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Raiders looking for a new direction By Danny Penza Nov 16, 2022 08:00 AM A A Hall proud of work that was done despite seeing six-year run at SOU come to an end ASHLAND — Charlie Hall entered the 2022 football season with hopes that his Southern Oregon University program would be able to get back into the mix in the Frontier Conference. But a couple of days after the Raiders’ season-ending loss to rival Eastern Oregon, change has already been put into motion in lieu of Monday’s announcement that Hall is no longer the head coach at his alma mater. Hall’s six-year run saw SOU advance to a national semifinal but also finish the last two seasons with identical 3-7 records coming out of the canceled 2020 campaign. “There were certainly some huge obstacles in the last couple of years after some good opportunities early in my career, obviously,” the 61-year-old Hall said by phone Tuesday afternoon. “I feel like we were right on the cusp of moving the needle with the program in a real positive direction, but when you measure it from wins and losses the last two years, it doesn’t look like there is that.” The search for Hall’s successor has already begun and potential applicants have already reached out to SOU athletic director Matt Sayre, he said. The priority window for candidates to apply will be open for the next month, with the hiring committee hoping to cut the list of names to 20 for interviews and vetting around the new year. The candidates that make the final cut, which will be four at most, will then visit the SOU campus in the middle of January. Sayre hopes to have a new head coach hired “by the first part of February.” In terms of what SOU is looking for in its next head coach, Sayre was very clear about things. “We’re obviously ready to bring back an exciting and inspired brand of football at SOU,” said Sayre. “We lost that in 2017 somehow and it’s just time to reinvigorate the program and bring somebody that will be able to sell that vision to kids and to fans and supporters of Raider football again.” Continued Sayre: “A successful candidate is going to be able to explain (legacies and traditions) to me and the search committee and what the vision is for SOU football based on what we’ve done in the past and understand this program should be one of the preeminent programs in the Frontier Conference and the NAIA.” After his incredibly successful 12-year run as head coach a few blocks down Siskiyou Blvd. at Ashland High, Hall took over at SOU in 2017 following the sudden passing of Craig Howard, the man who led the Raiders to the program’s first and only NAIA national championship in 2014. Hall went 28-26 and won one Frontier Conference title, in 2017, during his six seasons at SOU. Over half of those wins came during his first season and a half, though, as the Raiders went 12-1 and advanced to the NAIA semifinals for just the third time in school history in his first season and then started the 2018 campaign 4-0 and rose to No. 1 in the national rankings. But after reaching that lofty ranking midway through the 2018 season, the results just couldn’t be replicated. Sayre described Hall as “the right guy at the right time after coach Howard died, that’s for sure.” “He had a tough hand dealt to him,” added Sayre, “and I think he, just as Charlie always does, worked to put everything he had into the program. It didn’t go the program’s way for a lot of reasons and ultimately the head guy has to shoulder a lot of that, so that’s kind of where he ended up and we ended up.” SOU finished the 2018 season with a 6-4 record, with a four-game losing streak after that red-hot start dropping the Raiders out of the Frontier Conference title race. The Raiders followed it up with a 4-7 record in 2019, then saw the COVID-19 pandemic force the 2020 season to be pushed back to the spring of 2021. SOU opted out of competing in the Frontier’s abbreviated spring schedule, meaning the Raiders were nearly two full years removed from their last competitive game when they opened the 2021 season. “We didn’t have structured, regimented training, we didn’t particularly have solid recruiting because we were not allowed to leave campus, not allowed to host on campus and something that was ‘in the norm,’” said Hall of the challenges coming out of 2020. “When you look at our opponents in the Frontier Conference, even Eastern Oregon who’s in our state played in the spring of 2021. That setback, for me, is huge when you lose experienced players who decide they can’t afford another year and have to move on with their degree and we sort of played with a hand behind our back coming out of COVID.” Despite the results the last two years, Hall felt like his team — especially this season — was close to getting back to being a competitive team in the Frontier Conference. It’s just that the margin for error in the last month was so fine that what prevented the Raiders from getting over that final hump resulted in another loss. Case in point: SOU lost its last three games of the season by a combined 18 points. “I think there were some really good things you could see on both sides of the ball this year and the true measurement of that is letting me evaluate it next year,” said Hall. “But the clock is the clock and if they’re measuring my body of work regardless of who’s coaching, who’s coordinator, what the situation is like, that’s the call of the university.” Hall said he felt like there was “a cultural shift” happening within the program this fall. “I felt like there was a lot of angst, a lot of frustration last year that was probably the result of not playing (in 2020),” said Hall. “We finally got our team in an area where they could handle some of these tough losses this year and really turn the page and be just as committed, just as inspired to play week-in and week-out. … That to me is the foundation of what leads to that kind of improvement.” Ever since Monday’s news first came out, Hall said many of his former players and colleagues have reached out to show their support. As for what’s next for someone who has been in the coaching game since he became a student assistant at SOU in 1982 under then-head coach Chuck Mills, there’s calls to be made and situations to evaluate. But Hall is confident in saying that he will be coaching again at some point. When and where that will take place is the ultimate unknown right now. “I’d be surprised if I’m not coaching, to be honest,” said Hall. “I’ve worked a long time in this profession and I think I have developed a reputation that I feel is pretty strong, so this particular time at SOU had certainly some good and some unfortunate things happen. When you’ve been in it for so long and you’re in it to have a positive influence on young people, it’s hard to think about doing something else. “I think it is time for me to sit down and have some good conversations with people about what that next chapter looks like for me so that I can have purpose and enjoy my work and certainly still feel challenged at the same time.” Reach reporter Danny Penza at 541-776-4469 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @penzatopaper. Charlie Hall recorded a 3-7 record in his final two seasons as head coach at Southern Oregon University. (Larry Stauth Jr. / for the Mail Tribune)