Southern Miss Football: 3 Big Questions That Need Answers Before Opening Weekend

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss football program was left in uncharted territory after former head coach Charles Huff left to be the head coach at Memphis back in December. Yes, the Golden Eagles have always had to reload their roster year after year, but it was a little more extreme this cycle, as a handful of players graduated and another handful followed Huff to Memphis or went elsewhere in the transfer portal.

As first-year head coach Blake Anderson, who was the offensive coordinator for Huff last season, put it a few weeks ago as his team began spring training, Southern Miss football is quite literally "starting from scratch" with 60 brand new scholarship players on its 2026 roster. Given that reality, there are several questions that Coach Anderson and his staff must answer before fall arrives, but we believe these are the biggest three.

Who Will Be the Starting Quarterback?

During Huff's lone season at Southern Miss, there was never a question who would be the starting quarterback, as Braylon Braxton came over with him from Marshall after winning a Sun Belt championship the season before. However, Braxton is heading to the NFL now, and the Golden Eagles will have a new starting QB in 2026.

The top contenders for the job are seniors Landry Lyddy and Ethan Hampton, and sophomore John White. Freshman Hugh Price is another name to keep an eye on in the coming years, but barring some unforeseen injury crisis, this will be mainly a developmental, redshirted year for him.

Although the Golden Eagles' QB competition is far from being over, Anderson had a lot of good things to say about White recently.

“To where we ended up at the end of the season, man, he made light years (improvements)," Anderson said of White after a recent spring practice. "He’s got the 'it' factor. He’s in the mix. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s the guy taking the snaps in the fall.”

As for Hampton, he transferred in from Illinois in the offseason after only appearing in four games and attempting four passes last year. Before going to Illinois, he spent four seasons with Northern Illinois, where he completed 144-of-247 passes for 1,600 yards, 12 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2024, while also leading the Huskies to an upset win over No. 5 Notre Dame.

Lyddy will be back for his second year at Southern Miss after appearing in six games last season and completing 34-of-52 passes for 406 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. Lyddy's best moment of 2025 came in early November, as he stepped in for an injured Braxton and completed 4-of-5 passes for 128 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in a 27-21 win that kept the Golden Eagles in first place in the Sun Belt West Division at the time.

"Ethan's been a good addition. Lyddy, I think the snaps he got last year are really valuable. And John White may be as much improved as anybody else on the football team in the last year that we've been here," Anderson said in a recent interview with SuperTalk Eagle Hour. "Somebody needs to separate themself, but right now, they are all making pretty good decisions, and all have a good grasp of what we're doing. ... Time will tell who the guy is, and that may be a really hard decision for us."

Although every position matters, the starting QB is the engine that makes a football team go. Whoever ends up winning this job will have a big impact on this coming season.

Who Will Emerge as Defensive Leader?

USM — Matt Bush/Special to the Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

One of the biggest, but not necessarily surprising, roster gut punches from the offseason was star sophomore linebacker Chris Jones leaving the Golden Eagles in the transfer portal to join the Florida State Seminoles. Jones, who was the leader in the middle of the Southern Miss defense, led the Sun Belt in total tackles and was seventh in the entire nation in that category.

It is still way too early to determine who will take over Jones' leadership role, but whoever does will certainly have some big shoes to fill. With all that being said, though, it wouldn't shock us to see freshman D'Iberville product Caleb Triplett make a name for himself early and often this year at the linebacker position. Don't sleep on redshirt-junior defensive back Champ Lewis, either, who transferred in from Tulsa over the offseason.

Can Solid Culture Foundation Make Up for Talent Deficits?

Coach Anderson and his staff haven't gone deep into offensive and defensive scheming just yet. As of right now, the main focus has been on establishing a culture where everyone is held accountable and expected to give maximum effort at all times. The 2026 Golden Eagles may have many unknowns on the roster, but if there are any talent deficits, Coach Anderson wants to make up for them and find ways to win by being excellent at what his players can control.

"It's a simpler format for the spring–less scheme, more about culture, more about evaluating, more about making sure that the culture's strong enough to win. And if we've got the right bodies, we can be creative with scheme," Anderson said during his SuperTalk Eagle Hour interview.

"But if we're maybe a year away from where we want to be development-wise, or maybe there's a talent deficit at some certain position, I don't wanna just throw our hands up and say, 'we can't win.' We'll just win a different way. Special teams, win by effort, win by execution, win by discipline. All of those things are more at a premium than the X's-and-O's phase of what we're doing."

"Nobody's dealing with five-year rosters anymore. You're dealing with five-month rosters. Who can maximize that roster at the highest level? Clearly, talent would be awesome, to be able to just go out and buy talent, but if not... still find a niche, still find a way to win. That's really where our focus is at, because the game has changed so much, because the landscape has changed so much. That has to be our way to win here, at least for now."

One thing is for certain: Coach Anderson definitely has the right ideas and mindset for this upcoming season. Now it will be up to the players to buy in and bring that vision to life through hard work and determination.

You can listen to the full interview segment with Coach Anderson below, and, as always, be sure to stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more football coverage as spring training continues.