Huff embraces the challenge of a rebuild in the transfer portal era.
Media Day has come and gone for Southern Miss and the message is more than clear on the 2025 football season, “Flip The Script.” Charles Huff along with senior quarterback Braylon Braxton and sophomore linebacker Chris Jones were in attendance this past Tuesday in New Orleans.
Huff has long stated how important team chemistry is over this offseason, and with over 70 new players coming into the program for the Golden Eagles ahead of the 2025 season along with the expectation that there could be 80 with walk-ons included, there was a clear emphasis on growing team chemistry.
“You have to be intentional about it. You have to get these guys around each other…you have to force them to be around each other, you have to force them to get to know each other, you have to force them to open up. Our guys have really done, they’ve really embraced getting to know each other, they’ve really embraced becoming a team.”
With so many transfers in and out of the program this past season, Coach Huff wanted to give everyone a chance to prove themselves, especially at O-Line. With only three returning offensive lineman and arguably the worst offense in the league, a focus throughout the spring and summer transfer windows was improvement in the trenches.
“We brought in enough guys to create competition, whenever you have issues at a position and fans are sitting in the stands and go ‘Why do they keep playing this guy’, it’s probably because the next guy is not good either. Competition is the big thing. We don’t necessarily “pay for play” like the NFL does, so the motivation is actually playing and going out (on the field) for these guys. Being able to have competition where you are not getting it done, we can play someone else is a big piece of it, so we put a lot of emphasis on creating depth at the o-line, which I think will be really good.”
Southern Miss was picked at #5 in the Sun Belt’s preseason poll, and while others such as Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones believes that “The reigning Sun Belt champion is Southern Miss”, for Coach Huff and his staff, it doesn’t change much.
“It really doesn’t move the needle. They picked us 5th at the other place and we won the conference. I’ve been to places where they picked us 1st and we didn’t win the conference. I think what it does is create excitement for the sport, it creates excitement for the fans, but at the end of the day, you still have to play the games.”
While some may wonder what success will look like in year one for Charles Huff and the Golden Eagles, he sees success by improvement over time.
“We measure success by how much we improve every week. You can’t necessarily put a win/loss total on because we could say that three games is an improvement, but if everybody gets hurt tomorrow, we’re not going to win three games. But whoever shows up and improves every week, ultimately we’ll get to where we need to be. So it’s hard to say a number.
As week one fast approaches for Southern Miss, excitement is building as Mississippi State is set to come to Hattiesburg for the first time since 2015 in what’s shaping up to be an exciting season and a return to winning football for the Golden Eagles.
By: Devin Witson
