Marshall coach Charles Huff is about to take another job in the Sun Belt.
Sources told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports that Huff is expected to become the new coach at Southern Miss.
Barring a last-minute change, Southern Miss and Marshall coach Charles Huff is expected to close on Sunday to become 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 over Louisiana on Saturday to move to 10-3 on the season. Huff would be the second coach promoted shortly after winning the 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 in 2024 under Will Hall. Southern Miss was unable to beat an FBS team during the season, losing to Marshall 37-3 on Nov. 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 deal he signed at the start of the 2021 season. He said in the summer that he expected a new deal, but as the season wore on and there was no new deal, it became clear that Huff could be done.
That didn’t affect Marshall, especially in 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 has 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 clinching the conference title.
Huff earned $755,500 in 2024, according to USA Today’s salary database, 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 lower-paid Sun Belt coach.
Before coming to Marshall, Huff was an assistant at Penn State, Mississippi State and Alabama. He was the running backs coach for the Crimson Tide for two seasons in 2019 and 2020 and coached running backs for both the Nittany Lions and the Bulldogs.
Marshall was 31-20 during Huff’s four seasons at the school. Southern Miss, meanwhile, has been to just one bowl in the past five seasons and has gone 4-20 over the past two seasons.