Marshall Faulk has stood on plenty of sidelines. He’s done it as a Pro Football Hall of Famer, as a Super Bowl champion, and as one of the most decorated running backs of his generation. But on Saturday, when Southern University faces Alabama State in the inaugural Birmingham Football Classic, Faulk will step into unfamiliar territory: his first game as a college football head coach.
Faulk did not shy away from that reality during Monday’s SWAC weekly media session.
“I’m the rookie here,” Faulk said. “There’s a lot of unknowns, and the only thing I can do, like I said for my players, I tell them control what you can control. And that’s it. Make sure that we’re prepared and we’re ready for whatever is going to take place.”
The Birmingham Football Classic, an event created by the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the City of Birmingham, where the conference office is based, marks Faulk’s coaching debut nine months after taking over the Jaguars program, and he was candid about the gap between playing at the highest level and leading a team from the sideline for the first time.
“I don’t have the experience that a coach Robinson does,” Faulk said, referring to Alabama State’s Eddie Robinson Jr. “I’m just not there. But we’re growing. We’ll be ready and we’re looking forward to the game.”
Marshall Faulk Turning to Familiar Voices
Faulk said he has leaned heavily on a network of mentors, including current and former coaches at the NFL, college, and high school levels, to prepare for the unknowns that come with a first season.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great head coaches lead me,” Faulk said. “Before I decided to go on this journey, I literally made as many calls as possible. I’m always in contact with my mentors, guys around the NFL that’s coached in college, that’s coached in high school, just asking the nuances about the how-tos.”
Still, Faulk acknowledged that no amount of preparation fully answers the central question he will face Saturday: how his team, and he himself, will respond under pressure.
“There’s not a coach right now who knows how his team is going to respond,” Faulk said. “And what we want to do is find out. We want to see how they handle adversity. We want to see how they come out the gate, and we want to see how they respond. And I think for me, I’m in the same space for myself. Being a first-year head coach, I want to see exactly how I respond. What message can I send to them after something happens? Can I continue to be positive and lead them in the right direction?”
Southern’s Three-Way Quarterback Competition
That uncertainty extends to the position that will decide much of Southern’s fate this season. Faulk enters the opener with a three-man quarterback competition involving Ashton Strother, Christian Johnson, and Wyatt McCauley still unresolved, and he described each candidate in different terms.
“They’re all like great young men, but different in their own right,” Faulk said. “Ashton’s a big, strong-armed kid who stands in the pocket. Christian’s a guy who’s a little bit more mobile, strong-armed as well. And Wyatt is the young guy who’s just a great athlete that’s learning how to play the position, with a dynamic arm.”
Faulk said the deciding factor will not be arm talent alone but leadership, a quality he said cannot be taught on a practice field.
“We feel like with each one of those guys, we can win ball games,” Faulk said. “But the side that we’re looking for is that characteristic that falls under leadership and guidance, that guys gravitate to and want to play with and want to block for and want to win for. When they run out on the field without saying it, guys want to follow their leadership.”
Faulk inherits a Southern program with high expectations from a fan base he described as passionate and accustomed to winning, regardless of the results from a season ago.
“We got an amazing fan base,” Faulk said. “Every time I see someone, the expectations are high. The expectations are to win. And regardless of what last year was like, they want to let me know that they’re behind me. It’s my job to return them back to where they rightfully belong, and not just do that with words, but do that with action, and do it on the football field.”
