By Robert Wilson
No new Southern Miss head football coach in school history has had the head coaching experience like Blake Anderson, who was introduced Monday as the Golden Eagles’ 24th head coach in the program’s history.
Anderson – who was promoted from offensive coordinator to interim head coach when Charles Huff left for Memphis two weeks ago and named permanent head coach by Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain – has been a head coach at two different schools (Arkansas State and Utah State) won 74 games, won three conference championships and been to nine bowl games in 10 seasons.
McClain knew when he hired Huff the possibility of him leaving for another job was real.
“When we hired Charles, we knew that if he had success, we knew he would have the opportunity to go somewhere that he couldn’t pass up because he had had success at a couple of different stops,” McClain said. “I knew throughout the year it was a possibility. As we were successful, we understood that. As the cycle began to happen and there were so many jobs and so much turnover, we began to ramp that up. We had to be prepared and move quickly. There are things that have to happen from a retention standpoint. We were ready to roll and hit the ground running.”
It didn’t take long for McClain to find his guy.
McClain said Anderson being on staff was big in making the decision on who to hire as Huff’s replacement.
“It was helpful to see Blake around in our building, around our people, around our players,” McClain said. “It was a unique perspective that helped us when we got into this search. I felt like we had a really qualified person in the building. That look behind the curtain to see who he is and how he worked was helpful to us. We had a guy in the building who had been through these wars, had been through these things as a head coach, especially when you are trying to handle a larger roster turnover. There is no learning on the job to be had. When I was driving home after meeting wtih Blake, I thought he is beyond ready to do this. The fire I saw from him that night, about the job, about the opportunity was something I was looking for and he didn’t disappoint.”
Anderson will make his head coaching debut when Southern Miss, 7-5, meets Western Kentucky, 8-4, in the New Orleans Bowl Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at the Superdome (ESPN).
Anderson, a former quarterback/wide receiver at Baylor and Sam Houston State, had a 74-54 record and a 53-27 conference record at Arkansas State (2014-2020) and Utah State (2021-23) with nine bowl games and three conference titles. Anderson has 30 years of coaching experience and has been a part of six conference championships. He has coached in 14 bowl games and won a junior college national championship.
“We have a big challenge ahead of us,” Anderson said. “You typically don’t have a turnaround this quickly. I have kind of been a part of this before but this dynamic is a lot of different. It is going to be very important that we don’t waste any opportunity to not create any more issues than we possibly can. We are going to try to find a way to win a bowl game and finish on a good note with this group. They have done an amazing job and find a way to win No. 8 and go into the offseason and find out what holes we need to fill to be as competitive as we can be. It’s on and its time to hustle and that’s exactly what we are going to do.”
Anderson doesn’t want to be a distraction, but wants to coach these players to a bowl game victory.
“This bowl game is unique in the sense of the way this transition has happened, the amount of time or lack there of that we have,” Anderson said. “If I was the sitting head coach and we were going into a bowl game and we were dealing with a normal circumstance, we would concentrate on young guy development. But considering the circumstances my focus is to help this senior class and this group find a way to win No. 8. I am not the focal point in any way. I’m the driver trying to get them to the game and let them be who they are. I do not want to be a distraction or take away from what they have the ability to finish. I told them very clearly. This is your game. You will get out of it what you want. It is my job to be as efficient and effective as I can as a leader to allow them to do that. I want to be very detailed and very crisp, keep their bodies fresh, minds fresh, and be fast and furious at game time. They know that and the responsibility is on them, too.”
Southern Miss’ coaching staff, minus Huff, remains intact for the bowl game.
“We are very fortunate,” Anderson said. “Every coach except Coach Huff is staying. Jeremy gave them the option to leave but they wanted to stay Jeremy will honor that and take care of you.”
Anderson wants to build on what Huff started.
“We want to build off the things that we did well this year,” Anderson said. “The culture change from what it was before. We had a 365 day plan of what we wanted to do, how we wanted to handle nutrition, what we wanted to happen in the weight room, how we attacked recruiting. Coach Huff had an amazing plan. It was very similar to what I had done in the past. I want to hire great people, recruit at a high level, hold them accountable and put a good product on the field. Put a tough, selfless, accountable, very fast and physical football team on the field.”
Anderson’s first time coaching at Southern Miss – as offensive coordinator with head coach Larry Fedora from 2008 to 2011 – was important on his decision back again.
The last time Southern Miss was ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 was in 2011 when Fedora and Anderson led the Golden Eagles to a 12-2 record (a school record for wins), the Conference USA championship, a win in the Hawaii Bowl and a No. 20 in the final ranking in the AP poll.
It is considered one of the best teams in Southern Miss history.
Anderson was key reason for the success, leading the offense to school records with 516 points, an average of 36.9 points per game, 14th best in the country, and was one of only 14 teams in the country to average more than 200 rushing and 200 passing per game.
Anderson helped Fedora to win 53 games in those four seasons.
