Black Athletes in the Spotlight: HBCU Sports & Local Highlights
- Marshall Faulk brought assistants with shared experience under Deion Sanders to create cohesive staff culture.
- Anthony Balancier and Josh Covington provide Colorado-honed expertise in scheme, scouting, and program expectations.
- Southern aims to translate Colorado’s high-energy preparation and standards into sustained success in the SWAC.
The new-look Southern University football staff assembled under Marshall Faulk features several commonalities.
For instance, Anthony Balancier, hired by Faulk to work as defensive backs coach, was an All-SWAC linebacker at Southern. He goes back to his alma mater as a trusted assistant.
Josh Covington, the Jaguars’ new running backs coach, has HBCU ties as a former offensive analyst at North Carolina Central.
Faulk himself is connected to Southern through relationships with former Jaguars greats Aeneas Williams and Avery Johnson.
But Faulk, Balancier, and Covington all have one bond on their journey to Southern.
The Colorado connection
They all coached at one point under Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.
Balancier worked with Coach Prime in the roles of defensive quality control analyst and cornerbacks coach. He was also with Sanders as an assistant at Jackson State.
Covington was with Colorado as an assistant before being added to the Southern coaching staff.
And Faulk himself received a chance to coach in college — his first-ever coaching job — when Sanders appointed him to work with Colorado running backs.
Covington arrives with a similar pedigree, having been part of the infrastructure that helped Colorado navigate the spotlight and scrutiny that followed Sanders’ tenure. His work in scouting, evaluation, and on-field support gives Faulk another important voice.
Together, Balancier and Covington give Southern a brain trust fluent in both the on-field scheme demands and off-field expectations that come with coaching under a Hall of Famer and a magnetic program builder.
Faulk’s own time on staff in Boulder under Sanders — albeit brief — shaped his coaching approach in the collegiate game.
What coaching additions mean for Southern
Bringing in not only two former Colorado colleagues with him to Southern, but other assistants with FBS and NFL experience, signals an effort to import a shared standard of preparation, energy and expectation to The Bluff.
For Southern, the staff represents a deliberate bet that the methods honed in Colorado’s national spotlight can translate into sustained success in the SWAC.
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