Blake Anderson brings experience but faces new challenges at Southern Miss
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- Southern Miss hired Blake Anderson, a 10-season FBS head coach with three titles.
- Anderson faces major roster turnover: 30+ seniors, staff exits, thin signing class.
- He'll focus on high-school and JUCO recruiting and retain a GM for revenue-share.
Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain called Blake Anderson the most accomplished head football coach the school has ever hired at Anderson’s introductory press conference Monday.
The 56-year-old native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, has a decade of FBS coaching experience between Arkansas State and Utah State. He has three conference championships and missed a bowl only once in the 10 seasons he’s held the head coach title.
Anderson piloted the Golden Eagles’ offense in 2025 as departed coach Charles Huff’s offensive coordinator and helped orchestrate a one-season turnaround from 1-11 to 7-5. His offense led the conference in passing and nearly doubled the team’s scoring output from the year before.
Despite the success and continuity, the job is anything but ready-made. Over 30 seniors are graduating, more than half as starters, a number of assistant coaches have followed Huff to Memphis and Anderson will have to contend with his former boss for players both on the roster and on the recruiting trail.
“We have a big challenge ahead of us,” Anderson said at his presser. “You don’t typically have turnarounds this quickly. I’ve kind of been part of this before, but the dynamic in college football is much different now.”
Finding a new staff
Southern Miss will have the full complement of its assistant coaching staff on-hand through the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 23. After that, a new staff will take over.
Though the transfer portal’s opening is still weeks away on Jan. 2, there are numerous holes to fill, a small early signing class and the inevitable decision to transfer out made by any player well ahead of the portal’s opening.
Anderson’s plan to mitigate the damage of lost time has already been partially executed. Officially hired on Dec. 11, Anderson said he has numerous staff positions already filled.
“We’ve already secured our head strength coach, which in my opinion is the most important hire I’m going to make and when he’s announced I think everybody will realize we killed it in that area,” Anderson said. “The offensive coordinator, he’s been with me the last 11 years, he’ll be with me this afternoon. He’s won all three championships with me and knows this offense better than I do.”
Several current staffers will also be retained, according to Anderson. Though he has not announced his hired or retained staff yet, Anderson’s OC could be deduced as Cal’s pass game coordinator Kyle Cefalo, who is the only staffer Anderson has had on each championship team.
Anderson is still searching for his defensive coordinator, but did say he’s close to having his full staff put together.
“I think we’ll have a full staff very quickly,” Anderson said. “We’re down to just a couple spots, to be truthful, and I want to be very specific about who those spots are.”
‘It’s going to be a big problem’
Highest on Anderson’s immediate to-do list will be cobbling together a new team. He was involved in the total transformation of USM’s roster last offseason which finished with 85 new players on the team.
But the recruiting game has changed once again. Instead of two portal windows, there is now only one, and it runs for 15 days.
Anderson is also still wading through the unknown of what’s to come with some of the current players.
“We signed a handful of guys in December but not even nearly enough to even cover the seniors that are graduating,” Anderson said. “Now with coach Huff leaving, we’re going to have more attrition. That’s just the nature of ball. It’s going to be a big problem.”
In a stark change to Huff’s portal-first approach, Anderson said his strategy will unfold in stages and beginning with recruiting the high school level.
The staff he has in place has already made a number of offers and has plans to continue doing so. Anderson also said he plans on hitting the junior college ranks for players that “have been missed.”
The portal will still have a heavy hand in how the roster takes shape over the coming months.
“I would assume it’s going to be the biggest portal entry in history,” Anderson said. “A lot of guys that shouldn’t are going to get in. The money is too big out there and there’s an assumption that if I go in I’m going to get plenty of it. That’s not the case and a lot of guys are going to be really disappointed. Hopefully we can avoid any unnecessary attrition here and guys will stay put.”
There’s also the new twist of revenue sharing. President Dr. Joe Paul used part of his speech introducing Anderson as a plea for support. He cited James Madison as having “$3 million to $4 million” available, a number he says USM has not reached.
Key to managing that is the continuation of the general manager role to facilitate the recruiting and retention process.
Anderson said he has his guy picked out already, and he’s someone who is “very familiar” with the local area.
“I think general manager is super important at this point with what we’re doing with revenue share and just the speed and tempo of retention and acquisition,” Anderson said. “You got to have somebody who is really skilled in that area. We’re only going to be as good as that guy is.”
Anderson’s coming days will include bowl game preparations, finalizing his staff, recruiting and making the rounds in the region as the new face of USM football.
His first game with the head coach’s headset since 2024 at Utah St. will come in the Caesar’s Superdome against Western Kentucky next Tuesday.
