Reviewing the 2024-25 year in Southern Miss athletics

As the dog days creep in, let’s take a look at the year that was for the Golden Eagles.

No one needs to tell anyone that the world of college sports is evolving at a breakneck pace. Like it or hate it, it doesn’t matter. The last vestiges of what used to characterize collegiate competition are hanging by a worn thread. Changes will only come more quickly in the approaching years.

But there is still much good and much to love. For Southern Miss, one of the many outfits whose future is murky, there were still good moments in 2024-25. There were also some that weren’t so great. Let’s review.

Football | 1-11 (0-8 SBC) | Grade: F

This one’s easy, isn’t it?

The 2024 season was a travesty. There was reason for some limited optimism coming into the year with improved talent at several positions, chiefly at quarterback.

But the good on paper never made it off the page and onto the gridiron. The 2024 Golden Eagles were whipped up and down the field in every phase of nearly every game. One can’t point to a specific problem that led to the demise of the black and gold – because everything was a problem.

A once-promising Will Hall tenure never recovered from the 3-win 2023 season. Instead, it unraveled into complete lack of competence on the field for one of the worst campaigns in school history.

Perhaps you could bump the grade up a tad if you include the hire of conference title-winning head coach Charles Huff following the final contest. But frankly, no pomp and circumstance, no shiny new name on the door, and no surge in NIL funding matters until it happens on the field.

Basketball | 11-22 (5-13 SBC) | Grade: D+

After a middling 2023-24 season, the hardwood Eagles also took a steep fall.

Neftali Alvarez and Denijay Harris were quality pieces again but often had very little help. The dramatic and distracting saga of Andre Curbelo only made matters worse, particularly after Southern Miss skidded to the bottom third of the conference.

Beyond the swan songs of Alvarez and Harris, you must squint to find positives. After being in danger of missing the conference tournament entirely, the Golden Eagles did do just enough to play in Pensacola and win a game in the Sun Belt tourney for the first time in six years under Jay Ladner.

But the season ended with nine losses in the last 10 games, so it was hardly an inspiring finish.

More than 90% of minutes played either graduated or transferred out of Hattiesburg after the season ended, along with the departure of assistants Juan Cardona and Nick Williams. It will be a newfangled group in Reed Green this upcoming season, aside from Ladner at the top.

If the new campaign doesn’t go entirely different, Jeremy McClain will be leading another coaching search.

Baseball | 47-16 (24-6 SBC) | Grade: B

For any other program on campus, a second-place regular season, runner-up conference tournament finish, postseason host, and near miss of advancing to the final 16 of the national tournament would garner an easy A.

But baseball’s resounding and consistent success has lofted the bar higher every year. Salt is also sprinkled in the wound as league mate Coastal Carolina romped into Omaha and now sit in an excellent position to compete in the national title series.

Simply put, anything less than a super regional, especially when hosting a regional, is a disappointment.

That’s not to say the season was not an objective success – another 40-win campaign and late season surge kept the Golden Eagles in the conversation as a top 25 program. But the path to Omaha was as smooth as it possibly could have been.

The threshold of success is no longer to be one of 64 or even host a regional. It’s to make a real push toward the world series and to return to playing baseball in Nebraska.

To reiterate, the season was a success, but sky-high expectations were missed and will return yet again in 2026.