Southern Mississippi gave in-state rival Mississippi State a better game than many expected in the season-opening matchup between the two teams on Saturday, but Golden Eagles head coach Charles Huff says the NIL money eventually won out.
Mississippi State was a roughly two-touchdown favorite on the road against Southern Mississippi, and the game was surprisingly close at halftime. The Bulldogs led 13-10 at the end of the first half before scoring 21 unanswered points in the third quarter.
When asked what went wrong for his team after halftime, Huff pointed to the fact that Mississippi State has millions of dollars to spend on players. Huff feels that was the difference in the trenches and allowed the Bulldogs to wear his team down.
“I mean, they spent $15 million on O-line and D-line. Second half, they should get a return on their investment. We’re built pretty good, but we’re not built for that league,” Huff said. “Obviously, we knew that’s what they try to do. They try to wear you down. That’s what happens. We wanted to get to a point where they were forced to throw it a little more. If you can get ahead in some of those opportunities in the first half, you get an opportunity. They’re not able to just run it, because now they have a little more pressure to, kind of, throw the ball.”
“They spent $15 million on their o-line and d-line. In the second half they should get a return on their investment. We’re built pretty good but we’re not built for that league.”
— Matt DeGregorio (@Matt_DeGregorio) September 1, 2025
Southern Miss HC Charles Huff went on to share glimpse of the Golden Eagles game plan against MSU: pic.twitter.com/IOQFu0WyiT
Huff acknowledged that there are areas in which Southern Miss needs to improve, but he obviously wanted to make a point about how difficult it is to overcome the NIL spending gap.
Of course, you could have made the same argument before about recruiting in general. SEC teams are always going to have an advantage when recruiting over smaller programs like Southern Miss. Mississippi State probably would have dominated Southern Miss in the trenches with or without $15 million in NIL resources.
Even Nick Saban used to take swipes at some of his rivals over NIL spending, so Huff is far from the only coach who has openly hinted at frustration with the new college sports landscape.
