HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss football’s spring practices began Tuesday morning, and so did another competition for the starting quarterback job.
Fourth-year coach Will Hall said following Tuesday’s practice that the quarterback, offensive line, tight end and punter positions are all up for grabs as the Golden Eagles strive for a better 2024 season.
Hall named the four who are in the quarterbacks race: Tate Rodemaker, Billy Wiles, Ethan Crawford and John White.
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, though, given how the 2023 season (3-9, 2-6 Sun Belt Conference) ended at the position.
Wiles, a redshirt junior, started the first 10 games, but slowly lost playing time to Crawford, a freshman who offered a change of pace as a dynamic runner. He started the final two games of the season and appeared to improve.
Southern Miss added White, a three-star prospect from Madison Ridgeland Academy who broke Mississippi’s high school passing yards record last fall. He is enrolled and participating in spring practices.
Then there is Rodemaker, the Florida State transfer.
“Excited about Tate,” Hall said. “He’s a guy that played 23 games. He’s played against some elite competition and won. Louisville, Florida, those are some really good football teams that he started, played against and won games.”
One two-hour practice is too small a sample size to declare a front-runner. All four split reps fairly evenly and had highlights and lowlights. Southern Miss is currently focusing on installing its new offensive and defensive schemes.
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Hall also emphasized that there are other areas where the Golden Eagles need to improve and that solving the quarterback position won’t magically fix everything.
Part of the hope is that the new members of the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/southern-miss-football-spring-opens-214953657.html
Author : Hattiesburg American
Publish date : 2024-02-27 21:49:53
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