Southern University’s 48 hours of bliss began with a 28-27 Bayou Classic win over Grambling and culminated Monday afternoon with the introductory press conference for their new football coach, Pro Football Hall of Famer and current (for now) Colorado University running backs coach Marshall Faulk.
The work now begins for Faulk and a Jaguar program coming off their worst record since the 2010 season (SU went 2-10 but was forced to vacate both wins for violations that year).
Faulk, with one year of coaching experience, will look to repeat the work of Delaware State’s DeSean Jackson, who led the Hornets to an 8-4 mark in 2025, their best record in 18 seasons.
While Delaware State was in desperate need of some positive football news, Southern’s tradition and recent history were not as hopeless. That’s what makes the hire of Faulk a bit confusing.
After the successful Dawson Odums era ended with Odums moving on to Norfolk State, the Jaguars won SWAC West titles in 2022 and 2024 under two different coaches: Eric Dooley and Terrence Graves.
Dooley and Graves met similar ends, a decline in fortunes and a rise in administrative drama forcing Southern brass to move on in the middle of the next season.
Now a program with a proud history will go the splash hire route, entrusting another well-known former NFL player with the precious cargo that is HBCU football and HBCU culture.
Faulk alluded to Southern’s colors in his press conference, saying he had success in gold and blue as a Super Bowl winner and NFL MVP with the then-St. Louis Rams.
The ultimate question is can Faulk, an accomplished former player and the first head coach off a possible Deion Sanders coaching tree, handle a devoted and vocal fanbase who is tired of getting their Jaguar fangs kicked in…well, except in the Bayou Classic, where they have a four-year winning streak (Sorry, Kenn Rashad).
HBCU front-porch athletic programs – football and basketball – are often forced to look to name-brand hires to drum up interest in the teams and hopefully a few more wins to bring people out to the games.
While Delaware State (Jackson) and Norfolk State (Michael Vick) certainly needed someone or something to get excited about, Southern did not need to go this route.
Hopefully it pays off for the Jaguars or else they’ll Faulk around and find out a big name doesn’t guarantee a new, successful era on the football field.
