The Southern University Jaguars have found their next head coach in former NFL star Marshall Faulk. Faulk was the running backs coach for the Colorado Buffaloes during the 2025 season.
Faulk will be tasked with leading Southern back to SWAC glory. The Jaguars have just one SWAC title in the previous two decades, during the 2013 season. Southern has made five SWAC Championship Game appearances since that 2013 appearance, but lost all five by two or more scores.
Southern went 8-5 in 2024 in Terrence Graves‘ first year, which resulted in a SWAC title game appearance. The Jaguars lost that game 41-13 to Jackson State and then fell off drastically this season. They sat at 1-6 after seven games and then dismissed Graves. Southern entered the Bayou Classic against archrival Grambling State with a 1-10 overall record, but pulled off the 27-26 upset to finish 2-10 overall and claim its lone SWAC win for the season.
Faulk is a football legend, having been enshrined in both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame. He played collegiately at San Diego State from 1991 through 1993, then went on to start for the Indianapolis Colts from 1994 through 1998, and the St. Louis Rams from 1999 through 2005.
Faulk is familiar with Louisiana, having grown up in New Orleans. He’ll be expected to tap into those roots to rebuild the Southern program. His coaching experience totals just this season at Colorado on Deion Sanders‘s staff, but that’s not necessarily a negative. Sanders himself had no collegiate coaching experience when he was hired at Jackson State in 2020. Sanders led JSU to a 27-6 overall record in three seasons and won back-to-back SWAC Championships before leaving to take the Colorado job.
DeSean Jackson did not have any collegiate coaching experience and had just one year of high school coaching before being named the Delaware State head coach. Jackson took a 1-11 DSU team and turned them around with an 8-4 mark in his first season. Michael Vick didn’t have any coaching experience at any level before taking the Norfolk State job. The Spartans went 1-11 in Vick’s first season, but were competitive throughout the season with six losses by one score or less.
Southern hasn’t released its 2026 schedule and has only one known opponent. They’ll play at Houston on Saturday, September 12.
Photo Credit to the University of Colorado Athletics