“The time that I was here before had a big impact,” Anderson said. “Not just the time on the field, but the relationships that I built. We spent four years here. We did life here. We were involved in church. My kids were playing ball. There was a sense of family here that we really enjoyed. We have been at a lot of stops along the way and they have not all been the same. This was a place that I loved and enjoyed my time here. The administration, the fan base, the community, and the fact that you can be successful and have great people to work with, it was a no brainer to me. This opportunity wasn’t guaranteed. I didn’t know if it would ever happen. But I wanted be a part of that, that’s why I came back with Coach Huff a year ago.
The task at hand will be a difficult one for Anderson, but he has a plan to attack it.
“We have 31 or 32 seniors and we signed a small class,” Anderson said. “The approach was to attack the portal very heavily. Now with Coach Huff leaving, we will have more attrition. That’s just the nature of ball. It’s going to be big problem. To me, the best way to attack it is stages. We have already started back through the high school ranks and made a couple of offers this week and we will continue to make more with guys that we think are worthy to be here at this level with us. We aren’t going compromise to the standards, but there are some good quality that are out there. There are some junior college players that have been missed over or will graduate later and we will also attack the portal. Some guys are going to follow Coach Huff. He brought them here and they will follow him. Some guys will stay. It is a monumental task, but I’ve done it before. We are taking a very detailed, very targeted, very specific approach to what we are looking for. I want to do it in a thoughtful, careful manner. I don’t want to panic and make hasty decisions and take guys that just don’t fit us. That’s how you ruin a locker room. It is going to take all of those phases to fill a roster to compete next year.”
Anderson’s past experiences as a head coach has made him a better and wiser coach.
“Even in this hectic world of college football, you feel like the 25 second clock is always running down on you, you have to be comfortable enough to what you do and how you do it and why you do it, to take a breath and slow down to make sure you make the right decision on the coach, on the player, handle some discipline, on how you handle adversity,” Anderson said. “I think one of the biggest things when I first started out was I wanted to be a head coach kind of like I was when I was an offensive coordinator. I wanted to play fast. I always wanted to have the answer right now. I made some poor decisions along the way, decisions I ultimately had to change or back away from later. As I have gotten older and wiser maybe, I learned from my mistakes, being willing to slow the pace down, slow the game down, slow the pitch down as baseball players will tell you. I think I’ve been more consistent and made better decisions and we have benefited from those things. It is really a key in this transition because it is going to he big and difficult and it would be very easy to panic and try to act too quickly. Patience is going to be huge here.”
Anderson said this situation taking over Southern Miss after Huff had only been there one season reminded him when Anderson began as head coach at Arkansas State.
“When I took the job at Arkansas State, I was the fifth head coach in five years so there had been a ton of attrition,” Anderson said. “When I went back and surveyed the roster I think we had somewhere around 55 to 58 plaeyrs who had been actively recruited and signed scholarships and the rest were made of guys who had come from everywhere, most of them walk-ons so I likened this to that situation because of the turnaround in such a short timespan. I think we brought in 80 some odd new players last year. I don’t know the attrition will be to that level but we have really large senior class as well. So you add senior class with the attrition we are likely to deal with, it’s going to be a big problem. You put in the free transfer portal and the revenue sharing, it magnifies just what we are up against. I’ve never been around this problem exactly but we are going to attack it in similar fashion. We found a way to replace the attrition and stay competitive in both places (Arkansas State and Utah State) and won championships at both of those stops.”
Anderson has spent the majority of his coaching career in the South so he has developed relationship across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama as well as other Southern states, which will help him with recruiting.
“If you consider my career, with the exception of Utah State, all my time has been here in the South. Whether it was the head coach at one place or an assistant at another, we were in the state of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama recruiting,” Anderson said. “It’s crazy how many guys who cross paths with who I have past relationships with. I’ve been super surprised and excited how many players are coaches in those areas. It’s fun to get back home. I feel like I get good information from guys you can trust.”
Anderson has been through more family tragedies than probably another college football coach in the country.
His wife, Wendy, passed away from breast cancer in 2019 when Anderson was head coach at Arkansas State. His father, Scott, passed away nine months later. Anderson’s son, Cason, passed away in 2022 at age 21, and Anderson’s brother, Bryan, passed away of colon cancer in 2024.
Anderson is open about his faith.
“I’m going to stand on my faith every chance I get and that’s going to upset some people, but they are going to have to be upset because we are going to keep doing things and letting God lead,” Anderson said. “I want this to be a program that is built around Him and around family and I want these guys to have a blast, do a great job and they will.
“I’m excited for this opportunity. I’m not just grateful. I fought for it. I wanted it. Immediately after I knew Charles was leaving, I called Jeremy and told him I want the job. That’s why I’m here.”
Anderson and his late wife, Wendy, were married for 27 years and had three children together daughter, Callie, and sons, Coleton, and Cason. Anderson married Brittany in 2021 and they have three children, daughters Collins and Ellison, and son Cannon.
