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Southern Miss football will take part in Sun Belt Media Days for the first time since joining the conference this week in New Orleans.
The event is set to kick off on Tuesday. Southern Miss coach Will Hall, alongside wideout Jason Brownlee and linebacker Swayze Bozeman, will take the stage at 2 p.m. CT on Wednesday.
Sun Belt Media Days will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Here are three storylines to keep an eye out for.
1. Meeting the newcomers
Southern Miss is one of four new member institutions added to the Sun Belt this summer, alongside Marshall, Old Dominion and James Madison.
Those four programs will likely be the subject of considerable media day attention as writers and fans from around the conference look to get a feel for what’s new. The Golden Eagles are the only new program scheduled for Wednesday’s media session, so Hall’s comments should attract plenty of ears.
FoSouthern Miss fans, the event presents an opportunity to get acquainted with new peer programs. The Golden Eagles played Troy and South Alabama last season, but there are several Sun Belt schools that haven’t appeared on the schedule in years – or in some cases, ever.
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2. Surveying the landscape
The three-pronged whirlwind represented by conference realignment, NIL and the transfer portal continues to transform college football, with little sign of slowing down.
The Sun Belt reaffirmed its belief in the current direction of the conference when it extended the contract of its commissioner, Keith Gill, by four years until June 2030 on Monday morning.
Gill’s actions in the conference realignment space have done the talking for him, but it should be informative to hear how he and other officials within the conference view the other issues.
Southern Miss has experienced both sides of the coin when it comes to the transfer portal. The Golden Eagles have used it to help re-tool their men’s basketball and football rosters on the fly. They did, however, suffer a major transfer portal blow this summer when flame throwing sophomore pitcher Hurston Waldrep departed for Florida.
Name, image and likeness issues are equally – if not, more important as the conference moves forward, and any insight provided at Sun Belt Media Days should prove instructive.
3. Replacing Hayes Maples
News broke on Monday afternoon that Southern Miss will likely be without star linebacker and defensive leader Hayes Maples for the season after he suffered a lower extremity injury last week.
Maples led the Southern Miss defense in tackles in 2020 and was a vital piece once again in 2020.
In his first meeting with members of the media since the injury, expect Hall to provide insight as to who will help fill the sizable gap left by Maples.
Reach Southern Miss writer David Eckert at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.
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