New Southern Miss football coach Will Hall lays out his plan for the USM program
Will Hall has seen success at nearly every step of his football career, and it’ll be up to the Amory, Mississippi native to return a proud Southern Miss program to its winning ways.
The 40-year-old Hall, who was long considered a favorite for the USM job, was announced Wednesday as the Golden Eagles’ new head coach.
The Tulane offensive coordinator replaces Jay Hopson, who stepped down after a season-opening loss to South Alabama.
Hall, who was a star quarterback at Amory High School and Division II North Alabama, has one more game to coach at Tulane when the Green Wave (5-5) host Memphis (6-2) at 11 a.m. Saturday in New Orleans.
He’ll be formally introduced in a 10 a.m. event on Monday at Reed Green Coliseum where fans are allowed to attend as long as they wear masks and socially distance.
On Friday, the former Division II head coach at West Georgia and West Alabama answered some questions from the Sun Herald on what he has in mind for the Southern Miss football program.
Why did you decide the Southern Miss head coaching job was the opportunity you couldn’t pass up?
“I’ve always looked at the job as one I wanted because it’s in the state, and they’ve always won. It’s just a place that was always special growing up. I had great admiration for Jeff Bower’s teams and they always had good quarterbacks. I was a quarterback and I wasn’t the tallest. They had guys like that in Lee Roberts and Jeff Kelly during that hey day.
“I’m a Division II coach, a small-college guy, and with the way we run the program and do things and the way we recruit Mississippi kids, I just felt like if the opportunity came available it’d be such a great fit. I ended up jumping into the Division I ranks as an assistant (also at Louisiana and Memphis) to get that on my resumé. When it came open this time with (athletic director Jeremy McClain) being there and (USM president Rodney Bennett) being there, I just think it was the right time and the right fit. With the way Dr. Bennett sees the university and the way it’s changed in his tenure there, he has a vision of where he wants to take the university as a whole. Jeremy has those core values and core beliefs. There was an alignment all the way down. I understand how much football matters in Mississippi. I also understand if we win football games and sell this university and Dr. Bennett’s vision, I understand we can do special things as a university as a whole.”
How would you describe the coaching staff that you plan to have in place?
“It’s a mix. Obviously, I wouldn’t hire anybody that doesn’t believe in the same core values and how you need to treat people on a daily basis. I want this to be a program that’s inviting and open to everybody, impacting people in a positive way. Some (of the coaches) I moved slower with because I didn’t know as well. Some I moved quickly with. I’m the type of guy that I’d rather only have five guys around me that were all bought in and selling my mission and Dr. Bennett’s mission. We’re going to have a staff full of men bought into the program.
“I’m a big believer in teaching and the art of teaching. We’ll be complex in all schematics. I believe you can out-coach and out-scheme people. You’ve also got to impact people in a positive way and mold men. I’ll have a great staff. We just can’t announce it yet.”
How would you describe the offense that you plan to install?
“Our offense will be very multiple. It’ll be a great big tool box. We’ll be pro style with tempo, with a bunch of running backs and tight ends all over the place. There will be hybrid positions as well. People have said I’m a run-the-ball coach, but I inherited a team that was running the option (at Tulane). I took what we had and did the best we could to transition to where we wanted to be. This year, we’ve thrown it more with a true freshman quarterback. We wanted to be a balanced offense that runs it and throws it. We’ll want to be in the top 10 in the country in offense.
“We want to be a program that’s known for developing quarterbacks and one that builds around the quarterback position. From the NFL all the way down to the high school level, there are teams that always seem to play well at quarterback. Success at quarterback is often dictated by what that team does and how they help that position. We want to be a program that’s built around quarterback success. In turn, the whole program will be successful.”
How critical is it to target Mississippi high school players and keep those recruits in state?
“It’s huge. It not just Mississippi. It’s lower Alabama. It’s New Orleans. It’s Mississippi and all the surrounding areas. That means so much. Jeff Bower had this thing rolling and all the coaches that came before him were winning games with kids from that area. They were great football players. That will be a point of emphasis and the population has grown so much the last few years in Mississippi and Alabama and all the surrounding areas, so there are way more good football players available than there used to be. We’ll be able to sign a majority of our players from the surrounding areas.”
Do you think you’ll have the resources necessary to win at Southern Miss?
“No question. That’s one of biggest fallacies out there that Southern Miss doesn’t have resources. No. 1, you talk about recruiting. We’ve got all kinds of things to sell — the tradition, (M.M. Roberts Stadium), the weight room. Location is everything. Our budgets will be in the top three in the league for assistants and recruiting budgets. We’ve got to go get really good players and pay really good coaches. There’s the misconception that USM hasn’t been committed to success. That’s not the situation I’m coming into.”
How would you describe the process that went into you being hired?
“I think Jeremy handled this in 2020 with unbelievable class and character. Nobody knew anything and there were few whispers. Nobody knew what was going on. He has such great respect for the current players and what they went through. He didn’t want them seeing things on social media with different things. He cared about the kids, kept it quiet, did his research and was thorough. He’s a real man’s man.”
Do you think you have the time to put together a solid recruiting class?
“Yes, we do. We’ve got to assess the numbers we have scholarship-wise. We have to deal with all the things that come with COVID and people coming back. It’s a weird year in recruiting. The big thing is to make sure we don’t take the wrong guy. We’ve got to make sure they’re the right fit, character. We’ll try to sign the best 25-man class Southern Miss has ever had.”
Aside from recruiting, what do you consider your early goals?
“I’ve got the press conference on Monday, getting a recruiting plan together, getting to know the kids and getting coaches hired. I’m looking forward to the first team practice. I’m looking forward to that. We’ll start to evaluate where they fit into the schemes, what they can and can’t do. Every minute of every day, we’ll be recruiting, talking to coaches and getting everything in place.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 1:13 PM.
