The expected firing of Will Hall at Southern Miss, which had been rumored for weeks, happened on Sunday after another double-digit loss. This one, to Arkansas State, dropped the Golden Eagles’ record this season to 1-6, putting Hall at 14-30 in four seasons in his home state.
Given Hall’s track record as a head coach — going 56-20 combined at West Georgia and West Alabama — and his strong ties in the state, it’s surprising the hire didn’t work out. The next coach will be Southern Miss’ sixth in the past dozen years.
Larry Fedora won at Southern Miss. Ellis Johnson flopped after one terrible season. Todd Monken dragged the program out of the ditch and then won nine games in his third season before leaving. Jay Hopson had an up-and-down tenure in five seasons before the school moved on from him. Where Southern Miss turns from here will be interesting. This job came open just a few hours after the East Carolina job came open, which is a bigger job that pays more, but there is expected to be some overlap in the candidate pool, according to industry sources.
Former UAB head coach Bill Clark has a lot of head coaching experience and could be in play at both places. He retired from UAB for health reasons before the 2022 season. The 56-year-old is said to be in great shape and great spirits and looking to coach again, a source said this week. He does have an impressive track record as a head coach. In 2018, he was the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year after leading the Blazers to an 11-3 record at a place that had immense challenges. In six seasons at UAB, Clark went 32-12 in Conference USA play and was 49-26 overall. He knows how to win and run a program despite all sorts of program issues.
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Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack is another name to keep an eye on. The 37-year-old former Southern Miss player did a terrific job as South Alabama’s head coach, going 22-16, leading the program to a 10-3 season in his second year. Wommack jumped at the chance to join his old buddy, Kalen DeBoer, at Alabama as the Tide’s defensive coordinator. It has been an up-and-down half-year for the Tide’s defense, but Bama is No. 5 in the SEC in yards per play allowed (4.79). The Tide were No. 3 in the SEC last year but allowed more than 5.0 yards per play. But losing to Vandy and giving up 40 points to the Commodores has riled up a fan base not used to struggling.
Southern Miss great Patrick Surtain, now Florida State’s defensive backs coach, left his alma mater as a second-rounder and played a decade in the NFL before becoming a top high school coach in South Florida. The 48-year-old spent one season with the Dolphins as an NFL assistant before joining FSU’s staff in 2023.
Florida State defensive backs coach Patrick Surtain is a former Southern Miss standout player. (Ehsan Kassim / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan is expected to be in the mix at ECU but could get some traction at Southern Miss. The 37-year-old is a former ECU quarterback. He spent almost a decade under Skip Holtz at Louisiana Tech before getting hired to coach quarterbacks at LSU where he helped Heisman winner Jayden Daniels turn into a superstar. Sloan took over the Tigers’ offense this fall after Mike Denbrock went back to Notre Dame. Despite having to replace Daniels and two first-round wideouts, the Tigers 11th nationally in third-down offense and 28th in yards per play, and they lead the SEC in points per game (33.0) in conference play.
Georgia assistant head coach Todd Hartley, 39, is someone Kirby Smart has leaned on in elevating the program since Hartley’s arrival in 2019. Hartley is another coach who is on the radar of a lot of athletic directors. He likely would be in the mix if the Marshall head coaching job comes open.
Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, 43, is considered to be a strong option. He is a former Southern Miss offensive coordinator and helped the team to a seven-win season when it made big improvements offensively. Faulkner may be in play at ECU. He helped turn Tech from the ACC’s No. 11 offense to No. 3 last year. In 2022, the year before he was hired in Atlanta, Georgia Tech ranked last in the ACC in red-zone offense. Last year, it ranked No. 6. This year, it ranks No. 1.
GO DEEPER
Southern Miss fires head coach Will Hall after 1-6 start
Alabama defensive line coach/assistant head coach Freddie Roach is a former Tide linebacker who worked his way up in Nick Saban’s program from being a strength and conditioning assistant to Bama’s director of player development before getting hired to become the defensive line coach in 2020. The 41-year-old is a former Mississippi junior college coach and spent three years as Ole Miss’ defensive line coach.
One wild-card option here could be Holtz, the head coach of the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions. The 60-year-old won two USFL titles before winning the first UFL championship this past spring. As a college coach, he’s 151-121 in almost a quarter century of running FBS programs going from UConn to ECU to South Florida to Louisiana Tech.
(Top photo of Bill Clark: Wesley Hitt / Getty Images)
