Alabama Football: Southern Miss coach called out himself and it didn’t help

Southern Miss (USM), Head Coach Will Hall will not enjoy Saturday’s USM vs. Alabama Football. In terms of football, Hall has not had much to enjoy this season. Hall was a successful head coach at Div. II West Georgia for three seasons. In the 2017 through 2020 seasons Hall was a key assistant on staffs at Louisiana, Memphis and Tulane. The 2021 season is his first as an FBS Head Coach.

To say Hall’s FBS head coaching career has not gone well is an understatement. It is blatantly unfair to assign success or failure to a coach’s three-game tenure. That is not being done here. We can say September has gone very badly for Hall.

In his first Southern Miss game, the Golden Eagles lost to South Alabama, 31-7. Hall was not pleased, to the point of being shocked at how poorly his team played. To his credit, he shouldered the blame. Speaking after the game, Hall said,

"I hope our guys are excited. I’m not excited; my life’s on the line. I feel like every day I wake up that since I’ve gotten here, I’ve let a lot of people down, and we’ve got to overcome that. We’ve got to play better. Because right now, I’m probably the biggest fraud to come through this place in the last 50 years."

The following Saturday, Southern Miss responded with a 37-0 win over Grambling State. Southern Miss should have beaten Grambling with ease – without Hall having to bloody himself in front of the college football world. Who is to say, Hall’s words did or did not provide strong motivation to his team?

Last Saturday, in USM’s third game, Troy won 21-9. A big problem for USM and Hall was the loss, during the Grambling State game, of starting quarterback, Trey Lowe. True freshman, Ty Keyes replaced Lowe against Troy and completed 16-of-27 passes for no touchdowns and two interceptions. The USM offense was minus-1-yard rushing after eight sacks of Keyes.

There is one glimmer of brightness in this bleak story. The Golden Eagles’ run defense is possibly quite good. Based on average-yards-per-carry, USM is statically No. 1 in the FBS allowing just 1.2 average yards.

Hall appears to have the support of local media. After the season-opening loss, a local scribe wrote,

"IT’S WAY TOO EARLY TO GIVE UP ON WILL HALL… you can’t give up on the guy after just one game."

Playing Alabama Football in Tuscaloosa is no way to enhance a resume

Will Hall may one day be known as the greatest Southern Miss coach ever. He can overcome a bad start, but any progress this Saturday in Tuscaloosa will be a surprise.

Though Trey Lowe will not play Saturday, he will return home. The grandson of Alabama Football great, Woodrow Lowe was born in Tuscaloosa. His name is actually Woodrow Lowe III. His grand-uncle, Eddie Lowe also played for the Crimson Tide.