Marshall coach Charles Huff is taking another job in the Sun Belt.
Sources told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports that Huff is expected to be the new coach at Southern Miss.
Southern Miss and Marshall coach Charles Huff, barring a last-minute change, are expected to finalize a deal on Sunday to make him the new head coach, sources say @YahooSports.
Marshall, which did not offer Huff an extension, activated its coaching search earlier this week.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 8, 2024
Marshall won the Sun Belt championship game against Louisiana on Saturday and moved to 10-3 on the season. Huff would be the second coach to move on shortly after winning a conference title game. Hours after Ohio won the MAC title game, it was reported that Tim Albin was headed to Charlotte.
The Eagles went 1-11 under Will Hall in 2024. Southern Miss failed to defeat an FBS team during the season, losing 37–3 to Marshall on November 9.
Huff’s future at Marshall was in doubt for much of the season. He entered 2024 in the fourth year of a four-year contract he signed at the start of the 2021 season. He had said during the summer that he expected a new contract to be in place, but as the season progressed and there was no new deal in place, it became clear that Huff could eventually leave.
That didn’t affect Marshall, especially during the second half of the season. The Thundering Herd lost to Virginia Tech and Ohio State in September and were 3-3 after a 24-23 loss to Georgia Southern. Since that loss to the Eagles, Marshall’s reeled off six straight wins, including a 35-33 win over James Madison in the final week of the season to win the Sun Belt’s East Division before taking the conference title.
According to USA Today’s salary database, Huff earned $755,500 in 2024, while Hall earned $824,000. Only 16 public school coaches made less than Huff in 2024, and Louisiana-Monroe’s Bryant Vincent was the only Sun Belt coach with a lower salary.
Before joining Marshall, Huff was an assistant at Penn State, Mississippi State and Alabama. He was the Crimson Tide’s running backs coach for two seasons in 2019 and 2020 and had coached running backs for both the Nittany Lions and Bulldogs.
Marshall was 31-20 in Huff’s four seasons at the school. Southern Miss has attended just one bowl in the past five seasons and has gone 4-20 in the past two seasons.
