USM football coach hopeful for win against Middle Tennessee
While most Southern Miss sports fans have been preoccupied with the university’s move to the Sun Belt Conference this week, the Golden Eagles still have a football season to complete.
After enjoying its bye week last week, USM returns to action Saturday as the Golden Eagles battle Middle Tennessee in Conference USA action Saturday at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Kickoff at Johnny Floyd Field is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Will Hall’s debut season as head coach at Southern Miss hasn’t worked out like he and the fan base had hoped for, but Hall says there is still plenty on the line for the Golden Eagles.
“Our mindset is to get better every day,” Hall said Tuesday at his weekly media briefing. “We want to put the best foot forward we can, we want to improve every day and we want to finish this season on a high note.”
The Golden Eagles are coming off their worst performance of the season two weeks ago against UAB at Roberts Stadium, a 34-0 shutout. It was the first time they had been shut out since the season opener in 20014 at Mississippi State, and the first home shutout since 1984.
At 1-6 overall and 0-3 in conference play, Hall and his staff are looking to the future, and they will be looking at some young players who haven’t yet made an impact on the field.
“We are in a position now, late in the year, where the young guys that are redshirting, you can play them in four games (without losing the year’s eligibility),” Hall said.
“We want to make sure that if those guys are good enough to play, that we are playing them so it doesn’t hinder their future.”
Two players that Hall mentioned that he wants to see on the field are wide receiver Zay Franks and tackle My’kal McLeod, both true freshmen.
“Those are guys that I could expect to see playing for us down the stretch, because we can still play them now and they’ll still be redshirted,” Hall said. “That’s a positive, not only for them, but for our future and what we’re building.”
McLeod is in a big spot, listed this week as the backup at right tackle to senior Khalique Washington, who has been in and out of the lineup with minor injuries.
“Khalique’s an older guy who’s played a long time,” Hall said. “He’s been beat up this season, like a lot of our guys, I think he’s coming off the off week, probably healthier than he’s been for a long time, so that’ll be good.”
This will be the first conference game for Middle Tennessee (3-4, 1-2) since Oct. 2, a 34-28 win over Marshall, followed by a loss at Liberty and a 44-13 win last week at Connecticut. Rick Stockstill is in his 16th season as the coach of the Blue Raiders.
“They’re a really good program,” Hall said. “Coach Stockstill has been there for a long time, and he’s done a great job. He’s won a bunch of games; they’ve been to a bunch of bowl games.
“They’re another established program in this league that’s had the same head coach for a long time. That’s why they’ve won. They’re on a little bit of a hot streak right now and they’ve got some confidence going.”
Although freshman quarterback Jake Lange was benched at halftime of the loss to UAB, with the Golden Eagles trailing 31-0, Hall said Lange would be back out as the starter against Middle Tennessee.
“We just pulled him out because of the way the game was going,” Hall said. “We wanted to make sure he was healthy for this week. Jake will be 100 percent.”
Earlier this week, Southern Miss announced that junior wide receiver Antoine Robinson had entered the transfer portal and was no longer with the team.
“We wish him well,” Hall said. “We expect to have more attrition as we continue to build this roster back to being a championship-caliber program. He’s not the first one; he won’t be the last one.”
This will be the fourth meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Blue Raiders, with Middle Tennessee winning all three previous games in the series, beginning with the New Orleans Bowl in 2009. MTU won the last time they played, 37-31 in 2014 at Murfreeesboro.
“I think we’ve really improved in a lot of phases over the past week,” Hall said. “Got some guys healthy.
“We’re starting to look like a football team. When we go half-line and team run (at practice), it looks like real college football. I think we are getting better; we’re seeing improvement, I just hope we can start seeing that on the field.”
Saturday’s game will be livestreamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on the Southern Miss Sports Network from Learfield Sports (WBUV-FM, 104.9 in Gulfport).