Southern Miss Completes Football Coaching Staff With Hiring of Mike Bethea
By: Luke Matheson
Southern Miss head football coach Blake Anderson announced Friday the hiring of Mike Bethea as the Golden Eagles’ nickels coach for the 2026 season, completing the program’s full-time on-field coaching staff.
Bethea joins the Southern Miss staff after spending the 2025 season at West Texas A&M, where he coached linebackers. He helped guide the Buffaloes to an 8–4 record and a berth in the Heritage Bowl, marking the program’s first bowl appearance since 2011.
Prior to his time at West Texas A&M, Bethea spent two seasons at Nevada as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. During his first season with the Wolf Pack, the defense ranked in the top half nationally in several statistical categories, including red-zone defense and tackles for loss. Nevada’s defense also recorded 11 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries during the 2023 season.
Bethea joined the Nevada coaching staff in 2022 after serving as defensive coordinator at Ottawa University Arizona, a position he held from 2017 through 2021. Under his leadership, the Spirit ranked ninth nationally in the NAIA in pass efficiency defense and 13th in third-down conversion defense. The defense also finished 30th in the NAIA in scoring defense during the 2019 season.
A former standout linebacker at Nevada, Bethea played in eight games during an injury-shortened junior season, recording 28 tackles, including 4.5 for a loss. As a senior, he finished second on the team with 64 tackles, adding 5.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, one interception and a fumble recovery. He began his collegiate playing career at Palomar College, where he earned Second Team All-American honors.
Bethea began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Nevada from 2011–12 and later served in the same role at Washington State from 2013–15 and at TCU in 2016.
A native of Carlsbad, California, Bethea earned his bachelor’s degree from Nevada in 2010. He and his wife, Alyssa, have two sons, Mason and Weston, and a daughter, Coralie.
