By Robert Wilson
Since quarterback Braylon Braxton transferred from Marshall to Southern Miss, he has been named the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, ended Southern Miss streak of nine consecutive conference losses, thrown a touchdown pass in each of the eight games this season, clinched a bowl game with a win Saturday, and was named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week this week.
But Braxton, who led Marshall to the Sun Belt championship last season, didn’t come to Hattiesburg just to do all that.
Said Braxton after leading Southern Miss to its fourth consecutive win – the longest string of victories since 2015: “Our ultimate goal is definitely not a bowl game. Six wins is good, it’s a successful season to some. But we came here for much more. We came here to win the championship.”
Braxton, a senior from Frisco, Texas, completed 18 of 23 passes for 248 yards and four TDs with no interceptions and led Southern Miss to a 49-21 victory over Louisiana Monroe for homecoming to earn the Sun Belt Offensive Player the Week.
Braxton was the first Southern Miss player to earn a conference offensive player of the week award since Jack Abraham won a Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week in 2019.
The four TD passes were the most by a Golden Eagle since Jack Abraham did it against Rice in 2018.
Braxton has completed 67.1 percent of his passes (28th best in the country) for 1,945 yards and 18 TDs without only four interceptions this season. His completion percentage would be fourth best in school history for a season if he continues this pace.
“I know the guy’s the best quarterback in the league,” first-year Southern Miss coach Charles Huff, who was followed by Braxton and 20 other players when he came from Marshall. “It’s not just because of his on the field stats, the guy’s a leader. The guy’s track record, I mean, he’s won, I don’t know if he’s lost a conference game in almost a year, and that’s no knock to any other quarterback. There are some good ones. The consistency of his performance, the consistency in his execution, the way he carries himself, his leadership, his confidence. Every once in a while, there’s a generational talent that comes along in a conference that drastically affects the conference at all levels.”
Huff is thankful to see Braxton practice every day and play on Saturdays and loves his humble attitude.
I’m honored to be here to watch it every day,” Huff said. “I’m honored to be a part of it, and his humbleness, the way he carries itself, you wouldn’t know that he got player of the player of the week, or the conference, or whatever it may be. He hasn’t changed. He is still the same person – big smile, wants to win. If we told him, if he’s only going to throw it five times, he would throw it five times and hand it off 35 times, and those kids don’t come along a lot, and you don’t get the whole package. You might get talent, but maybe they don’t have preparation skills. You might get talent, but you don’t have consistency. Maybe you get the talent, but their personality is more reserved, and they’re not as outgoing or affecting the team. But we’ve been blessed. We’ve been blessed to have him. I love the guy. I love the guy, not only because of what he does on the field, but because of who he is every day. And that’s really hard for 18-to-22-year-olds to be it’s really hard for them to be the same person every day, right? As you become an adult, you get in a routine, and your leader or your manager, and you know, you got to, you know, present the same way. But every day, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him have a bad day, he’ll probably come in the day frowning, but I can’t say enough about not only what he does for this program off the field. Obviously, everyone sees what he does on the field, but his off-the-field effect is the same, if not greater.”
The team chemistry, especially with so many new players, has been impressive to Braxton. Braxton is a big reason for that success.
“What’s impressed me the most is just how we’ve come together as a team,” Braxton said. “If you look back to January, we don’t even have half of the players that are on the team now in January, and then you go to the end of the summer, we bring in another wave of guys. You know, you’re looking around, it’s all these individual personalities, all these different guys. You know, you’ve got to learn what you can say to certain people. You know what you can and can’t say. You know who you can come at in a certain way. Just from where we started to where we are now is what I’m most proud of, and that’s just as a team. That’s not even anything that we do on the field, just how we’ve came together as a unit.”
Southern Miss’ defense has also helped Braxton be more comfortable on the field.
“I feel like with our defense, I feel like I can do no wrong, like I know, even if we do have a bad drive, go three and out, where we do happen to turn the ball over,” Braxton said after the Louisiana Monroe victory. “I know the defense has got our back, like they might force a three and out themselves, or get a turnover, they get us the ball right back. So, when you have a defense like that, especially as a quarterback, you feel like you can do no wrong. They’ve got my back. And you know, when they’re struggling, we’re going to have their back to the offense. And I kind of feel like that’s how the game went, a little bit in the first half, they weren’t, all the way clicking, but we kind of picked up the slack a little bit, and when they got their feet on them the second half, we kind of boat raced them.”
Lee Roberts, who was a school record-setting quarterback at Southern Miss from 1995-1998, is now the color analyst for John Cox on the Southern Miss radio broadcasts. Roberts has been impressed with Braxton.
“I think Braylon brings the ‘it’ factor,” Roberts said. “He has great playmaking ability with his arm as well as his legs. Braylon has also done a great job protecting the football but what really sets him apart is his leadership and how his team follows him. He quickly gained the respect of his teammates on and off the field.”
Southern Miss has a open date this week. The Golden Eagles’ next game is Nov. 8 at Arkansas State.
