Will Hall Media Availability – The Arkansas State Game
10/15/2024 11:27:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss head football coach Will Hall speaks with members of the media following practice at the Joe P. Park Practice Facility on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. Hall discussed the Golden Eagles' most recent game against ULM and previewed the upcoming homecoming match up against Arkansas State.
Kickoff for between Southern Miss (1-5, 0-2 Sun Belt) and Arkansas State (3-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, at The Rock. Southern Miss will also celebrate its 88th Annual Homecoming with this year's theme being "We Built This City on Black and Gold." Fans can visit https://www.usm.edu/proud/homecoming-week.php for all information on this year's festivities.
Fans wishing to attend Saturday's game can call the Southern Miss Ticket Office at 1-800-844-TICK (8425), by visiting SouthernMissTickets.com or by stopping by the Ticket Office in the Pat Ferlise Center on the corner of West 4th Street and Golden Eagle Avenue.
Saturday's contest can be heard on any station of the Southern Miss Sports Network with the Voice of the Golden Eagles, John Cox, and Lee Roberts starting the day at 4:30 p.m. with their pregame show. The game can be streamed on ESPN+ with Jason Baker and Austin Davis as the talent.
Here is what Hall said to the media:
Opening Statement…
"Great competition Tuesday with a lot of energy and effort today. Our guys were inspired, they practiced with a lot of juice and energy. I think we got better. We're continuing to improve at the second half of the season, now at the halfway mark. We want to finish a lot better than we started. Obviously we want to finish well. We want to play our best game. We haven't played our best game yet in all three phases. We want to put it all together and I think we've got an opportunity to do that. I really like how we're working. The accumulation of all that work is going to show at some point, particularly in the fourth quarter. We've played extremely hard and we've gotten to the fourth quarter and our guys – we want to make our play so bad to get us over this hump that we're pressed a little bit. We've got to learn to relax and trust each other and trust that our talent and technique can win out, not anything over the top. Love our kids, love the way they're working and I'm excited about playing this week."
On defensive leverage…
"It was 17-14 in the fourth quarter and they [ULM] throw a checkdown out there and we've got two, three guys converge on it: one misses a tackle, the other two run into the other which causes a second missed tackle and it turns into a 50-yard gain that extend the lead on us right there. Like you said, just pressing, not maintaining leverage. You're going to miss tackles sometimes in college football, that happens every week, but when you miss a tackle, you have to miss it with the proper leverage where the next guy then can get him down. Credit to them [ULM], they ran the ball really well, particularly late. We've got to move the ball more offensively, we've got to score more offensively, we know that from me all the way throughout our program. Ethan [Crawford] (Tuscaloosa, Ala. / Hillcrest HS) played tough, I don't think he played smart all the time, but he played tough. I think he'll be a lot better this week having two full weeks of practice and also being completely healthy and being able to move around a little better and that'll be good for us too."
On teachable moments for Crawford from the ULM game…
"Well, number one we've got to make some plays to help him [Crawford]. We had some deep balls that touched our hands, and we didn't catch them. We had a corner route that touched our hands, and we didn't catch it, and it wasn't a perfect throw, but it was, if it gets to us we can make that play, there's some plays to be made to help him, to help a young quarterback as he's growing. As far as understanding what he's doing, [offensive coordinator Chip] Long is doing a great job of molding this offense to what he can do now as we're moving in that direction, and also him just practicing and playing and having his eyes correctly so his talent can take over."
On if team's will to win prevent it from fully executing plays…
"We're pressed for sure. When you're swimming, and you're afraid you're going to drown, you paddle, you swim harder, but that doesn't necessarily, that just wears you out, that doesn't necessarily keep your head above water. Your technique of how you're doing it keeps your head above water and we're in the water and we want to win so bad, our kids do, that we paddle harder. We've just got to trust our technique, trust our eyes, trust the scheme and just keep playing together. When the play comes to you to be made, make it, but don't force it and leave something uncovered or leave your gap uncovered."
On if Crawford does too much in effort to win…
"He does, he want to win. He wants to win for his teammates, I'm going to be honest, he wants to win for me. He loves me and I love him. He knows he's the quarterback and he wants to be the one to get us over that hump. He wants to bear that burden and that's a big burden to bear, but at the same time he's one-of-eleven and the other 10 got to do their job and we're getting better in phases and we're close. I think with the way we practiced today, if we can continue that, we're going to get over this hump this weekend hopefully."
On Arkansas State's differences this season compared to last season…
"Not a lot. They're consistent in their schemes, their coordinators are the same and have been since [head coach Butch] Jones has been there. Their quarterback had his breakout game versus us last year, that was his coming out party, so we know him and what he can do. Similar skill set to Ethan. Really good player that can run. I've got a lot of respect for their offensive coordinator Coach [Keith] Heckendorf, we've known each other for a long time. He does a great job in the RPO game and running the football. Special teams wise, they're always going to be sound and coached up with Coach Jones. Defensively, they're very similar to us. 4-2-5 scheme. They want to leverage the run and tackle. They're in year four of their system so their guys really know their system and know how it's supposed to play."
