Southern Miss fires coach Will Hall after 1-6 start

Southern Mississippi announced Sunday that it had fired coach Will Hall after a terrible start to the season.

The Golden Eagles lost 44-28 at home to Arkansas State on Saturday to fall to 1-6 after a fifth-straight defeat. Southern Miss has lost all three of its Sun Belt games this season and the closest game was a 23-13 loss to Louisiana.

“We are grateful to Will and his family for their dedication to Southern Miss over the past four years,” Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain said in a statement. “Will poured his heart and soul into this program ad into shaping these young men. Unfortunately, the results on the field didn’t align with our shared goals and expectations.”

USM hasn’t scored a win over an FBS opponent so far this season. The team’s only victory is a 35-10 win over Southeastern Louisiana.

Southern Miss was 14-30 in Hall’s time at the school. He was hired ahead of the 2021 season after he was the offensive coordinator at Tulane in 2019 and 2020. Before he coached at Tulane, Hall was an assistant at Memphis and Louisiana and the head coach at both West Georgia and West Alabama.

The Golden Eagles have struggled to compete since moving to the Sun Belt in 2022. USM went 7-6 in 2022 and won the LendingTree Bowl in their first year in the conference. Since then, Hall’s team went 4-15.

Hall took over after Southern Miss went 3-7 in 2020 with three different coaches. Jay Hopson resigned after the first game of the season and interim coach Scotty Walden resigned after four games. Tim Billings coached the final five games of the season for the school that season.