Southern Miss Golden Eagles 2025 College Football Preview
Posted June 17, 2025
2024 Recap
Record –1-11
ATS – 4-8
“Feed ’em to the pigs, Errol.” <Bricktop> <Snatch>
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for this once proud program, it got worse. The Golden Eagles were 0-11 vs FBS teams and only managed to defeat something referred to as the SE Louisiana Lions. Southern Miss was blown out on a regular basis and were outscored 453-183 on the season.
However, there’s hope on the horizon as new HC Charles Huff and several players roll into town from Marshall, a team that just won the Sun Belt Championship in impressive fashion.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles 2025 Outlook
OFFENSE
The Golden Eagles were horrific on offense LY (#119 rushing, #120 passing) and they averaged a paltry 15 PPG (#132). There’s a total makeover happening in Hattiesburg as former Marshall starting QB Braylon Braxton takes charge of the offense and he put up fine numbers LY whilst leading the Herd to the Sun Belt title (19-2 TD to INT; 610 rush, 4 TD). FIVE (!) Marshall receivers joined Braxton in the move to Southern Miss including Chuck Montgomery (393, 12.3, 3 TD) and Carl Chester (342, 17.1, 3 TD), and they also added WR Micah Davis (Ole Miss) who’s got a great shot to crack the starting lineup. The entire RB room was gutted but Southern Miss did a great job stocking the shelves and appear to have a wonderful rotation ready to roll in Jeffery Pittman (Miss St), Matt Jones (Ole Miss), and Robert Briggs (Utah St). The offensive line is being rebuilt with over half a dozen transfers entering the mix, many of them former starters. Yup, we expect a yuuuge uptick in production from the Golden Eagles’ offense.
DEFENSE
The defense was absolutely disgusting LY (38 PPG, #128) and they were a special brand of horrible when it came to stopping the run (233 YPG, #133). There’s a complete reconstruction project underway on this side of the football with over a dozen faces from Marshall alone entering the conversation. The DL has nice size on the interior and it’s nice to see DT Brodarius Lewis (4 sacks LY) stick around. The DE rotation is still being figured out but keep your eye on Jabari Ishmael (Marshall) and J’Mond Tapp (Arizona St). LB Chris Jones (#2 tackles LY) and Michael Montgomery (Portland St) lead a good-looking group in the middle of the defense and the secondary will be much improved thanks to a boatload of transfers including DB Ian Foster and star CB Josh Moten (5 INT with Marshall LY). Southern Miss is going to make big strides on defense this season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Southern Miss rated #119 in the Phil Steele special teams rankings last year and, stop us if you’ve heard this recently, the Golden Eagles will have a brand new unit in 2025. We’re not sure what to make of the replacements at PK and punter, but they should be able to upgrade the KR/PR situation given all the new talent on the roster.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – It doesn’t look too bad. They face Mississippi St in non-conference play but they get to entertain the Bulldogs at home, and the other three out of conference matches look, dare we say it, very winnable. We’ll get a good idea if the Golden Eagles have the MINERALS to compete in the Sun Belt early on as their first three conference games are tough (Appalachian St, at Georgia Southern, at Louisiana).
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – ULM (October 25)
This could be a letdown spot as the meeting with ULM follows the challenging games with the Eagles and Cajuns. ULM is a scrappy and well-coached outfit so we don’t think we’ll be backing the home favorite vs the point spread in this one.
Season Win Total
Market consensus June 17
Over 4.5 -165
Under 4.5 +135
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Over
This team has won more than three games just once in the L5Y but the roster has been completely overhauled and it’s probably a slight to moderate downgrade from what Marshall put on the field last season. They were pretty good.
Note – Our official list of season win total investments will be posted in the blog section of the website.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Last year the Golden Eagles were #133 in 3rd down conversions (25%), #130 in sacks allowed (45), and DEAD LAST (#134) in turnover margin (-19).
Legendary Southern Miss QB Brett Favre is best known for being one of the greatest QBs of all-time, and for sending SAUCY SELFIES to random hottie journalists, and to pretty much anyone else with a pulse. You might wanna check your inbox.
MEGALOCKS Forecast:
It’s become fairly common for teams to undergo massive change and turn their fortunes around in one season. It’s not easy, but it helps if you have MASS IMMIGRATION from one program, and in this case, the Marshall Thundering Herd. We don’t expect miracles in year one of the Charles Huff experience but we’re excited to see this program play a much better brand of football. We’re old enough to remember when Southern Miss was REALLY good and we’d love to see them become competitive again. We’ll call for five or six wins and hope they can find their way to a bowl game!