Southern Miss (3-7) will travel to Mississippi State (4-6) this weekend. The Golden Eagles have won two in a row including an overtime thriller against Louisiana at Cajun Field last weekend. Mississippi State has dropped three in a row and will take the field this Saturday with interim coach Greg Knox leading the charge after Monday’s dismissal of first year head coach Zach Arnett.
Mississippi State holds a 15-14-1 record all-time against Southern Miss. The Bulldogs have won the last five meetings. The two teams met for sixteen straight years from 1975 to 1990. Once the SEC added another league game to the regular season slate, the “rivalry” game was a casualty.
Coach Will Hall is in his third season in Hattiesburg. In those seasons, the Golden Eagles have post a 13-22 record with two losing seasons. Southern Miss went 6-6 in the 2022 regular season, but won the Lending Tree Bowl over Rice (5-7) for his first winning campaign at the Golden Eagle helm. Saturday’s trip to Mississippi State will be Hall’s first as a head coach. Here is everything he had to say about the Bulldogs during Monday’s Sunbelt Conference coaches’ teleconference and in his post practice media session.
Opening statement: We go on the road this week to an SEC opponent. All of those teams have really good players. Mississippi State is a really old football team, one of the oldest teams I have ever coached against. I think they have nine senior starters on offense and eight on defense. It’s an old and experienced football team that has won a lot of games in the past. They haven’t had the year they wanted, obviously, but they have a lot of really good players that were highly recruited. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us and one that we’re excited about to go up there and play.
On Zach Arnett’s termination: I don’t want to comment on stuff like that. It’s a tough profession we’re in. I hate that for Zach. I’ve got a lot of people on that staff that I know. I just feel for people when something like that happens.
On potential changes in State’s approach without Arnett: I think each situation is unique in and of itself. You have to address those situations as they come. We’re certainly addressing that situation today as we speak. I’ve had as much time to wrap my hands around it as you guys have. We got off the practice field at 10:30. It’s 11:26 right now, so we’re in the process of getting our hands around that right now and figuring out which avenues we need to change moving forward and which ones we need to change.
On the importance of the game: It’s a tremendous opportunity for us in a game that matters so much to our people. It’s a game that matters so much to us and to so many people in this state and around this area. We’re putting everything we’ve got into it and we’re excited about the opportunity.
On Coach Greg Knox: I know Coach Knox well. He’s a great man. He was at Ole Miss through the years. He and my dad (Bobby Hall) are really good friends. I got to know Coach Knox when I was young. He’s always been really good to me. I think the world of him. He’s a college football lifer. He’s always treated people with respect and he’s always been really good to me.
On the motivation factor for former Bulldog transfers at USM: I don’t know if you can be anymore excited to play a game than we can be as a collective unit for this game. If those kids have extra motivation, then maybe so, but everyone within our whole program is excited about this week.