Southern Miss takes center stage at Sun Belt Media Days
Blake Anderson steps to the podium in New Orleans today as Southern Miss closes out Sun Belt Football Media Days — his first trip to the podium representing the Golden Eagles, in his first season as their head coach. Anderson is bringing wide receiver Davis Dalton, a Madison, Mississippi native who played in 12 games on special teams last season, along with linebacker Mathis Haygood to represent the program on the Media Days stage.
Anderson isn’t a new face in Hattiesburg — far from it. He spent 2008-2011 on the Southern Miss staff, then returned in 2025 as offensive coordinator before being elevated to head coach after Charles Huff’s abrupt departure for Memphis. He coached the Golden Eagles through last season’s New Orleans Bowl, a 27-16 loss to Western Kentucky. In between those two USM stints, Anderson spent seven seasons as Arkansas State’s head coach, winning two conference titles and three Sun Belt West divisional crowns, plus a run at Utah State from 2021-23. He holds a 74-55 career record as a head coach.
The Golden Eagles enter as a rebuild, not a reload
The league’s coaches weren’t especially bullish on USM heading into 2026. Southern Miss was picked to finish fifth in the Sun Belt West in Monday’s preseason coaches poll, pulling 47 points and a single first-place vote. The Golden Eagles also didn’t land a single player on the preseason All-Sun Belt first or second teams — the only Sun Belt program besides Georgia State to get shut out entirely.
Part of that is simple roster math: Southern Miss is bringing in 75 newcomers this fall and returns only four starters from last season’s team — one on offense, three on special teams. It’s about as close to a full teardown as a program can get without changing its name on the letterhead, and it puts real weight on Anderson’s ability to build a culture and identity fast with almost an entirely new roster wearing the black and gold.