New Tulane offensive coordinator Will Hall met the team today and attended practice, starting to get a familiarity with the team. He will not coach in the Cure Bowl but stood next to interim offensive coordinator Alex Atkins for much of practice this morning at Yulman Stadium before talking to reporters when it was over.
Hall is a Mississippi native with boyish looks and a country accent.
Here is his interview:
What was the process like for you?
"I've got a lot of respect for coach Fritz. He's actually kind of been one of my heroes because he's a guy that rose through the smaller college ranks like I've had to do. I've just always had a tremendous amount of respect for him. I got to know him several years ago like he said when I was the offensive coordinator at Southwest Baptist. I stayed in contact with him. I became a head coach at a young age at the Division II level, and I always confided in him and would call him. We just developed a really good relationship. This kind of happened fast. I was really excited about the opportunity. Obviously I came down here when Memphis played here (Tulane won 40-24) and saw what this place had to offer. Of course I know a lot about Willie Fritz and what he's about as a person. His values, his beliefs definitely marry up with mine, and I'm excited about getting here. We've got some good players, some good things to work with. I'm excited about getting to know the staff. This is a unique advantage for me because I get to sit here and watch them practice, evaluate talent, evaluate where I feel like they fit in, jump in on the recruiting process and give my input on that as far as personnel and where we want to go in that direction. This is my first day here. I'm just taking it all in and looking forward to getting this thing going."
How did your relationship start?
"We played them in 05-06, and I was a part of a really bad program at the time and he was part of a really good program, and I guess we did some things offensively that he thought were pretty good. He came up to me after the game and told me what a good job he thought that we had done, and from that, just really kept the relationship going. I had a lot of respect for him. I knew who he was, knew what he had done at that time on the junior college level and just kept the relationship going."
When did you get here and when did coach Fritz introduce you to the team?
"I got here late last night and he introduced me to the team this morning."
What are your first thoughts in seeing what you've got out there?
"I knew a little about it because we played you guys this year, and so I was familiar with the talent from that standpoint, familiar with a lot of the players through recruiting through the years. I think everything's in place here. Coach Fritz and the staff have done a phenomenal job getting the program to this point, getting to a bowl game, which is a huge step in the right direction. We've got to get a little bit better, and that's what I'm here for, is to help. This is a program that has a great foundation laid and is moving in the right direction. I'm here to help try to get it to the next step, and hopefully I'll be able to do that."
What are your core values as a coordinator?
"Football wise, number one is get the ball to the good players, the guys that can do something with it. We've got to give those guys the ball and get it to them in multiple ways. Then after that, you've got to be able to run the football. Nobody's putting a ring on their finger without running the football, and then being very efficient in the passing game. Being efficient in the passing game is not throwing it 80 times a game. Being efficient is completing passes for yardage. We want to get over the top of people's head. We want to create explosive plays, and then we want to be very multiple. We want to be very multiple with what I call hybrid-type athletes--guys that are tight ends that can line up in a lot of different spots and then running backs that can line up in a lot of different spots. Those are the guys that allow you to give the defense a lot of different pictures and not exactly know what you're going to be in, so that's the direction we are going to move."
In terms of pace, where are you on that?
"We want to be able to play really, really fast. We'll build it on playing really fast. We'll build it with tempo. We want to always have the ability to slow down, but it's easy to slow down. It's not easy to speed up. So we'll build this thing from day one on going as fast as you can possibly go, knowing we'll always have the ability to slow down. It's like coach said--to win football games you've got to be able to play complementary football, so we want to go do that."
When did Willie talk to you about the job and when did you accept?
"That was late last week and I did not accept the job until we met in person after our game last week."
Did you meet here in New Orleans?
"Yes."
You had six years as a Division II head coach. How much did that help you?
"Being a football coach is something I've always wanted to do. My dad was a coach. I got dropped off at the field house when I was 5 years old and have been doing it every day since. I was blessed to work under Bobby Wallace at West Alabama, who won three national titles as a D2 coach. When he retired (before 2011) I was elevated to head coach at age 30 and hit the ground running. We were blessed to do some things at that program that had never been done and then moved on to West Georgia and had a good run there. I think it gave me the ability to see things from a whole. As a head coach I always called the plays and ran the offense, but we led the league in defense all six years. I've always believed in playing good, winning football, and I think that's another thing that drew me and coach Fritz together, is the similar beliefs in that."
Your dad (Bobby Hall) is one of the most accomplished high school coaches in the history of Mississippi. How much of an influence was he?
"Yeah, he was my first hero. I grew up in a household where you won almost every Friday night you played. That obviously impacted me the way he touched kids' lives, the way he always impacted people in a positive way. Very rarely did you run into Bobby Hall and not have a better day because of it. I saw how he touched lives, and it captivated me early on and that's why I've always wanted to do what I'm doing."
You were a very successful quarterback. How much does that help in teaching quarterbacks?
"Maybe. It was a long time ago. The thing I like to joke about is I'm not very tall and had the ability to overcome it. In life I guess I've always been an overachiever. People tell you you can't do something, you've got to find a way to get it done anyway."
How tall are you?
"Not very. Y'all can tell me, man. I've got no idea."
How about your play-calling experience?
"I've called plays every year I've coached football except for this past year. Every year. I came right out of college and started calling plays my first year in '04 at Presybyterian, so I'd called them every year I coached up until this past year."
How tough was that for you to not be able to call plays as tight ends coach at Memphis?
"It was a great experience. Coach (Mike) Norvell was good to me. It was great to be a part of that program. I was very familiar with that program because my college roommate was Chip Long, who's at Notre Dame now. He had been with coach Norvell forever, so I was familiar with what they were doing and it gave me the ability to kind of sit back and view it from the outside in and gather some thoughts on what I would do the next opportunity, and fortunately that came fast."
