Gulfport alum T.Q. Newsome brings veteran presence to Southern Miss

Southern Miss linebacker T.Q. Newsome has always been a fan favorite, but even more so last season for Dahlia Landers.

As a kinesiology intern at the Live Well Center of Forrest General, Newsome helped her learn how to walk again following a long stay in the ICU and with his help, she was able to walk into MM Roberts Stadium for every home game in 2022.

Newsome was the same high character guy as a star quarterback at Gulfport, now a redshirt junior linebacker for the Golden Eagles.

The former Admiral is now entering his fifth year with the USM program and coming off his best season yet with 44 total tackles, good for seventh on the team.

But it’s more than just football for Newsome, who is already drawing some really high praise from Will Hall heading into his third year as head coach. “T.Q. is the best of the best of the best. He’s from Gulfport, Mississippi. He’s in the Honors College. He’s going to be a surgeon. He’s got life figured out. That’s something we try to do here is to get our kids to understand is that football is going to end, and what is your life going to look like without football in it? T.Q. has figured that out. He knows what his life is going to look like, what he wants it to look like, and he is just a special, special young man. He’s a guy that I’m just glad I get to coach another year because I just like being around him.”

Newsome recorded three of his tackles in USM’s 38-24 Lending Tree Bowl win over Rice.