Southern Miss football practice opens with reloaded roster, and an uncertain schedule
Southern Miss opened its spring football practice Saturday morning with a deep roster and high expectations.
Head coach Will Hall’s team is coming off a 3-9 year, and he’s excited about the depth USM now has, with a wealth of talent joining the roster this semester.
“One of the biggest downfalls of what we had to go through last year is we were shorthanded,” Hall said after practice. “We played with 60-something scholarships. ... We were a 2A school playing a 6A schedule. It is what it is, we’re not that anymore.”
Hall said the team scholarship count is back into the 80s, putting the roster in a significantly better place than it was at the end of the 2021 season.
Welcome roster additions
Southern Miss is in the enviable situation of bringing back the majority of its starters, while also adding a host of junior college and four-year university transfers in addition to its recruiting class.
That instant boost of experience has rendered most positions on both sides of the ball up for grabs.
“We got a lot of people back, but the competition is still going to be way better,” Hall said. “Just because you started last year, that doesn’t mean a whole lot. You started on a 3-9 football team. That’s not good enough.”
The wide receiver room, with the addition of Latreal Jones, and the offensive line group, with Ole Miss transfer Bryce Ramsey’s arrival, are among those with plenty of depth.
A high-ceiling defense is not immune from roster takeover, either. In the middle of the unit, a deep linebacker group got even deeper over the winter with multiple signees joining the mix.
“At linebacker we’ve got a lot of returning talent and then you bring a guy like (Ole Miss transfer) Daylen Gill into the room,” Hall said. “You’ve got Hayes Maples, Swayze Bozeman, Santrell Latham, T.Q. Newsome ... So just a lot of competition in every room and that’s what we’ve got to get back to at Southern Miss.”
Memphis transfer Jalil Clemons is nursing a minor injury suffered in workouts but is expected to be on the field soon and competing for a spot at the Jack (linebacker/defensive end hybrid) position.
Quarterback situation
Hall hoped to bring in a transfer quarterback during the offseason, and even thought about moving Trey Lowe to a new position. Neither came to fruition, and the Golden Eagles are looking at a similar situation at quarterback as they were in fall camp last year.
There are two key differences this time: True freshman Zach Wilcke enters the rooms as the top-ranked quarterback prospect from Mississippi; and Ty Keyes is the projected starter in just his first collegiate spring practice.
“Ty (Keyes) is taking the first reps right now,” Hall said. “It’s his job to lose with how he played last year. Zach Wilcke was held out today due to contract tracing, but he’ll be back on Monday. He’s had a phenomenal offseason.”
Keyes and Lowe are coming off of season-ending injuries and knocking off some rust after not practicing for several months.
All three are competing for the starting job, and while he’s getting the first look, Keyes’ spot is not yet solidified, according to Hall.
Who is USM practicing for?
Southern Miss is at the center of the latest episode of “College Football Drama” — a legal battle with Conference USA became public recently.
The C-USA office officially released its 2022 conference schedule recently, and included USM on the slate. This came a few short days after the school announced it would not compete within C-USA in the 2022-23 athletic year.
The Sun Belt Conference will be releasing its schedule on March 1 and, according to Sports Illustrated, will include USM on it.
While the Golden Eagles are practicing without knowing for sure who will be on their next schedule, Hall seems to have an idea of where they’ll be.
“I feel like I know, all right?” Hall said. “I feel like I know, so I feel good about it. But I’ll tell you what I do know. I know we play Liberty game one and I know we play Miami game two. I know we play Northwestern State game three and I know we play Tulane game four. If any human being on planet Earth is looking farther than that then they have more time on their hands than I do.
“We’re excited about the future of the Sun Belt and the future of where we’re heading as an overall athletics program. We’ve got great leadership, and we feel good about where we’re heading.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 4:39 PM.
