Marshall Faulk has spent most of his football life associated with winning, especially in the NFL. Now the Pro Football Hall of Famer is learning one of the harsher realities of being a first-year HBCU head coach.
After Southern University was blasted 41-10 by Arkansas-Pine Bluff in its homecoming game Saturday, Faulk suggested some of his players simply stopped competing.
“I feel like we had some players — I can’t say everybody — some players kind of quit,” Faulk said. “They tapped out a little bit and that’s what it looked like today on the field. And we don’t subscribe to that.”
That is a remarkable public assessment from any head coach. Coming from a rookie coach whose name carries NFL weight far beyond the SWAC, it makes Southern’s loss a story that stretches beyond HBCU football.
Marshall Faulk questions Southern’s effort
The scoreboard gave Faulk plenty of reasons to be frustrated.
Southern actually held a 10-7 first-quarter lead before UAPB scored the final 34 points. The Golden Lions finished with 453 yards of offense, including a staggering 299 on the ground. UAPB averaged 9.6 yards per rushing attempt and scored on six of seven trips into the red zone. Southern managed 318 total yards.
But Faulk’s criticism went deeper than missed tackles or failed assignments.
“We didn’t compete today,” he said after the loss. “We didn’t compete at a level where we gave ourselves a chance to win the game.”
The first-year coach went even further when discussing players he believed did not meet the standard.
“Those people, they will not be here. They will not play here,” Faulk said. “We’re not having that.”
Southern was also without several notable players. Faulk said quarterbacks Christian Johnson and Ashton Strother were healthy scratches because of “conduct detrimental to the team.” Wyatt McCauley started at quarterback and passed for 141 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
NFL legend faces a college coaching challenge
This is the part of coaching Faulk never had to handle as a NFL All-Pro Hall of Fame running back.
Talent can win an individual matchup. A head coach has to establish standards across an entire locker room, manage discipline, develop young players and determine who is willing to follow him when things go badly.
Southern is now 2-4 during Faulk’s first season after entering Saturday 2-3. The Jaguars have suffered lopsided defeats at Houston and now at home against UAPB, along with losses to Alabama State and Jackson State. Yahoo Sports
Faulk insists he isn’t looking for anyone to rescue the program.
“There’s nobody coming to save us,” he said. “The guys that we have in there are the guys that we’re going to win with.”
For a rookie head coach, that may become the defining challenge of Year One. Saturday wasn’t simply Faulk losing his first homecoming at a proud HBCU.
It was the Hall of Famer publicly drawing a line between the players he believes are building his program — and the ones he believes have already checked out.
