Winners like to hang out with other winners, and losers don't like to hang out with winners. Losers hate—they get intimidated by winners and how they work and they want to make excuses. Man, Frank [Gore, Jr.] (Miami, Fla. / Killian HS) and Billy [Wiles] (Ashburn, Va. / Clemson) just work. They prepare and they have worked so hard for what they're doing, and I think they have great respect for each other. They're high, high football IQ, so they can communicate in ways that others probably can't to each other."
On Rodrigues "Dreke" Clark's first game as a Golden Eagle…
"Intense competitor, really hard to tackle. Love the guy. He's a team guy all-the-way. He's really good in the kicking game. With him [Clark] (Starkville, Miss. / Memphis) and Kenyon [Clay] (Union, Miss. / Union HS) both, we felt like we had a great dynamic one-two punch to kind of spell Frank. Now, Kenyon's been banged up, he got twisted up in that second scrimmage. He's going to be well at some point early in the season, but we're really high on Dreke. He's from Starkville, Mississippi, and is just a true Southern Miss guy."
On Davis Dalton's performance…
"Davis is going to be a really good football player, highly recruited young man out of MRA, a great high school program under Herbert Davis. He redshirted last year but played in a few games and then had a hamstring injury in fall camp and came back and looked good in this game. He's got a bright future for us."
On going from an FCS team to a top-10 team in the country…
"I can't remember—in my first year here, we played [Alabama], who'd we play the week before. We played Grambling, didn't we, yea. So, we went Grambling to [Alabama].
On if preparation is the same against Florida State as it was against Alabama in 2021…
"Well, we're a way better program than then now. I think each team is its entity in it of itself. It's like having two children: you raise them the somewhat the same with the same principles, but they're still different and you've got to handle them different. This team is so much different than the [2021] team in what we can attack each day, what we can accomplish in each day. In that time, we were still laying the slab of our foundation and smoothing it out. Now, we're trying to construct a house on that slab. This Florida State team is good, they're really good. That [Alabama] team ended up being great and they smoked us that day, but they were building to that. They had a true freshman quarterback. They had a lot of newcomers at the time. This Florida State team is old and veteran and really really good. It's a great challenge for us and one that we're excited to roll it out there and see what we've got."
– @USMGoldenEagles | @SouthernMissFB –
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