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Southern Miss Coach Will Hall Is Mississippi’s Version Of Ted Lasso And His Quotes Are Incredible

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Will Hall Southern Miss Ted Lasso

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When Will Hall was hired as Southern Mississippi’s head football coach, he was tasked with changing the culture of a program that was consistently average for a decade prior. He is certainly the right guy for the job.

Hall, a 41-year-old Mississippi-native, was considered the top upcoming offensive minds in college football. However, it is his personality that puts him over the edge.

Nicknamed the “Mississippi Ted Lasso,” his personality bears a striking resemblance to that of Jason Sudeikis’ character on the show. The difference is that Hall is like Lasso in real life— all the way down to his ‘BELIEVE’ t-shirt.

He spoke with media after practice on Wednesday and discussed who he is and how he acts. It was perfect.

“Nobody has a worse day because they ran into me,” Hall said before joking about his size and stature. And by all accounts, that is absolutely true.

The Athletic’s Chris Vannini profiled Hall during the spring and some of his quotes are too good to be true.

But they are true! Take a look:

  • On teaching his players new terminology: “We’re all really good at eating cheeseburgers, right? You can tell by looking at us. But if you drop us off in China, I can’t order a cheeseburger because I don’t know the language. So getting (our players) here and helping them learn how to speak the language is the first barrier you have to overcome.”
  • On the athletes on his roster: “We become whatever our kids can do. Just like if you’re building a fence, you need a post hole digger and a hammer and some nails, but you don’t need a leaf blower. But it’s good to have a leaf blower whenever you need to blow off the driveway.”
  • On whether he drinks Red Bull for energy: “I’m all-natural, only high on life and high on the good Lord.”

To make the entire persona even better, Hall actually watches Ted Lasso. He and his wife sit down to watch the show every Friday.

There is only one thing left to determine—

Can Will Hall, who is as Mississippi as it gets, make shortbread biscuits as good as Lasso’s famous recipe?

Southern Miss is 1-3 to start the 2021 season, but building a program in Hattiesburg is something that will take time. Hall has an uncanny ability to get players to buy into his system and it’s not hard to see why. The results will come from there.