Gulfport alum T.Q. Newsome leading by example for USM football

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WXXV) — Last week, Southern Miss linebacker T.Q. Newsome threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Biloxi Shuckers game, just a few days after receiving rave reviews from USM head coach Will Hall at Sun Belt Media Days in New Orleans. Here’s what the player-coach duo had to say about one another ahead of the 2023 season.

“Coach Hall, he’s a great guy and he really instills amazing core values within the team, and so he’s a guy to follow,” said Newsome. “He came and took a job that wasn’t very appealing, so that says a lot about his character and the type of man he is, and so he’s easy to follow, and when you have a coach like that, it’s easy to work hard for, and he makes you want to be your best version of yourself every day, so he’s a great guy and the whole team loves him, and we’re ready to get after it this year.”

“He’s just a great human being, phenomenal in school, Honors College, going to be a surgeon, played a lot of great minutes for us last year,” said Hall. “He’s really slimmed up and changed his body. He’s moving around a lot better. I think he’s going to have a dynamic season, and, man, coaches say this sometimes – I don’t know if they mean it or not, but I mean this – if either of my two boys grow up to be like him, I will have been an ultimate winner. He’s just the best of the best in every way.”

Southern Miss is coming off its first bowl game win since 2016, a 38-24 win over Rice in the Lending Tree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.