Rex Barnes (2003) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Rex Barnes

Induction:
2003

   Coach Thad (Pie) Vann’s philosophy was pretty simple. Football was a game of collisions. A game of hard hitting. And if you could hit harder and longer and with more people than the other guy, chances were you were going to win. It was a formula that worked well for Vann and one that still works well today.
   So maybe it was good that as Vann headed into the twilight of his coaching career he possessed one of the truly hardest hitters in the history of Southern Miss football—middle guard Rex Barnes.
   Those that watched him play will tell you Rex was a player ahead of his time, a player who played the aggressive attacking style of defense that nearly every team plays today. Rex had the size, the quickness, the agility and the aggressiveness that was needed to put fear in the eyes of opposing quarterbacks and opposing running backs. Never before and rarely since had Southern fans seen a player of his size possess the gifts he brought to the table.
   It shouldn’t be surprising that Southern fans spent many a fall afternoon mockingly chanting, Kill, Rex, Kill and he prepared to record yet another quarterback sack or tackle for a loss. And more times than not he delivered what the crowd wanted.
   At about 260 pounds, many agreed that he ran and moved like a man 30 pounds lighter.
   He came to Southern Miss out of Dadeville, Alabama High School and during his career at middle guard he earned quite a number of defensive awards and national recognition.
   In the 1967 Street and Smith’s Official Yearbook of College Football, Rex was chosen as one of only two players chosen for an all-Mississippi team and earned all-South Independent 1st team honors in 1968 and was an honorable mention selection that year to the Associated Press All-America team.
   As a sophomore in 1967 he was a part of a Southern Miss team that posted a 6-3 record and a defense that recorded one shutout and limited five of its nine opponents to a single touchdown or less. That Southern defense allowed only 199.3 yards a game, 6th best in the country and finished third in the country in rushing defense allowing just 60.1 yards per game.
   In 1968 the Barnes led Southern defense was once again one of the nation’s best finishing fifth in rushing defense, allowing just 79.5 yards a game
In 1969 P.W. Underwood became the head coach, replacing Vann, and Barnes immediately became one of the cornerstones of the Bear’s new defense.
   Although some of those Southern defenses included many young players the one constant through those years was “The Man Mountain” Rex Barnes in the middle. His leadership and athletic abilities had much to do with the tenacity, aggressiveness and success of the Southern defenses of the late 1960s.