As the Southern Miss football team has now dropped six games in a row after being stomped by South Alabama earlier this week, head coach Will Hall revealed on Thursday that he will no longer be calling plays for the Sun Belt’s second-worst offense.
Hall, in the middle of his third season in Hattiesburg, said on the SuperTalk Eagle Hour that he is passing play-calling responsibilities to offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Sam Gregg and quarterbacks coach Jordy Joseph. The change is effective immediately.
“We’ve done a lot of great things in managing the program and building the program, but our offense has been stagnant for far too long. At the end of the season, I am going to address that issue swiftly and urgently,” Hall said, alluding to bringing in a new play-caller in the offseason. “In the meantime, I am going to turn the play-calling and game-planning responsibilities over to Jordy Joseph and Sam Gregg for the rest of the season in hopes of creating a spark to finishing the year on a high note.”
Gregg, in his second season at Southern Miss after leaving Liberty, has not been an everyday play-caller since ascending to the Division I level in 2019. From 2014-2018, he was the offensive coordinator at Division II powerhouse West Georgia, where helped lead the Wolves to playoff appearances in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
Joseph, who was primarily a running backs coach before moving to the quarterback room this offseason, will be calling plays for the first time in his career. He came to Southern Miss as part of Hall’s inaugural coaching staff after five years on the Tulane sidelines as an offensive assistant. He played quarterback for the Green Wave from 2011-15.
So far this season, Southern Miss is second to last in the Sun Belt in front of only Louisiana-Monroe in terms of total offense and scoring with an average of 326.4 yards and 20.7 points per game. The team sits in the cellar of the conference in both passing yards (189.9) and rushing yards (136.6) per game.
The Golden Eagles (1-6, 0-4 Sun Belt) are in the middle of the second-longest losing streak since Hall’s first season when the team lost eight games in a row. In year two under the former Tulane offensive coordinator, they managed a postseason berth but have failed to live up to expectations in year three.
The offense, guided by the two new play-callers, will look to get the team back in the win column on Oct. 28 when they travel to Appalachian State.
