What must happen for Southern Miss football to beat Liberty? Will Hall outlines formula
The bookmakers have tabbed Southern Miss football as a home underdog in its season opener against Liberty, and coach Will Hall is in agreement.
The Flames are listed as a 3.5-point favorite by most sportsbooks, with some outliers granting Liberty a 4.5-point cushion. They come into Hattiesburg with a 26-11 record under Hugh Freeze, in many ways an embodiment of the success Golden Eagles fans hope to achieve under Hall, who is entering the second year of his Southern Miss rebuilding job.
"I think we're the underdogs in that game and we should be," Hall said. "It would be a monumental upset for us to pull that off at home.
"I think our kids really understand what a tremendous challenge this is. I hope our fanbase does too."
So, for Hall and the Golden Eagles, what does the roadmap to a surprise victory look like?
The first objective Hall listed during Monday's Sun Belt teleconference was simple. Southern Miss can't afford to beat itself, as the Golden Eagles did over and over again on their way to a 3-9 season in 2021.
"Any time you've gotta pull off an upset, you've gotta play really well," Hall said. "The first thing you've gotta do is make sure you don't do the things that cause you to lose. Pre-and-post snap penalties. Things we can control."
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It's also crucial, in Hall's view, to win the turnover battle. The Golden Eagles did that only twice last season and won both of those games by double digits. Forcing veteran Liberty quarterback Charlie Brewer into mistakes won't be easy, but it's vital. Likewise, the Golden Eagles need redshirt freshman signal caller Ty Keyes to take care of the football, which he did effectively for much of preseason practice.
Hall also touted the kicking game, and special teams in general, as a potential swing area. More than anything, though, Southern Miss needs its stars to play like stars.
"Our best players have got to play well for us to pull this off," Hall said.
There's an additional, external factor with the potential to influence this game that Hall has been appealing to in the last two weeks: The fans.
He delivered a call to action of sorts last week, asking the community for help on Saturday night.
"It can't be 'they,' it can't be 'you,' it's gotta be 'us,'" Hall said. "That's us as a football program, collectively with our fans filling up The Rock. In it every time. In it on third down. It's going to take everybody that bleeds black and gold to pull off this upset because this is a great football team we're playing."
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: What must happen for Southern Miss football to beat Liberty?
