Source: Southern Miss coach Hall to return

Southern Miss coach Will Hall will return for a fourth season as the school’s head coach, a source told ESPN.

Hall is 13-23 through three years, including 3-8 entering Saturday’s game home game against Troy (9-2). Southern Miss won the Lending Tree Bowl last year and finished the 2022 season at 7-6, the lone winning season in Hall’s three seasons at the helm.

Southern Miss officials have made the decision for Hall to return for the 2024 season collectively, a source told ESPN, and the decision has been conveyed to Hall as part of ongoing conversations about the program.

While there are some program changes expected, Hall will return next year because of an administrative confidence in both the culture he’s built there and the recruiting battles that he’s been winning.

“We don’t think that we are that far away,” a source told ESPN. “Even if the record isn’t where we want it to be, we don’t think we are that far away from getting there.”

There’s signs of progress for the Golden Eagles, including the promise of freshman quarterback Ethan Crawford, the potential starter at quarterback against Troy on Saturday. Crawford is a freshman from Tuscaloosa, Ala., who has shown some early flashes for Southern Miss.

The program also snapped a seven-game losing streak with back-to-back league wins earlier this month, topping both Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana in consecutive games. Last week, Southern Miss fell 41-20 at Mississippi State.

Hall is an experienced head coach, as he had successful stints at both West Alabama (2011-13) and West Georgia (2014-16), where he went a combined 56-20 as a head coach and had four combined postseason appearances.

He came to Southern Miss after a successful stint as Tulane’s offensive coordinator from 2019-20. He’s a native of Amory, Miss., and played there for his father, Bobby Hall, a legendary high school coach in the state.