Inside Southern Miss football’s spring transfer portal losses, what it means for 2024 season
Some predicted the spring football transfer portal window would be bananas. Seismic shifts were on the way, so some thought. Buckle up, some believed.
That didn’t really happen across the sport. There were teams that lost more than others but nothing game-breaking with the portal now closed.
Southern Miss football, coming off its second 3-9 season in the last three years, lost five players to the spring transfer portal. That's a low number, but the Golden Eagles followed the same trend from the winter window and held onto its core pieces of the roster.
The defensive line for example, a unit expected to be one of the team's best, remains intact with depth too.
The five Golden Eagles who entered the transfer portal are quarterbacks Billy Wiles and Austin Gonzalez, tight end Exavious Reed, offensive lineman Shardez Taylor and wide receiver Matt Nixon.
Wiles is the obvious headliner, Southern Miss’ starter for 10 games last season. The former Clemson transfer was hoped to be the answer at quarterback. He might’ve been better than what coach Will Hall had the previous two seasons, but his limitations were clear.
Then with the addition of Tate Rodemaker, Ethan Crawford in his second season and John White arriving as a heralded recruit, Wiles became the odd man out. He’s now at Appalachian State.
Reed was a redshirt freshman who didn’t play in 2023. With Southern Miss bringing in Kyirin Heath from Ole Miss and Terron Bedford from junior college, Justyn Reid potentially making a sophomore leap and freshman Reed Jesiolowski on the way, there wasn’t a clear path to playing time for Reed.
Gonzalez was fourth, fifth or maybe sixth on Southern Miss’ depth chart.
Nixon and Taylor likely wouldn't have been on the two-deep, either.
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Including the winter transfer window, only one player, Gerquan Scott, left Southern Miss for a Power 5 school. He went to Ole Miss. Everyone else either made lateral moves or dropped down to the FBS or community colleges.
And take a look around the Sun Belt West. Every other team got hit. ULM’s star defensive lineman Adin Huntington is in the portal; Texas State wide receiver Ashtyn Hawkins, who had 874 receiving yards last season, transferred to Baylor; Troy had 25 players exit after coach Jon Sumrall went to Tulane; South Alabama’s Caullin Lacy led the Sun Belt in receiving yards and is now at Louisville; Zeon Chriss might’ve been Louisiana’s starting quarterback but he transferred to Houston; Arkansas State lost its kicker to Michigan.
But not Southern Miss. Is its roster loaded with stars? No, but it does have players capable of playing at the Power 5 level.
NIL is part of why. The Golden Eagles have a respectable Group of Five collective that’s stabilized over the last 12 months.
But perhaps most importantly is a trust still ingrained in the coaching staff.
The transfer windows are a time to upgrade, but roster retention is just as important, especially when a Power conference team can swoop in at any moment with unmatchable NIL opportunities.
The potential roster raid is over and most of Southern Miss' top players remain in Hattiesburg.
Sam Sklar is the Southern Miss beat reporter for the Hattiesburg American. Email him at ssklar@hattiesb.gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Southern Miss football transfer portal losses for spring explained
