How a new defense allowed Southern Miss football to hire Micheal Spurlock as running backs coach

HATTIESBURG — Micheal Spurlock has experience at multiple offensive positions.

He played quarterback at Ole Miss and then running back briefly. He then was a wide receiver and kick/punt returner in the NFL from 2006 to 2014 and was most recently the wide receivers coach at Western Kentucky.

“I’m nosy,” Spurlock said after Thursday’s practice. “So, when I played receiver, I’d always look back at what the quarterback read was on that (play) and what the running back was doing. I always wanted to know what they were doing.”

Now, he’s Southern Miss football’s new running backs coach for the 2024 season not because of a change to the offensive coaching staff, but actually the defensive side.

Why Southern Miss was able to hire a running backs coach

When coach Will Hall parted ways with defensive coordinator Dan O’Brien and two other defensive position coaches after the 2023 season, he made another decision that he wanted to go back to the defensive scheme that brought him success in his previous years of coaching.

Clay Bignell is now Southern Miss’ defensive coordinator and the change in scheme, Hall said, opened up a spot for another position coach, too.

Last season, Southern Miss had five defensive position coaches with Chad Williams in charge of inside linebackers and Mark Criner with the outside linebackers. Criner was not brought back this season and Bignell’s scheme only requires four position coaches instead of five. Williams now coaches all of the linebackers, Fred Wyatt the defensive line, Dwike Wilson the cornerbacks and Bignell the safeties.

And with Hall taking a step back from the offense since the middle of last season, more of his efforts are now put to the defense. Greg Meyer was the running backs coach and special teams coordinator last season but will now focus solely on special teams like…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/defense-allowed-southern-miss-football-193144105.html

Author : Hattiesburg American

Publish date : 2024-03-07 19:31:44

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