Southern Miss aims for CUSA title
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (BVM) 鈥� Will Hall is set to begin his first year as Southern Miss. head football coach. Under Hall, the Golden Eagles are primed to take Conference USA by storm.
The Golden Eagles are bringing back eight starters o
n offense and nine starters on defense. One of those players will be the West Virginia Mountaineer transfer Trey Lowe. Lowe will be starting for the Golden Eagles this fall after he started three games for Southern Miss in 2020. Lowe scored two touchdowns and completed 61% of his passes for 433 total yards according to.
Along with Lowe, this spread-option offense should run smoothly with Frank Gore Jr. as the main running back option. In 10 games last season, Gore Jr. scored three touchdowns and averaged 5.9 yards per carry for 708 total yards.聽
The wide receiving group isn’t anything to slouch at either. Jason Brownlee, Demarcus Jones and Antoine Robinson are back. As a trio, they combined for 86 receptions, 1,096 total receiving yards and six touchdowns.
But offense alone doesn’t help you win games. The Golden Eagle defense will look to take a step forward after giving up 32.3 points a game. They will be bringing back Racheem Booth, Shannon Showers and Jacques Turner who all opted out of the 2020 season.聽
Along with those players returning, the defensive added Virginia Tech transfer DaShawn Crawford and Memphis transfer Everett Cunningham to the defensive line. Both players recorded 41 total tackles and 7.5 sacks in 2019.
Rounding out the defense is Hayles Maples. Maples led the team in total tackles with 91 last season. He also had one fumble recovery.
Now, when it comes to a first-year head coach, expectations usually aren鈥檛 that high. But that isn鈥檛 the case for Hall.
Hall is a native of Amory, Miss., and he was serving under head coach Willie Fritz as the offensive coordinator at Tulane University for the past two seasons. As the offensive coordinator, the Green Wave offense scored a total of 105 touchdowns, averaged 5,295.5 yards per season, and nearly six yards a play.
饾槢饾槱饾槮 饾槡饾槹饾樁饾樀饾槱饾槮饾槼饾槸 饾様饾槳饾槾饾槾 饾樃饾槩饾樅. |
— Southern Miss Football (@SouthernMissFB)
鈥淚 wanted this job for a long time,鈥� Hall . 鈥淚鈥檓 honored to be your football coach. I鈥檓 honored to be the football coach at a place with such a rich and storied tradition.鈥�
They may not be the betting favorites to win CUSA, but we should all fully expect Southern Miss to be around the top of the conference standings when conference championship weekend rolls around.
Southern Miss starts its season at South Alabama Saturday at 7 p.m. central time.聽
We stay ready. |
— Southern Miss Football (@SouthernMissFB)
