Southern Miss may have lost head coach Charles Huff to Memphis over the weekend, but if Golden Eagle fans need something to celebrate, it’s that their team is heading to a bowl game for the first time in three seasons.
Southern Miss (7-5, 5-3 Sun Belt) will play Western Kentucky (8-4, 6-2 C USA) in the New Orleans Bowl, which will be played Dec. 23 at 4:30 p.m. CT inside Caesars Superdome.
The Golden Eagles made for one of the bigger storylines in college football this season as Huff, in his first and only year in Hattiesburg, engineered the second-biggest turnaround in the FBS. Southern Miss went from 1-11 in 2024 to 7-5 and one win shy of a Sun Belt West title in 2025. Western Kentucky will be playing in its seventh consecutive bowl game and is looking to get back in the postseason win column after falling short to James Madison in the 2024 Boca Raton Bowl.
Sources confirmed that it’s highly unlikely Huff will coach in the bowl game after reaching a deal to become Memphis’ next coach on Saturday. As for if any players will opt out, star quarterback Braylon Braxton said before his coach’s departure that he and the rest of the roster plan to play in the postseason.
“Obviously not being able to play in the conference championship, we’re going to take this bowl game very seriously and basically make it our championship. We’re going to go out there and try to get a win and end this thing the right way” Braxton said before last week’s Conerly Trophy presentation.
Braxton, who battled a foot injury toward the end of the regular-season, led the offense with 2,796 passing yards and 194 rushing yards with 24 total touchdowns. Wide receivers Elijah Metcalf (677 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Carl Chester (532 yards, 6 touchdowns), along with running back Jeffrey Pittman (640 yards, 8 touchdowns), have also been weapons on the offensive side. Defensively, the Golden Eagles are paced by linebacker Chris Jones (127 tackles, 3.5 sacks), defensive back Josh Moten (5 interceptions), and defensive tackle J’Mond Tapp (7.5 sacks).
For Western Kentucky, Rodney Tisdale Jr. took over signal-calling duties late in the season and has compiled 1,367 passing yards and 105 rushing yards with 13 total touchdowns. Other stat leaders include running backs La’Vell Wright (460 yards, 10 touchdowns) and Marvis Parrish (511 yards), wide receivers Matthew Henry (762 yards, 6 touchdowns) and K.D. Hutchinson (619 yards, 3 touchdowns), linebacker Jaylen Webster (94 tackles), and defensive back Jaylen Lewis (2 interceptions).