The Southern Miss football spring game is finally here. After the long wait, fans will finally see the new look Southern Miss team in action on the field for a three-quarter scrimmage, where Southern Miss football head coach Will Hall hopes to run at least 100 snaps of live football.

"We'd like to play about three quarters of football on Saturday," Hall said. "Try to get about 100 snaps in, so 50 with two groups. So that will be about three quarters of football, which will be a good day. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody compete and seeing how far we have come."

The scrimmage will commence with the ones going against each other, followed by the twos and the threes. You will see three, maybe even four full rotations of those sets line up and play football.

Hall also confirmed that the QBs will be live on Saturday, marking the fourth time they have been live this spring, as Hall noted the last time.

Here are three things to watch as you head to the stadium on Saturday:

1. Will a quarterback take "the lead" in the battle on Saturday?

Saturday will give the fans their first look at newcomer quarterbacks: freshman John White and Florida State transfer Tate Rodemaker. It will also give fans a refresher watching Ethan Crawford and Billy Wiles take the snaps.

I do not think whoever comes out with the first-team offense will only mean something. The truth is that somebody must go first. But what is important is who, if anybody, will take the lead in that position coming out of spring and heading into the fall.

If I had to name a name who has looked the best all spring, it would be Ethan Crawford. Crawford's running ability and his ability to move around in the pocket have placed him in position to take the starting quarterback job, and Saturday could be a statement day for him.

For Rodemaker, it will be a day to flush out some of the early spring roadblocks and show why landing him in the transfer portal was such a big deal. For White, while he most likely will not be named the starter in the fall, he has a chance to show what he could be for this team in a couple of years.

Finally, Wiles just needs to show that he still has the pocket presence and accuracy he had in the fall before having a rough season.

2. Will the run game / pass pro be successful against a stout defensive front?

The Golden Eagles' defensive line is among the strongest in the Sun Belt and maybe even the group of five.

"It should be the strength of our team," Hall said about the defensive line.

Now, in the past few scrimmages, the team has run. The running game took a while to get going, but eventually, they did break through with a couple of nice runs by the freshman JQ Gray.

However, the defensive line has mostly shut down the run game and put a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks. Crawford generally could slip out of trouble, but the same has yet to be confirmed for the other three.

Watch how the offensive line responds to the troubles of the defensive line on Saturday. The team last scrimmaged a while ago, and it will be very interesting to see how the offensive line does against one of the best defensive fronts in the Sun Belt, if not the best.

Hall said that the offensive line's experience against the defensive front is critical to its development.

"They are going against one of the top defensive lines in the group of five level every day," Hall said. "That's great for them. It's great to compete against them and it's a great barometer for us to measure. If we can block those guys, we should be able to compete well in the Sun Belt."

3. The defensive backs vs the wide receivers

In the last scrimmage I saw, Southern Miss had several defensive backs in red jerseys who were unable to go live. They should get most of those defensive backs back, which should be another strength of the 2024 team.

It will be very intriguing to see the wide receivers go up against the defensive backs on Saturday, mainly because many view the expansive receiver room as one of the weakest rooms in the entire lineup.

When you think about basically only having Ty Mims back, this expansive receiver room will have a lot to prove during the season. That could start on Saturday morning when they go up against one of the better defenses, at least on paper, in the Sun Belt.

I am looking specifically at JJ Butler, who has excelled in his new role as an outside receiver.

"He's [Butler] big, he's tall, and he's long," Hall said. He was a great high school player at Scott Central because he was just better than everybody else. He's learning how to refine his skills and be a wide receiver rather than just a big, fast athlete. This is his first spring here, and he is really embracing Coach Lindsey."

The matchup between Butler and Michael Caraway Jr. on Saturday will be great to watch. It will be interesting to see how Butler does against a proven prospect on the edge.

Those are the three things to watch for Saturday, but Hall wants to see the team embrace toughness and competitiveness.

"Competitive nature," Hall said when asked what he wanted to see Saturday. "We told the kids after the season-ending last year that if whoever steps between those white lines this year, everybody is going to know you can trust them and everybody is going to know they are going to spill it for Southern Miss. That's competitive nature."

Southern Miss's spring game begins at 9:30 AM on Saturday in the Rock.