By Robert Wilson
The last time the Southern Miss football team was ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 was in 2011 when head coach Larry Fedora and offensive coordinator Blake 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 – a former quarterback/wide receiver at Baylor and Sam Houston State who was hired by head coach Larry Fedora at Southern Miss in 2008 – 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 four seasons (2008 to 2011).
After 14 years, Anderson is back in Hattiesburg as first-year Southern Miss head coach Charles Huff’s offensive coordinator. And Anderson is once again guiding the Golden Eagles’ offense to big numbers, and a huge improvement from last season when Southern Miss won one game.
Southern Miss is third in passing yards (247.7 per game), fourth in scoring (32.7 per game) and 22 touchdowns, and fifth in total offense (394.1 yards per game) in the Sun Belt Conference.
The Golden Eagles have won their last two conference games, with the offense leading the way, averaging 40 points, 25 first downs and 399 total yards.
After Fedora and Anderson brought Southern Miss to new heights in 2011, they left for North Carolina. Then Anderson was named the new head coach at Arkansas State in 2014, then at Utah State in 2021. After a season not coaching, he landed back at Southern Miss with Huff.
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’s faith kept him going through all of unfortunate events that happened to his family.
Fedora – who is still close friends with Anderson – kept in touch with him during these rough times.
“Blake is a devout Christian man and has been through so many difficult times in his life,” Fedora said. “He wouldn’t have been able to survive if he didn’t have such a strong faith.”
When Fedora got the Southern Miss job, he hired Anderson.
“Blake played at Baylor and I was coaching in Texas and got to know him and liked him and we began our relationship,” said Fedora, who is now retired from coaching and he and his wife, Christi, live in Waco, Texas, and do a lot of traveling. “We had a good thing going for several years at Southern Miss and Blake was a big part of that. He was a great fit and he took what we had and made it work. Blake loves to work hard. He prepares well and knows how to relate to the players and teach them. I didn’t have to worry about the offense. I knew it would be sound with Blake running it.”
Fedora and Anderson keep in touch.
“He was excited to come back to Southern Miss and he’s doing a great job,” Fedora said. “Huff is a good head coach and Blake does a great job as the offensive coordinator like he did with me. They’ve got some good players, especially at quarterback (with Braylon Braxton, who was the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year at Marshall last season before transferring to Southern Miss with Huff). Blake is a great compliment to Huff. Blake is excited about the season and they are playing well. They are 4-2 and have won the last two games and I look for them for continue to have a good season.”
Anderson recruited Logan Bonner in high school out of Texas to Arkansas State to come play quarterback in 2016.
“I learned as much as you can learn being with Coach Anderson for six years, being my offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for a few years and also my head coach,” Bonner said. “You learned the knowledge of the game, the ends and outs of the offense that has widely been spread out through the entire country when you watch on Saturdays, you just don’t know it. He taught me how to use my faith in the sport of football to the best of my abilities and when times got hard, he was really an example for me and everyone on the team to have faith and stick to the process and enjoy what you do and good things will come.
“Outside of football life, Coach Anderson taught me a lot about having faith when things could not be worse and lean on people like your family, coworkers and teammates and ultimately your faith in God to get through those hard times even when you want to quit.”
When Anderson left Arkansas State to become head coach at Utah State, Bonner decided to leave the South and follow him several thousand miles to the Great Northwest. Bonner wasn’t sure where he would transfer to, but chose Anderson and Utah State.
“Coach Anderson called me and we just talked and it kind of just sparked a fire in me that I would feel comfortable playing for a guy that I truly trust anti also helped that Utah State was a really high power program at the time right after (quarterback) Jordan Love left so I felt like that was a great opportunity and a better conference than some of the other teams. I knew Coach Anderson very well and knew what he stood for and how he coached, and I was going into my last two years of college football. I thought was the best move for me and it felt right. I knew he was looking for a fresh start after all the tragedies that his family went through in Arkansas, and I felt like I was looking for a fresh start at a new school. I knew he would be a great coach for that school and for the people that played for that school. It ended up turning out to be the best football Utah State has ever played, the most power five wins they’ve had in a year and won the Mountain West championship and finished ranked for the first time in school history. Ultimately, I transferred to Utah State because Coach Anderson was one of the best coaches and men that I have ever been around so why not do it again at another school.”
