Giving Southern Miss football coach Will Hall the chance for a 2024 rebound feels like the right move

HATTIESBURG – Southern Miss football is taking a gamble.

Will Hall is 13-24 through three seasons as its head coach. Southern Miss won seven games last year, but has won three games each in 2021 and 2023.

That’s not going to cut it here. Not at Southern Miss, which during Saturday’s 35-17 loss to Troy honored the 65th anniversary of the 1958 national championship team.

Whether Southern Miss can compete on that same level in this day and age of college football is a separate debate. Retaining Hall for a fourth season is, too, but for my 2 cents, he’s worth the investment to bring back in 2024. It’s already been decided anyway.

It's not just wins and losses

Wins and losses are an easy way to make judgements. It’s also a lazy one.

A peek behind the curtain tells more of the story.

The roster Hall inherited was in need of a massive overhaul. Even with the transfer portal, that was going to take time. Losing defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong after last season was a bigger loss than probably anticipated. The injuries in 2023, especially at defensive back, were brutal. Hall is yet to find a long-term solution at quarterback. Changes will need to be made.

Hall is the head of the program. He’s responsible for Southern Miss winning just three games.

“The criticism is fair,” Hall said. “Nobody is more critical than me. Nobody is more upset at how the season turned out than I am. I am highly agitated and upset at how the season turned out.”

He is also responsible for making the roster changes, coaching staff hires and schematic adjustments. Hall will be under the magnifying glass this offseason because he deserves to be. What happens between Saturday and next season’s opener at Kentucky will be pivotal in determining which direction Southern Miss truly is heading.

Southern Miss didn't quit

But the most encouraging aspect is what occurred during the last month of the season. That dismantling at South Alabama – let’s just say it – was rock bottom.

Since then, the indicators are there that Southern Miss could be turning things around.

Safety Jay Stanley and running back Frank Gore Jr. both might have played their final games Saturday in a Southern Miss uniform. They were each asked following the loss on their thoughts on Hall returning for 2024:

“I'm excited,” Stanley said. “I'm glad they gave him another chance. A lot of people wrote him off. A lot of stuff that happened this year, it's easy to blame it on coaches. It's not his fault. He's not out there playing, so I put a lot of that on the team.”

Said Gore: “I'm happy. I kind of figured that anyway. Like Jay (Stanley) was saying, a lot of stuff that went on this season, he couldn't control, but it's easy for someone to say it's the coach because that's the leader of the program.

“We've been through a lot of stuff that no one could control. No one can control injuries and things like that, but yeah, I was very excited, very happy and proud of him because he deserves it.”

That's been the common theme as the Golden Eagles navigated through this season. Hall didn't quit on Southern Miss, and the players and university didn’t quit on him either. The 2023 season is now over, but there is something significant to be said about that.

Southern Miss will move on from this season quickly. Hall even demonstrated after the loss how it plans to do so. He seems like the right guy to be able to do that.

“Like that, boom,” Hall said as he flipped over a white piece of paper on the table. “We’re gonna wake up tomorrow, the sun’s coming up and we’re gonna go to work.”

Sam Sklar is the Southern Miss beat reporter for the Hattiesburg American. Email him at ssklar@hattiesb.gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Giving Southern Miss football coach Will Hall 2024 the right move