Football 2025 Roster Reload: Southern Miss

When Charles Huff left Marshall in December to take the Southern Miss job, Golden Eagles fans knew exactly what they were getting from the four-year head coach: a winner.

It wasn’t just because Huff never missed bowl eligibility in his four years in Huntington, W. Va., nor was it just because he was fresh off of a 31-3 victory over Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference championship game. It was because Huff has been around programs that do exactly that– win.

Before taking his first post as a head coach for the Thundering Herd, Huff bounced around some big-name programs. He made his SEC debut as the offensive quality control coach for Vanderbilt before taking a detour in 2012 to become the assistant running backs coach for the Buffalo Bills. A few years later, he became the man who recruited and developed one of Penn State’s most electrifying players of all time in Saquon Barkley.

That recruiting trail victory earned him the top assistant job in college football: Associate head coach and running backs coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide, working and learning alongside Nick Saban himself.

After losing just two games during his time in Tuscaloosa, as well as getting fitted for a national championship ring in 2020, Huff went on to amass a 39-20 record as Marshall’s head coach. His tenure included a 2022 Myrtle Beach Bowl victory over UConn and, of course, the 2024 SBC Championship.

If his career doesn’t convince you that he’s the man to turn around a Southern Miss team that went 1-11 last season, then nothing will. It’s a new challenge, one that Huff says he’s ready for.

Departures

As with every change in regime, Southern Miss suffered heavy losses this past offseason. 85 players to be exact.

Of those 25 players returning to the Southern Miss locker room, the production returning is dwarfed by the production leaving. Only 122 tackles of the 805 tackles in 2024 return, 46 of which by starting linebacker Chris Jones. Two receivers (tight end Kyrin Heath and wideout Davis Dalton) combine for 392 receiving yards back on the 2025 roster. Quarterback John White is the only signal-caller to return (240 passing yards), and he’s not in the running to start this season… Just a tease for later.

Quarterbacks Tate Rodemaker and Ethan Crawford both depart. Four of the top six receivers are gone. Exactly zero running backs (who recorded yards) return.

It’s a relatively short section. If you remember them in a Southern Miss jersey, there is a 77.3% chance that they are no longer in Hattiesburg. The good news: There are a TON of new players coming in.

Additions

Huff said at Sun Belt Media Days that he had a conversation with some of his Marshall players before a practice during the week leading up to the Independence Bowl.

“Once Huff told us he was gone, we had a conversation amongst the players,” then-Marshall quarterback Braylon Braxton told Locked On Sun Belt’s David Schultz. “It was about a group of 25 guys that were like, ‘we’re doing it…we’re going with Huff.'”

Braxton leads a massive group of 21 former Marshall players that ended up going with Huff to Southern Miss. Braxton is the Preseason All-Sun Belt Player of the Year, coming off of a year where he was responsible for 2,234 total yards and 23 touchdowns. He is a tremendous luxury for Huff, as now Southern Miss will have some stability at the quarterback position with the previous relationship.

Running back Jeffrey Pittman transfers in from Mississippi State, and Phil Steele projects him to start. Pittman rushed for 268 yards on 54 carries, including a 98-yard performance against his new team in Southern Miss. He now finds a new home with a new head coach, primed to lead the running back room.

The wide receiver corps gets three brand-new projected starters. Micah Davis (Ole Miss), Elijah Metcalf (Marshall), and Carl Chester (Marshall) are projected to take up a majority of the snaps. Chester and Metcalf were the third and fourth-leading receivers for Marshall, respectively, and look to team up with SEC bounce-back Davis for a big season in the air.

Starting Southern Miss tight end Kyirin Heath returns, Heath being the leading returner with 220 receiving yards.

Marshall transfer Joshua Moten leads the defensive transfers. The senior cornerback hauled in a whopping five interceptions in 2024 to go along with 38 tackles. The 6-1 defensive back will join returning linebacker Chris Jones, one of the Southern Miss representatives at Media Days, as one of the leaders in the locker room.

There are 54 incoming transfers for the Golden Eagles that will find snaps during Huff’s first year. It is the 62nd-best transfer class in the country, according to 247Sports.

This season is nearly unpredictable for Southern Miss, but there is a fair dose of optimism in Hattiesburg. The Golden Eagles begin the 2025 campaign at home, a monster matchup with in-state SEC foe Mississippi State. Some at Sun Belt Syndicate are calling for an upset over the projected last-place Bulldogs… we’ll have to wait until Aug. 30 to find out.