In Anderson’s first year, Utah State tied for the best turnaround in the country in 2021 and the Aggies became the first FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) program to go from zero or one win to 11 wins the following season. Bonner set five single season records with 3,628 passing yards and 26 TD passes.
Bonner is now playing for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League, but he and Anderson still stay in contact with each other.
“We talk here and there. Our schedules are really busy, but I’m going to watch them play Arkansas State this year because my best friend and roommate for six years in college is a receivers coach for Southern Miss (offensive analyst Brandon Bowling) and with Coach Anderson. I”m not sure I will be able to make it due to our playoff schedule. We have always stayed in contact. It might not be all the time but definitely a couple of months at a time and we always catch up.”
Anderson’s experience was a big reason why he was hired by Huff when he was building his staff at Southern Miss.
Austin Davis was Anderson’s quarterback during his first stint at Southern Miss. Davis set school records with 10,898 career passing yards and 83 career TD passes. The West Lauderdale High alumnus, who was a walk-on in football at Southern Miss after signing a baseball scholarship, played seven years in the NFL and is now the offensive coordinator at Meridian High.
“Coach A is one of the best offensive minds I have ever been around, “ Davis said. “His scheme is quarterback friendly and really difficult for opposing defenses to defend. One of my favorite characteristics of his play-calling is his ability to see and call run plays on critical third downs. He has been doing that for years. On third and six plus everyone in the stadium expects pass. But sometimes a good run pops for a first.”
He 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.
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.
Anderson’s offense has plenty of experience, led by Braxton at quarterback, who is the Sun Belt preseason offensive player of the year. He is tied for first with 13 touchdown passes and second with 1,473 passing yards in the Sun Belt this season.
I’ve been pleased with Braylon,” said Anderson during fall practice. “He has done everything we have asked of him, he’s extremely mature and he has put in extra time. He has been through multiple coordinators. We have a positive and upbeat and competitive group of dudes. They have been eager to learn and they have been to be around and it’s been fun to go to work with them every day.
“I’m a much better coach and play caller when we have weapons and we get them the ball and we can make things happen. I think We have the ability, as long as our guys stay healthy, to put defenses in a pretty good bind. We have speed on the outside, we have size and length on the outside, we have guys in the slot who can run by you, we have a good tight end room. My idea of balance is the defense not knowing where it is coming from next. I literally want all of our skill guys to touch the ball and I want to use every inch of grass north and south so that we are unpredictable as we can possibly be.”
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 grown as a coach and a person since he was in Hattiesburg 14 years ago.
“I’m the oldest dude in the room now and I was one of the youngest then,” the 56-year-old Anderson said. “I was looking at it when everyone graduated and there is none of them close. Ten years as a head coach and seeing from a 10,000 foot view, I’m been through a lot of personal adversity off the field, and I have an appreciation and gratitude of what we get to do every day. I talked to the staff and offensive players about we get to do, we don’t have to do it. This is a blessing. Along the way through all those bumps and bruises, we have had a lot of fun times, raised some trophies, seen kids graduate, get married and have kids, I have a true solid appreciation of what God has granted me with, given me the opportunity to influence young kids through victories and losses. I came back here because of that experience of being here with Larry and what the community gave us. I don’t think I would have come back if it had not been such an amazing four years and so many great relationships built and memories. It was super easy. I remember that time so well and how much I enjoyed that time of my career.”
Anderson wants to help bring Southern Miss back to where it was when he left a decade and a half ago.
“The administration is different, the town is different, but we want to get the product rocking back like before,” Anderson said. “I love Saturday afternoons here. We want to bring the same excitement that we had before.”
Anderson, Huff and the rest of the Southern Miss staff are turning around the program. The Golden Eagles have won three more games than last year already and two wins from going to a bowl game and on their way to one of the biggest turnaround seasons in the country.
Southern Miss goes for its fifth victory this season when it travels to Louisiana Lafayette Saturday. A win would give the Golden Eagles a 3-0 start in the league of the first time since 2004.
