The thing about Charles Huff, aside from delivering one of college football's greatest upsets this decade when Marshall stunned Notre Dame inside Notre Dame Stadium and leading the Herd last year to a 10-win, first-ever SunBelt Conference title, is that he seamlessly navigates the balance of "player's coach" and accountability-teaching, leader of men.
Without asking a single player, double-digit members of last year's SunBelt-champ Herd followed Huff to intraconference program Southern Miss, where Huff has undertaken yet another rebuilding project.
Among them: star quarterback Braylon Braxton. Merely the reigning SunBelt Newcomer of the Year, not to mention the league's second-team all-conference quarterback in 2024 -- despite not even beginning the season as Marshall starting quarterback.
Now, Southern Miss is seeing that Braxton's belief in Huff and the opportunity in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is being recognized:
In partnership with the Southern Miss collective, To The Top, a custom logo was created this week for Braxton. He will immediately begin receiving some proceeds from sales of merchandise and also has it designated that a portion of additional sales will go directly into revenue-sharing for the entire Southern Miss team.
“I appreciate our To The Top Collective for continuing to be innovative in this new athletic landscape," Huff told FootballScoop. "I’m not sure how many players on our level and in the country, for that matter, are able to assist with a professional marketing company in designing their own personal logo.
"Then, for them to be able to market that logo and then be able to own the rights of that logo after they finish their college careers, to me this is ground-breaking, and for us here at Southern Mississippi to be on the forefront of something like this just shows why this place is so special."
It's a message Huff believes will resonate to potential future Southern Miss players.
"If I’m a recruit, I’m taking a strong look at Southern Miss," Huff said, "because (we) have some resources down here that can benefit me well beyond my college days.'
In videos released to Instagram, Braxton is shown meeting with representatives of the collective and the marketing team for the logo creation while Braxton also diagrams plays on a whiteboard.
"We've always done more with less," Braxton is told. "We've always punched above our weight class. That's just who we have to be."
The Golden Eagles (1-1) host Appalachian State Saturday night in the SunBelt opener for both teams.
