First-year Southern Miss football coach calls for enforcement of tampering rules
First-year Southern Miss head coach Blake Anderson announced during Wednesday’s national signing day press conference the staff added 60 new scholarship players, bringing the roster to a full 85 players ahead of spring practice in March.
Just over two dozen players, including only one starter, remain from the previous team following the departure of one-and-done coach Charles Huff to Memphis.
The attrition from the 7-6 New Orleans Bowl runner-ups totaled roughly 30 graduations and 30 transfers and about half of the latter followed Huff north.
Anderson noted many of the outgoing transfers were expected, and some players had six-figure valuations in the portal.
“That left us in a position with 26 returners and a big roster to fill,” Anderson said.
The expectation for much of the 15-day portal window was that USM would have 27 returning players.
Defensive lineman Mason Clinton initially announced in a since-deleted tweet he would be returning to USM. Then on Jan. 15, the second-to-last day of the window, Clinton posted he would be entering the transfer portal.
Reports of the 6-foot-5, 300-pound Hattiesburg native’s commitment to Florida surfaced four days later after Clinton visited both Baylor and Florida.
The Gators are also led by a new head coach in Jon Sumrall, who left Tulane for the job in late November when the school failed to hire former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin.
When asked if such late-window movements can be prevented, Anderson called on the NCAA to tighten rules related to tampering.
“Oh, it can be prevented,” Anderson said. “(The NCAA) can prevent tampering if they like, they’re just going to have to make the penalties severe enough that people won’t want to do it and then actually enforce them. Which is not happening, at this point.”
Clinton originally began his career Louisiana before playing one season of junior college ball at East Mississippi C.C. He originally committed to Mississippi State in late 2024, but would ultimately join Huff’s 2025 signing class.
He played 219 snaps for the Golden Eagles and made 16 tackles.
“(Clinton) is one of thousands of those similar situations,” Anderson said. “Tampering is happening. Whether it’s through an agent to get it done or whoever, the kid was staying and all of a sudden there were six-figure offers, and he felt like he had to leave. And I can’t be upset with the kid for leaving, financially, for something we weren’t in a position to do for him. How it happens, that frustrates all of us.”
Clinton is represented by The Business of Athletes, which touts on X it landed 79 deals for athletes at Power Conference schools between the 2024 and 2025 classes.
Anderson expressed his belief the problem can be solved, but isn’t holding out hope for a genuine effort to be made.
“Who is going to enforce it? If they do, then maybe the dynamic of all this will change and will be more organized and less chaotic,” Anderson said. “For now, it is what it is. I have seen zero evidence that it’s going to be handled.”
Southern Miss is scheduled to begin spring practice March 24 and will host its spring game on April 18.
