Southern Miss' Will Hall on playing other Mississippi teams: 'One of them never plays us'

This week, Southern Miss will take on Mississippi State. It will mark the Golden Eagles’ first matchup against one of the state’s FBS teams since they took on the Bulldogs in 2019 — a fact that isn’t lost on coach Will Hall.

Hall, who arrived at Southern Miss in 2021, noted how important it is to face off against Mississippi State and what it means for his program. He also pointed out the rarity of such a matchup, especially considering the Golden Eagles haven’t played Ole Miss since 1984.

That, Hall said, adds to the meaning of the game for Southern Miss.

“I don’t know about recruiting, but just for us, it’s huge for our school, our players,” Hall said. “We don’t get to play these SEC schools in-state very often. One of them never plays us. It’s a great opportunity that doesn’t come around so often. We’ll be able to put our best foot forward and represent the right way.

“It’s a game that means so much to so many people. I certainly understand that, growing up in this state and I certainly take that very, very seriously. As serious as anybody can take it. The game means a whole lot to me and a whole lot to our kids, so we want to do everything we can to represent the right way.”

Mississippi State is undergoing major changes ahead of matchup against Southern Miss

During the 2019 matchup, which saw Jay Hopson on the sidelines for Southern Miss and Joe Moorhead coach Mississippi State, the Bulldogs came away with the 38-15 victory in Starkville. Both programs have undergone some changes since then. Hall took over the Golden Eagles in 2021 after a stint as Tulane’s offensive coordinator and Mississippi State is now embarking on a coaching search to replace Zach Arnett.

Arnett was named the head coach shortly after the sudden death of Mike Leach last December. This year has been a rough one for the Bulldogs, who bring a 4-6 record into Saturday’s game. The program opted to fire Arnett earlier this week and name Greg Knox the interim head coach for the rest of the year.

Knox could go through his Mississippi State interim coaching debut without Will Rogers and Woody Marks due to injury. However, he didn’t have any updates on them during the SEC coaches teleconference.

“Well we’re still waiting on our training staff. They’re still dealing with that. We’re still doing the details on them as far as the evaluation goes. So we won’t know anything for a couple more days I think on those guys,” Knox said.