List of Southern Miss Golden Eagles head football coaches

A color photograph of Larry Fedora in a golf shirt and visor
Larry Fedora served as the 18th head coach of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles from 2008–2011.

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles college football team represents the University of Southern Mississippi in the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). The Golden Eagles competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 22 head coaches, and 2 interim head coaches, since it began play during the 1912 season. Since December 2020, Will Hall has served as head coach at Southern Miss.[1]

The Golden Eagles have played more than 1,050 games over 103seasons.[2] In that time, eight coaches have led Southern Miss in postseason bowl games: Reed Green, Thad Vann, Bobby Collins, Curley Hallman, Jeff Bower, Larry Fedora, Todd Monken, and Jay Hopson. Four of those coaches also won conference championships: Green captured one and Vann two as a member of the Gulf States Conference; and Bower captured four and Fedora one as a member of Conference USA.

Vann is the leader in seasons coached and games won, with 139 victories during his 20 years with the program.[3] Green has the highest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .735.[3] Ellis Johnson has the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .000.[3] Of the 22 different head coaches who have led the Golden Eagles, Vann has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name Season(s)
[A 6] 		GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT DC
[A 7] 		CC NC Awards
1 Ronald J. Slay 1912 3 2 1 0 0.667 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
2 Blondie Williams 1913 7 1 5 1 0.214 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
3 A. B. Dille 1914–1916 17 6 10 1 0.382 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
4 Cephus Anderson 1919 7 4 1 2 0.714 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
5 B. B. O'Mara 1920 7 4 2 1 0.643 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
6 O. V. Austin 1921–1923 21 8 13 0 0.381 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
7 William Herschel Bobo 1924–1927 30 9 17 4 0.367 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
8 William B. Saunders 1928–1929 18 6 11 1 0.361 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
9 John Lumpkin 1930 9 3 5 1 0.389 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
10 Pooley Hubert 1931–1936 55 26 24 5 0.509 18 16 3 0.527 — — — — 0 0 —
11 Reed Green 1937–1942
1946–1948 		73 59 20 4 0.735 25 4 1 0.850 1 0 0 — 1 0 —
12 Thad Vann† 1949–1968 200 139 59 2 0.700 9 2 0 0.818 0 4 0 — 2 2 – 1958, 1962 —
13 P. W. Underwood 1969–1974 65 31 32 2 0.492 — — — — 0 0 0 — — 0 —
14 Bobby Collins 1975–1981 80 48 30 2 0.613 — — — — 1 1 0 — — 0 —
15 Jim Carmody 1982–1987 66 37 29 0 0.561 — — — — 0 0 0 — — 0 —
16 Curley Hallman 1988–1990 36 23 13 0 0.639 — — — — 1 0 0 — — 0 —
17 Jeff Bower 1990–2007 203 119 83 1 0.589 63 24 — 0.724 6 5 0 1 4 0 —
18 Larry Fedora 2008–2011 53 34 19 — 0.642 20 12 — 0.625 2 2 — 1 1 0 —
19 Ellis Johnson 2012 12 0 12 — .000 0 8 — .000 0 0 — 0 0 0 —
20 Todd Monken 2013–2015 38 13 25 — 0.342 9 15 — 0.375 0 1 — 1 0 0 —
21 Jay Hopson 2016–2020 51 28 23 — 0.549 20 12 — 0.625 1 2 — 0 0 0 —
Int Scotty Walden
[A 8] 		2020 4 1 3 — 0.250 1 1 — 0.500 0 0 — 0 0 0 —
Int Tim Billings
[A 9] 		2020 5 2 3 — 0.400 1 3 — 0.250 0 0 — 0 0 0 —
22 Will Hall 2021–present 37 13 24 — 0.351 8 16 — 0.333 1 0 — 0 0 0 —

Notes

  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[4]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[5]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[6]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
  6. ^ Southern Miss did not field teams in 1917 and 1918 due to World War I and in 1943, 1944, and 1945 due to World War II.
  7. ^ Divisional champions have advanced to the Conference USA Football Championship Game since the institution of divisional play beginning in the 2005 season.
  8. ^ Scotty Walden was named interim after Jay Hopson resigned after the first game of the 2020 season. Walden resigned as interim head coach after four games to become head coach at Austin Peay.[7]
  9. ^ Tim Billings was named interim, and completed the 2020 season after Scotty Walden resigned amid-season to become head coach at Austin Peay.[8]

References

  1. ^ Magee, Patrick (December 2, 2020). "Southern Miss hires Will Hall as its new football coach. He's a Mississippi native". Sun Herald. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  2. ^ University of Southern Mississippi Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. "All-Time Record" (PDF). p. 1. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c 2020 Southern Miss Football Media Guide, p. 114
  4. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  5. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  6. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  7. ^ Kercheval, Ben (October 27, 2020). "Southern Miss interim coach Scotty Walden leaves for Austin Peay while dealing with COVID-19". CBS Sports Digital. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  8. ^ "Billings to take USM football's interim head coaching reins this weekend". WDAM7. October 21, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2021.