Southern Miss coach Will Hall remembers his last trip to Jacksonville, Alabama, as the start of something special.
As quarterback of the historic 2003 North Alabama football team, Hall and his group stormed into Paul Snow Stadium and left with a 28-16 win over Jack Crowe’s Jacksonville State team.
“That was a fun night, though,” Hall said Monday, before repeating again, “That was a fun night.”
The former North Alabama quarterback is set to return to Calhoun County on Saturday, when his Southern Miss team takes on Rich Rodriguez and Jax State at Burgess-Snow Field at AmFirst Stadium.
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“I’ve got a lot of respect for Jacksonville State, their history, their tradition, and also coach Rodriguez and coach Trickett and a lot of those guys that I’ve known for a long time,” Hall said.
Hall completed 18 of his 27 passes in the Lions’ win over Jax State in 2003, throwing for 295 yards and four touchdowns. Hall said he recalls earning national player of the week honors for his performance.
Following the win in Jacksonville, Hall and his team rattled off 11 straight wins before falling to North Dakota in the Division II playoff semifinals.
“They ended up winning their FCS conference, going to the playoffs,” Hall said of Jax State. “We beat them, and of course went undefeated and had a great year. I think that’s the last time I’ve been to that stadium.”
After his 2003 campaign, he earned the prestigious Harlon Hill Trophy, which recognizes the best Division II college football player; he also earned first-team honors on the Division II AP All-American team.
Hall still holds multiple program records at North Alabama, including most total yards in a single season (3,998), best single-season completion percentage (71.8%); his 6,611 yards of total offense in two seasons ranks fourth in the UNA record books.
Oddly enough, the veteran coach Hall will face on Saturday played a small part in his success.
“He was one of my quarterback coaches at the Bowden Academy growing up as a kid,” Hall said of Rodriguez. “I’ve always had a lot of respect for him.”
While the Jax State coach doesn’t remember Hall specifically from the camp, he does remember the passing camps that were held at Auburn by then-coach Terry Bowden when Rodriguez was head coach at Glenville State.
Rodriguez said that he was able to make many connections at those camps, both in recruiting players and meeting other people in the coaching profession.
“You got to see a lot of talent, and it was a blast,” Rodriguez said during his Tuesday press conference. “Some of the most fun I’ve had was working at that camp for three or four days. I met a lot of good people there.”
Jax State (0-3) and Southern Miss (1-2) will kick off at Burgess-Snow Field at AmFirst Stadium at 2 p.m. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
With both teams set to close their four-game nonconference slates Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Hall says he’s excited for the challenge lying ahead in his return trip to Calhoun County.
“We’re both very similar from the standpoint that we’re probably a lot better football team than our record shows,” Hall said of Jax State. “We’re both hungry for a win. They’ve lost to Coastal, who’s got a good football team. They lost on the road to a team that’s been to five straight bowl games in Eastern Michigan, they lost in overtime. And they got beat by a great football team in Louisville that played for a conference title last year.
“We know we’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’re excited about it and we’re excited to continue to grow this week and keep getting better.”