Hall is a Mississippi native with boyish looks and a country accent.
Here is his interview:
What was the process like for you?
"I've got a lot of respect for coach Fritz. He's actually kind of been one of my heroes because he's a guy that rose through the smaller college ranks like I've had to do. I've just always had a tremendous amount of respect for him. I got to know him several years ago like he said when I was the offensive coordinator at Southwest Baptist. I stayed in contact with him. I became a head coach at a young age at the Division II level, and I always confided in him and would call him. We just developed a really good relationship. This kind of happened fast. I was really excited about the opportunity. Obviously I came down here when Memphis played here (Tulane won 40-24) and saw what this place had to offer. Of course I know a lot about Willie Fritz and what he's about as a person. His values, his beliefs definitely marry up with mine, and I'm excited about getting here. We've got some good players, some good things to work with. I'm excited about getting to know the staff. This is a unique advantage for me because I get to sit here and watch them practice, evaluate talent, evaluate where I feel like they fit in, jump in on the recruiting process and give my input on that as far as personnel and where we want to go in that direction. This is my first day here. I'm just taking it all in and looking forward to getting this thing going."
How did your relationship start?
"We played them in 05-06, and I was a part of a really bad program at the time and he was part of a really good program, and I guess we did some things offensively that he thought were pretty good. He came up to me after the game and told me what a good job he thought that we had done, and from that, just really kept the relationship going. I had a lot of respect for him. I knew who he was, knew what he had done at that time on the junior college level and just kept the relationship going."
When did you get here and when did coach Fritz introduce you to the team?
"I got here late last night and he introduced me to the team this morning."
What are your first thoughts in seeing what you've got out there?
"I knew a little about it because we played you guys this year, and so I was familiar with the talent from that standpoint, familiar with a lot of the players through recruiting through the years. I think everything's in place here. Coach Fritz and the staff have done a phenomenal job getting the program to this point, getting to a bowl game, which is a huge step in the right direction. We've got to get a little bit better, and that's what I'm here for, is to help. This is a program that has a great foundation laid and is moving in the right direction. I'm here to help try to get it to the next step, and hopefully I'll be able to do that."
What are your core values as a coordinator?
"Football wise, number one is get the ball to the good players, the guys that can do something with it. We've got to give those guys the ball and get it to them in multiple ways. Then after that, you've got to be able to run the football. Nobody's putting a ring on their finger without running the football, and then being very efficient in the passing game. Being efficient in the passing game is not throwing it 80 times a game. Being efficient is completing passes for yardage. We want to get over the top of people's head. We want to create explosive plays, and then we want to be very multiple. We want to be very multiple with what I call hybrid-type athletes--guys that are tight ends that can line up in a lot of different spots and then running backs that can line up in a lot of different spots. Those are the guys that allow you to give the defense a lot of different pictures and not exactly know what you're going to be in, so that's the direction we are going to move."
In terms of pace, where are you on that?
"We want to be able to play really, really fast. We'll build it on playing really fast. We'll build it with tempo. We want to always have the ability to slow down, but it's easy to slow down. It's not easy to speed up. So we'll build this thing from day one on going as fast as you can possibly go, knowing we'll always have the ability to slow down. It's like coach said--to win football games you've got to be able to play complementary football, so we want to go do that."
When did Willie talk to you about the job and when did you accept?
"That was late last week and I did not accept the job until we met in person after our game last week."
Did you meet here in New Orleans?
"Yes."
You had six years as a Division II head coach. How much did that help you?
"Being a football coach is something I've always wanted to do. My dad was a coach. I got dropped off at the field house when I was 5 years old and have been doing it every day since. I was blessed to work under Bobby Wallace at West Alabama, who won three national titles as a D2 coach. When he retired (before 2011) I was elevated to head coach at age 30 and hit the ground running. We were blessed to do some things at that program that had never been done and then moved on to West Georgia and had a good run there. I think it gave me the ability to see things from a whole. As a head coach I always called the plays and ran the offense, but we led the league in defense all six years. I've always believed in playing good, winning football, and I think that's another thing that drew me and coach Fritz together, is the similar beliefs in that."
Your dad (Bobby Hall) is one of the most accomplished high school coaches in the history of Mississippi. How much of an influence was he?
"Yeah, he was my first hero. I grew up in a household where you won almost every Friday night you played. That obviously impacted me the way he touched kids' lives, the way he always impacted people in a positive way. Very rarely did you run into Bobby Hall and not have a better day because of it. I saw how he touched lives, and it captivated me early on and that's why I've always wanted to do what I'm doing."
You were a very successful quarterback. How much does that help in teaching quarterbacks?
"Maybe. It was a long time ago. The thing I like to joke about is I'm not very tall and had the ability to overcome it. In life I guess I've always been an overachiever. People tell you you can't do something, you've got to find a way to get it done anyway."
How tall are you?
"Not very. Y'all can tell me, man. I've got no idea."
How about your play-calling experience?
"I've called plays every year I've coached football except for this past year. Every year. I came right out of college and started calling plays my first year in '04 at Presybyterian, so I'd called them every year I coached up until this past year."
How tough was that for you to not be able to call plays as tight ends coach at Memphis?
"It was a great experience. Coach (Mike) Norvell was good to me. It was great to be a part of that program. I was very familiar with that program because my college roommate was Chip Long, who's at Notre Dame now. He had been with coach Norvell forever, so I was familiar with what they were doing and it gave me the ability to kind of sit back and view it from the outside in and gather some thoughts on what I would do the next opportunity, and fortunately that came fast."
