Southern Miss football seeing the early returns from the transfer portal
All it takes is one look at the most recent Southern Miss football depth chart to know Will Hall’s team has come a long way from year one.
It’s both youthful and experienced. It’s heavy with Mississippi products, whether the players started their careers in Hattiesburg or not.
The roster is a mixed bag of athletes who played under a revolving door of Golden Eagle coaches, fresh-out-of-high-school development projects and hungry imports from nearby Power Five programs.
The latter of the bunch made up a transfer class that was heralded as one of the most talented in the country. Fast forward to now, a third of the way into the season, that class has already left a noticeable imprint on USM football.
“I think (the transfer portal) has helped us, number one because we’re in a very fertile recruiting area,” Hall told the Sun Herald. “Number two, we know everybody in that fertile recruiting area. Literally, we grew up here, but also we’ve recruited here for 20 years. We’ve built great rapport with everybody.”
The early returns from the 11-man transfer class are evident. The team’s third and fourth leading tacklers, Jalen Williams and Daylen Gill, started their careers in the SEC.
Williams and fellow transfers Armondous Cooley and Quentin Bivens have already recorded sacks this year, as well. Tylan Knight has been a contributor on special teams, as well as in the secondary.
“These kids go off to Power Fives and then they’re not playing,” Hall said. “Coaches know us, some family members knew us, we recruited them out of high school, we got some of their teammates here. There’s an instant connection. That helped us.”
Two additions to the offensive line have made a difference, as well. Veteran Bryce Ramsey and redshirt freshman Calvin McMillian have both seen significant playing time through the first four games.
Ramsey, a Gulfport native, has also made an impact during the week and not just on Saturdays.
“Bryce, he understands how things work,” offensive line coach Sam Gregg said. “He’s awesome at practice from an attitude standpoint. He’s getting better and better every week.”
Gregg also says McMillian is still learning how to balance the student-athlete lifestyle, but is “unbelievably talented,” according to Hall.
The portal taketh, too
The primary concern associated with the transfer portal has been the likelihood that talent groomed at the Group of Five level will be poached by Power Five programs.
In the short term, that hasn’t hurt Hall’s team just yet. It is, however, something that he is wary of.
“It hasn’t hurt us yet because we’re not winning and not playing that great,” Hall said. “It will eventually hurt us. There will come a time where our talent gets so good that a player leaves and, for lack of a better term, gets bought by a bigger school.”
In his Hall’s short tenure in Hattiesburg, he hasn’t yet lost a contributor to a major conference team. That time will come, though, and Hall is ready for it.
“There’s positives in that, too,” Hall said. “If our players get so good that those elite, elite places want our kids, then we’re winning games and have a lot of good players. So we know that’s coming.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2022 at 3:51 PM.