Kickoff for between Southern Miss (1-5, 0-2 Sun Belt) and Arkansas State (3-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, at The Rock. Southern Miss will also celebrate its 88th Annual Homecoming with this year's theme being "We Built This City on Black and Gold." Fans can visit https://www.usm.edu/proud/homecoming-week.php for all information on this year's festivities.
Fans wishing to attend Saturday's game can call the Southern Miss Ticket Office at 1-800-844-TICK (8425), by visiting SouthernMissTickets.com or by stopping by the Ticket Office in the Pat Ferlise Center on the corner of West 4th Street and Golden Eagle Avenue.
Saturday's contest can be heard on any station of the Southern Miss Sports Network with the Voice of the Golden Eagles, John Cox, and Lee Roberts starting the day at 4:30 p.m. with their pregame show. The game can be streamed on ESPN+ with Jason Baker and Austin Davis as the talent.
Here is what Hall said to the media:
Opening Statement…
"Great competition Tuesday with a lot of energy and effort today. Our guys were inspired, they practiced with a lot of juice and energy. I think we got better. We're continuing to improve at the second half of the season, now at the halfway mark. We want to finish a lot better than we started. Obviously we want to finish well. We want to play our best game. We haven't played our best game yet in all three phases. We want to put it all together and I think we've got an opportunity to do that. I really like how we're working. The accumulation of all that work is going to show at some point, particularly in the fourth quarter. We've played extremely hard and we've gotten to the fourth quarter and our guys – we want to make our play so bad to get us over this hump that we're pressed a little bit. We've got to learn to relax and trust each other and trust that our talent and technique can win out, not anything over the top. Love our kids, love the way they're working and I'm excited about playing this week."
On defensive leverage…
"It was 17-14 in the fourth quarter and they [ULM] throw a checkdown out there and we've got two, three guys converge on it: one misses a tackle, the other two run into the other which causes a second missed tackle and it turns into a 50-yard gain that extend the lead on us right there. Like you said, just pressing, not maintaining leverage. You're going to miss tackles sometimes in college football, that happens every week, but when you miss a tackle, you have to miss it with the proper leverage where the next guy then can get him down. Credit to them [ULM], they ran the ball really well, particularly late. We've got to move the ball more offensively, we've got to score more offensively, we know that from me all the way throughout our program. Ethan [Crawford] (Tuscaloosa, Ala. / Hillcrest HS) played tough, I don't think he played smart all the time, but he played tough. I think he'll be a lot better this week having two full weeks of practice and also being completely healthy and being able to move around a little better and that'll be good for us too."
On teachable moments for Crawford from the ULM game…
"Well, number one we've got to make some plays to help him [Crawford]. We had some deep balls that touched our hands, and we didn't catch them. We had a corner route that touched our hands, and we didn't catch it, and it wasn't a perfect throw, but it was, if it gets to us we can make that play, there's some plays to be made to help him, to help a young quarterback as he's growing. As far as understanding what he's doing, [offensive coordinator Chip] Long is doing a great job of molding this offense to what he can do now as we're moving in that direction, and also him just practicing and playing and having his eyes correctly so his talent can take over."
On if team's will to win prevent it from fully executing plays…
"We're pressed for sure. When you're swimming, and you're afraid you're going to drown, you paddle, you swim harder, but that doesn't necessarily, that just wears you out, that doesn't necessarily keep your head above water. Your technique of how you're doing it keeps your head above water and we're in the water and we want to win so bad, our kids do, that we paddle harder. We've just got to trust our technique, trust our eyes, trust the scheme and just keep playing together. When the play comes to you to be made, make it, but don't force it and leave something uncovered or leave your gap uncovered."
On if Crawford does too much in effort to win…
"He does, he want to win. He wants to win for his teammates, I'm going to be honest, he wants to win for me. He loves me and I love him. He knows he's the quarterback and he wants to be the one to get us over that hump. He wants to bear that burden and that's a big burden to bear, but at the same time he's one-of-eleven and the other 10 got to do their job and we're getting better in phases and we're close. I think with the way we practiced today, if we can continue that, we're going to get over this hump this weekend hopefully."
On Arkansas State's differences this season compared to last season…
"Not a lot. They're consistent in their schemes, their coordinators are the same and have been since [head coach Butch] Jones has been there. Their quarterback had his breakout game versus us last year, that was his coming out party, so we know him and what he can do. Similar skill set to Ethan. Really good player that can run. I've got a lot of respect for their offensive coordinator Coach [Keith] Heckendorf, we've known each other for a long time. He does a great job in the RPO game and running the football. Special teams wise, they're always going to be sound and coached up with Coach Jones. Defensively, they're very similar to us. 4-2-5 scheme. They want to leverage the run and tackle. They're in year four of their system so their guys really know their system and know how it's supposed to play."
– #SMTTT –
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