Black Athletes in the Spotlight: HBCU Sports & Local Highlights
- Marshall Faulk admits he is not comfortable as a head coach, calling his feelings skeptical and being very candid about camp pressures.
- He says comfort comes from support of his athletic director, board, and chancellor resolving problems so the team performs.
- Southern opened 2026 fall camp with quarterback competition unresolved; Faulk must name a starter before Aug 29 season opener at Legion Field.
- This is Faulk's first head coach job, though he coached at college level under Deion Sanders at Colorado in 2025.
Marshall Faulk reached football’s greatest heights as a player, but the Southern University leader admits he is not yet comfortable entering his first fall camp as an HBCU head coach.
Reporters asked him about the tradition of fans coming to watch practice. They even have a nick-name: “The Street Committee.”
Faulk was very transparent.
“I am so skeptical,” Faulk said with a laugh.” Those damn apartments bother me. I wanted to put a black tarp along the gate. I would have pissed them off.”
Faulk made the candid admission that he isn’t quite comfortable as a head coach yet.
“I’m not comfortable with being a head coach yet. It’s just all honesty,” Faulk said in a video shared by Toyloy Brown III of The Advocate. “I don’t know if there’s comfort in being a head coach. Every day when I lay down there is a problem — when I wake up there’s a problem. So there’s no real comfort in that.”
Marshall Faulk knows what success looks like on the field. The New Orleans native earned NFL MVP honors in 2000 and helped the St. Louis Rams win a Super Bowl. He finished his 12-year career with more than 19,000 yards from scrimmage before entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Coaching at Southern, however, presents a different set of challenges.
“I should say the comfort is in my athletic director. It’s in my board. In my chancellor — my president,” Faulk said. “Them helping me to resolve whatever those problems are so that we can put the best product on the field. That’s the comfort. And knowing that I have that help around me to put the best out on the field.”
Southern enters camp with decisions ahead
Southern opened its 2026 fall camp with several questions still unresolved. The most pressing involves the quarterback position.
Faulk has not named a starter as the Jaguars evaluate their options during camp. The competition gives the first-year HBCU head coach a major decision before his collegiate coaching debut.
While this is Faulk’s first head-coaching job, it is not his first experience on a college sideline. He spent the 2025 season working under Deion Sanders as the running backs coach at Colorado. Southern hired him as its 22nd head football coach in December.
The Jaguars will open the season against Alabama State on Aug. 29 at Legion Field in Birmingham. The matchup will mark Faulk’s first game leading his own program.
By then, Marshall Faulk will need a starting quarterback and answers to several other camp questions. Comfort, as he acknowledged, might take much longer.
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