Huff to Southern Miss?

• Reports say the Marshall HC could soon be announced as the next head football coach at USM.

The end of college football’s regular season is just the beginning of the head coaching carousal.  As of publication, 16 FBS head jobs have opened and two hires have been made. We could be closing in on a third in Mississippi.  

It’s being widely reported that Southern Miss is set to hire Marshall head coach Charles Huff as the new front man for the Golden Eagles.

HerdNation.com was the first to report of the hire and now others from both West Virginia and Mississippi are collaborating the reports.

While neither program has officially commented on the reports and Huff has issued a statement filled with expected coach speak, it appears that Huff could be introduced in Hattiesburg as early as Monday.

Since Will Hall’s dismissal following a 1-6 start on October 20th, no less than two dozen names were bantered about for the top job.  While many of the names mentioned on message boards and in various media outlets were not serious candidates, it was a much deeper candidate pool than Southern Miss saw just four years ago.

Names that were still being mentioned as of late Saturday included Georgia assistant head coach Todd Hartley, Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, and West Virginia head coach Neal Brown.

Although Huff may not have been the top pick for some USM faithful, he checks all of the boxes that Southern Miss AD Jeremy McClain laid out when talking with the media back in October after Hall’s firing.

Head Coaching Success

Huff, in his forth season at Marshall, has the The Herd sitting at 9-3 with a Sun Belt Conference East Division Title in hand and a date with Louisiana in the SBC Championship Game this coming Saturday.

In four seasons at Marshall, Huff has led The Herd to four consecutive bowl games and has never had a losing record in the regular season. 

During that time he has engineered upsets over Navy, Virginia Tech and a No. 8 ranked Notre Dame.

Who is Charles Huff?

Charles C. Huff, Jr., began his collegiate career as a walk-on full-back at Hampton University.  Huff spent time at tight-end and guard before earning the starting center position.  He was named team-captain as a senior.

His first coaching job was at Tennessee State. He then moved to Maryland where he met James Franklin. Following a stint at Hampton, he rejoined Franklin at Vanderbilt. Following his time in Nashville, Huff spent a year in the NFL as a running backs coach for the Buffalo Bills.  

Huff returned to the college game at Western Michigan before reuniting with Franklin at Penn State where he served as running back coach and special teams coordinator.  Huff spent the 2018 season at Mississippi State and then moved on to Alabama as the assistant head coach to Nick Saban.  Huff was part of the 2020 Alabama National Championship team.

During this time Huff gained a reputation as an excellent recruiter with deep ties to Florida.

Why Southern Miss?

With things seemingly rolling at Marshall, why would Huff make the jump to a conference rival? And why would he make the jump to a program that has experienced the struggles Southern Miss has over the past decade?

Huff currently has a base salary of $755,000 per year at Marshall. Reports from the Duff Center are that Southern Miss is prepared to pay their next head coach in excess of $1,000,000 per year.

It also appears that Huff and the Marshall administration are at odds over off-the-field challenges regarding NIL revenues and payments.

Southern Miss is positioned better than most non-high revenue programs as it already has one of the best collectives among peer institutions. 

Rebuilding

If Huff, or anyone, is to be successful moving the USM program forward, the administration will have to do their part.

A new coaching staff will likely bring in a major number of new players in hopes of competing in Sun Belt play next season. The Golden Eagles had a serious talent deficit the past two seasons. The portal will help Southern Miss more than it will hurt at this point.

The administration will also need to commit to a renewed strength and conditioning program as well as a nutrition program to build and sustain athletic performance.