Todd Bradford

Position: Defensive Coordinator/Safeties

Todd Bradford returns for his third year with the Golden Eagles as the school's defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

In his second season as the defensive coordinator for the Black and Gold, Bradford lead an opportunistic defense who ended the season as No. 10 nationally in turnover margin. The Golden Eagles forced 27 turnovers and were No. 2 in C-USA in that category. Bradford also saw a tenacious pass rush emerge and the Golden Eagles finished No. 24 nationally in Tackles for Loss.

In his first season, Bradford oversaw a defense that got stingy over the last half of the season and helped led the team to its five-game winning streak to end the season.

The Golden Eagles ranked No. 10 nationally in turnover margin by forcing 29 total turnovers including 13 over the final five contests.

The defense gave up just 12.4 points per game over that span as well, while allowing just 254.2 yards during the win streak (60.6 yards rushing, 193.6 passing). The defense also recorded its first game since 2006 without giving up a touchdown to C-USA rival East Carolina in a 21-3 victory.

Safeties Eddie Hicks and Justin Wilson each led the squad in interceptions with four each.

Bradford came to Southern Miss after spending the three previous seasons at Oklahoma State as linebackers coach.

During his time at OSU, he coached two freshman All-Americans by Rivals.com in 2006 with Patrick Levine (first team) and Chris Collins (second team).

Prior to his time at OSU, Bradford worked on the other side of the football as the offensive coordinator at Brigham Young for two seasons. While at BYU, he coached a pair of award-winning wide receivers in Todd Watkins, an honorable mention All- American, and Austin Collie, the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year as well as a Freshman All-American.

Bradford served as secondary and kickoff coverage coach at Middle Tennessee in 2002, and was the defensive backs coach at Wisconsin from 2000-01. While with the Badgers, Bradford tutored Jamar Fletcher, who led the Big Ten in interceptions and won the Jim Thorpe Award. Fletcher then was taken in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins.

From 1997-2000, Bradford worked on the defensive staff at Louisiana Tech and also served as the defensive coordinator there. Bradford was also on the defensive staff at Eastern Michigan from 1995-97 where that unit broke 43 school records.

He was the defensive coordinator at Lehigh in 1994 and helped guide the school to the Patriot League championship game, while boasting the league's second-best defense. Bradford began his coaching career in 1987 at his alma mater, Southern Utah, before moving on to New Hampshire as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 1988-93.

Bradford and his wife, Sondra, have a son, Kody, and three daughters, Ashlee, Hailee and Whitnee.