South Alabama coach Kane Wommack took time at the end of his post-game press conference Tuesday night to clap back at some strategically placed Southern Miss advertising billboards that appeared in Mobile in recent weeks.
The signs, placed near the South Alabama campus, showed up in the days leading up to the Jaguars’ 55-3 victory over the Golden Eagles at Hancock Whitney Stadium. One had “Welcome to Port City,” only with “port” crossed out and “Hub” scrawled in (Hattiesburg is known as the “Hub City”).
RELATED: South Alabama rolls past Southern Miss 55-3 in 2nd straight blowout win
The other read: “The University of Southern Mississippi: A Major University Experience at a cost comparable to your local university.”
These Southern Miss advertising billboards, which showed up in Mobile in the last few weeks, drew the ire of South Alabama football coach Kane Wommack. (submitted photos)
Wommack, a Southern Miss graduate, obviously took exception, and had staffers put up photos of the billboards throughout the South Alabama football building in the last week so that the players could see them. Just in case the Golden Eagles didn’t get the message on the field Tuesday, he unloaded in front of cameras and microphones after the game.
“I have a lot of respect for (Southern Miss coach) Will Hall,” Wommack said. “A lot of respect for people that built that program at Southern Miss — Jeff Bower, Larry Fedora, Jay Hopson … Dave Wommack. There’s some special people there that have always kind of gone about things with a humble confidence in that program.
“Whoever the administrator is that made a decision to put billboards that were disrespectful for the City of Mobile and disrespectful to the University of South Alabama just needs to know that sometimes those things are great in a board meeting, but it’ll get your ass kicked on the playground.
“So let’s make sure that we do things the right way. And my alma mater, I think, should hold themselves to a different standard than that.”
Here’s audio: