Friday Features: Will Hall making waves at West Georgia, throughout GSC
By Mike Perrin
When
Will Hall was 31 years old, he took over the reins as head coach at the University of
West Alabama from legendary Gulf South Conference football coach
Bobby Wallace.
At 32, he led the Tigers to their first GSC championship since 1971 – the league’s first year. The next year, he did it again, sharing the crown with his former boss who had returned to
North Alabama.
This year, at 35, Hall’s No. 7
West Georgia Wolves won a share of the title – again with UNA – and earned the No. 1 seed in Super Region 2 of the NCAA Division II playoffs. The championship is West Georgia’s first since 2000.
“The key to winning is players,” Hall said. “We have been able to get a lot of players at West Georgia in a short amount of time. I think it’s been a perfect storm in a lot of ways. We got a new president (
Kyle Marrero) who really wanted to win in football. He wants to grow the university and realized football is a great avenue to do that in the South.
“We’re in a great location to recruit. There’s a lot of talent all around us. We had great facilities already in place. Our staff is very familiar with this conference and knows how to recruit to win.
“It kind of came together,” Hall said. “It meshed really well, really quickly.”
After this season’s 10-1 regular season, Hall is 22-4, 11-3 in the league at West Georgia. For his career, he is 47-15 and 22-6 in the GSC. Only a 28-26 upset loss at
Florida Tech two weeks ago marred a possibly perfect record this season. The Wolves have a week off before facing either
Valdosta State or
Carson-Newman in the second round of the playoffs.
Hall also said it was key for his first two seasons for returning players to mesh with newcomers. “We have 35 men on this team who are freshmen, redshirt freshman or sophomores,” he said. “When we came in, we wanted to win quickly. We have to take some transfers, too, but we make sure to lay a foundation for the future.
“I think our roster reflects that. We had some good players who were here from the previous staff, for sure, players like
Tyrell Adams – a linebacker on the
Seattle Seahawks practice squad right now – and (senior quarterback)
Dallas Dickey, (junior cornerback)
Marcus Sayles and (junior linebacker)
Alex Armah, to name just a few.”
Hall figures playing in the GSC also has something to do with his squad’s success. “Going into conference play this year, we had four teams in the top 10,” he said. “Then, we started beating each other so we all dropped. It’s very much like the SEC West. You’ve got UNA and their history, Valdosta State and their history and
Delta State and their history. Now, there’s us and we’re kind of the new kids on the block. Florida Tech is coming up and
Mississippi College is back in the league with their tremendous history. It’s really a great league to play in week in, week out.”
Obviously, Hall brings something to the table as a head coach. Some of it sticks in the craw of some people at his former stops in the GSC, North Alabama, where as a quarterback he won the
Harlon Hill Trophy - as Division II’s top player in 2003, and at West Alabama, the team he left for West Georgia.
“It’s been tough on me, I’ll be honest,” Hall said. “I loved playing at UNA and going to school there. Through the years, I feel there’s been a lot of bitterness developed toward me. I hate that. I feel the bitterness toward me, probably, some of it is my fault. I didn’t handle it as I should have.
“At West Alabama, I love those people. They gave me my first head coaching job. It was tremendous working there. I am very proud of what we accomplished there. I don’t care if I win three Division I national titles in a row someday, it will never top winning the Gulf South Conference at West Alabama.
“When I was at West Alabama,” he said, “I had a job to do and now at West Georgia, I have a job to do. I have to get my team ready as I see fit to win those games. When you take a job at another school in the same conference, which I felt I needed to do for my family, there’s probably going to be some bitterness. I hate it, but I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
Hall credits Wallace for allowing him to run his style offense and to recruit. “We were able to get some good players in there and get it turned around,” he said. “I think the thing I learned the most was to worry about the things that really matter. Major in the majors and don’t get caught up in the small stuff.”
The young coach also points to five other mentors for helping him in his career.
“My philosophy is from my dad (Bobby Hall, a 300-game winner in high schools in Mississippi) and Coach Hud,” he said. Coach Hud is Mark Hudspeth, Hall’s coach at UNA and now head coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “I try to emulate them a lot. I study three guys as much as I can:
Pete Carroll,
Jim Tressel and
Bill Walsh. They are kind of my three heroes and I try to take pieces from them and see how they mesh with my personality.”
From Tressel, the former Youngstown State and Ohio State coach who now is Youngstown’s president, and from his father, Hall also picked up his trademark sideline style.
“Coach Tressel is a tremendous man,” he said. “I’ve always thought he was a first-class guy. My dad, he’s a legend and he always wears a tie on the sidelines. I knew if I became a coach, I would wear a tie. When I got my first head job in 2011, it was coming off Ohio State’s great run. When it got cold up there, Coach Tressel would wear a red sweater vest. I thought he looked sharp and first class.
“I feel like part of a head football coach’s responsibility is to always represent the university in a very class manner and help lift up the president’s mission. I think you’re part of something bigger than just the football coach. I try to make sure I always look first class on the sideline.
“I wear the tie and at West Alabama I put the vest on it,” Hall said. “The students at West Alabama took off with it. They loved it and kept it going. Here, they have used it as a marketing strategy. It became something bigger than I had originally planned. Now, I can’t get away from it.”
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2015-16 GSC Friday Features
9/04/2015 - FIT's Hughes Inspired by Former GSC Standout.
9/11/2015 - Veteran UNA Coach Bobby Wallace Enjoys His Time With Young Lions.
9/18/2015 - Mississippi College Looks to Sustain Quick Start.
9/25/2015 - UAH's Winslow Races Way Back to Top After Injury.
10/02/2015 - Union's Morris Not Ready for Rocking Chair.
10/09/2015 - UWA's Mark Grant Learning Lessons From Both His College Sports.
10/16/2015 - Perez Sets Tone for Nationally-Ranked Lee.
10/23/2015 - Jessica Codato Finds Friends, Volleyball Success at Valdosta State.
10/30/2015 - Delta State Safety Looks to Avoide School of Hard 'Knox'.
11/06/2015 - Shorter's B.J. McCoy Runs Hard, Is Thankful for Every Snap.
11/13/2015 - Consistency Leads Union to XC Nationals Again.