Southern Miss football offense improved with quarterback transfers

Will Hall believes Southern Miss football is getting overlooked. The Golden Eagles were picked to finish fourth in the Sun Belt Conference West Division this season. Southern Miss running back Frank Gore Jr. and defensive back Jay Stanley were the only Golden Eagles to be selected to the conference's preseason first teams at the Sun Belt Conference media days in New Orleans.
"Nobody is expecting a whole lot out of us this year," Hall said. "But we really like our roster. We like how we've built it going into year three. We're really excited about the challenges that lie ahead."
Here are three takeaways from Hall's appearance at the SBC media days.
New quarterbacks, new offense
There was no stability at the quarterback position last season for Southern Miss. Zach Wilcke, Trey Lowe III and Jake Lange all received extended playing time, but Hall didn't have the QB of the future last year.
The arrival of transfers Holman Edwards and Billy Wiles should change that.
"The development has been slow," Hall said. "It's been a winding road that was unpaved with a lot of trees down on it. A lot of potholes to maneuver through.
"We had two transfer quarterbacks come in for spring ball that we're really high on: Holman Edwards and Billy Wiles. They played at a high level this spring. They'll go into fall camp competing to be the starters."
Edwards, a Houston transfer, is a Frech Camp native. Wiles was a walk-on at Clemson before earning a scholarship in 2022. The redshirt sophomore had 31 passing yards and a touchdown against UConn in a 44-4 victory on Nov. 13, 2021.
The duo will battle in camp along with sophomore Zach Wilcke for the starting role.
"We feel like this will be the first time since we've been here that we're going to be able to run our offense," Hall said.
Learning from close losses
The Golden Eagles had six games decided by seven or fewer points last season. That has to improve for Southern Miss to improve on its 7-6 record last season.
"All the games looked a whole lot alike," Hall said. "We played a whole lot of close games except for one. Georgia State whipped us pretty good. Outside of that every one of our games, in the fourth quarter, was a one-score game at some point.
"We weren't a team good enough to beat anybody if we didn't play well. But we were good enough to play with anybody when we did play well. We played a really tough schedule."
Three of those one-touchdown games were losses, including a 26-23 loss to Coastal Carolina and a 29-27 quadruple overtime loss to Liberty.
"I hope we've learned from that," Hall said.
Culture building matters
Gore, the team's leading rusher, finished with 228 carries for 1,382 yards and nine TDs in 13 games last season. Gore should improve with added depth across the Golden Eagles' offensive line this season.
"We inherited the program with seven scholarship o-linemen," Hall said. "We're up to 17. I think we've developed and recruited that position really well."
Additional depth on the offensive line and at quarterback is a product of the culture Hall has created since getting hired in December 2020. Hall has led Southern Miss to three wins in 2021 and seven wins in 2022.
Redshirt senior Cole Cavallo expects the Golden Eagles to take another step this season. Hall expects the tight end to have increased production with more stability at quarterback.
"The first year was just a big culture change with coach Hall coming in," Cavallo said. "Getting the people out that didn't want to be here. Last year, we were learning how to win. We had a whole bunch of close games and towards the end of the year, we started realizing how to win games. Carrying that into this year, we have a bunch of old guys that know how to win."