Double interim: Southern Miss names acting head coach for Liberty game
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Most programs don’t expect to have three head coaches in a season, but that’s the case for Southern Miss.
Back on Sept. 7, Southern Miss fired head coach Jay Hopson following a season-opening loss to South Alabama. Scotty Walden was named the interim head coach of the Golden Eagles.
Walden, however, won’t be able to coach on Saturday at Liberty after testing positive for COVID-19. Southern Miss announced that Tim Billings will be the “interim interim” for the game against Hugh Freeze’s Liberty squad. Perhaps his Dunder-Mifflin title would be “interim to the interim head coach.”
Under Walden, Southern Miss lost two more games, against Louisiana Tech and Tulane, falling to 0-3. The Golden Eagles got their first win on Oct. 3, defeating North Texas 41-31.
Southern Miss has back-to-back games postponed against Florida Atlantic (Oct. 10) and UTEP (Oct. 17).
Southern Miss interim coach Scotty Walden, who tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, will not coach Saturday at Liberty, a school spokesman said. Assistant head coach Tim Billings will be the interim/interim coach
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) October 21, 2020
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
