Move over, Lane Kiffin?<\/p>\n
Former NFL Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk was also hired by a college program in Baton Rouge, La., over the weekend. <\/p>\n
But not by the school that\u2019s complicit in all kinds of disruption and consternation because of the coach it hired. That would be Southeastern Conference power Louisiana State hiring Kiffin away from Mississippi. <\/p>\n
This would be HBCU Southern University, which ended a nine-game losing streak with a season-ending victory over Grambling State in the rivals\u2019 storied Bayou Classic on Saturday. <\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Faulk to take the reins. Welcome to Jaguar Nation,\u201d Southern University athletics wrote in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Faulk joins a growing roster of current and former HBCU coaches who enjoyed distinguished NFL careers. <\/p>\n In the last year, DeSean Jackson was hired by Delaware State and Michael Vick at Norfolk State. Sean Gilbert is the head coach at Livingston College. <\/p>\n Eddie George was the coach at Tennessee State, Greg Ellis at Texas College and Cris Dishman at Texas Southern. The tradition goes back to Super Bowl-winning quarterback Doug Williams coaching at Morehouse and Grambling. <\/p>\n Although Faulk, 52, doesn\u2019t have a long resume as a coach, he makes up for it in accolades as a player. <\/p>\n Faulk, whose No. 28 jersey was retired by the Rams, was the NFL offensive rookie of the year, a three-time offensive player of the year, the 2000 MVP, a three-time All-Pro and a seven-time Pro Bowl pick.<\/p>\n He began coaching just this season, serving as running backs coach at Colorado under Deion Sanders \u2014 another coach who cut his teeth at an HBCU, Jackson State. <\/p>\n Faulk made it sound as if he wouldn\u2019t have coached under just anyone. <\/p>\n \u201cLet me say this in the nicest way: I\u2019m not a regular dude,\u201d he told ESPN. \u201cIf I\u2019m going to work for somebody, or coach under somebody, it\u2019s got to be somebody<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n And on Monday in his introductory news conference as head coach at Southern, it seems that Faulk wouldn\u2019t have left Colorado for just anyone, either. He credited a couple of notable Southern alumni \u2014 \u201cthe catalyst of me being here\u201d \u2014 with getting him to take the chance: his former teammate and fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Aeneas Williams and former NBA standout and coach Avery Johnson, both in attendance.<\/p>\n They were happy to do their part, with Johnson thanking everyone who had a hand in the decision, later saying it is a \u201cpivotal moment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI graduated from Southern in 1988,\u201d he said of New Orleans native Faulk, \u201cand I have never been this excited about a football coach in the hiring of Marshall Faulk.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Faulk nodded to what might have been. \u201cI could have stayed at Colorado. I was comfortable. But I\u2019ve never done well in life when comfortable. … And I\u2019m not gonna lie to you,\u201d he said, according to USA Today<\/a>. \u201cThis is uncomfortable, and I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n And he made a promise during the conference<\/a> streamed live on Monday on YouTube by HBCU Gameday<\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s no fear in me. Winners win.\u201d <\/p>\n After five seasons with the Colts, Faulk helped lead the Rams\u2019 \u201cGreatest Show on Turf\u201d attack to a Super Bowl XXXIV victory in January 2000. The following season, Faulk was named NFL MVP. <\/p>\n Those were the St. Louis Rams. Faulk retired in 2005, long before the team returned to Los Angeles in 2015. <\/p>\n Williams noted that Faulk has more to offer than his own playing accolades, that he\u2019s one of the smartest people he\u2019s played with. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been taught by the best,\u201d he said. \u201cMany don\u2019t know that when Marshall played at San Diego State that Coach Sean Payton was his offensive coordinator. He was mentored by Mike Martz, our head coach. … He\u2019s a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams continued: \u201cHe\u2019s excited. I\u2019m excited. And the Jaguar nation should be excited. … Southern is getting ready to move.\u201d<\/p>\n Deputy Editor Dawn M. Burkes contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Move over, Lane Kiffin? Former NFL Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk was also hired by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4690,551,44802,44803,44801,44804,13247,44805,48,52,51,44064,7036,47,50,49,63,44799,7573,278,44800],"class_list":["post-77979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-coach","tag-colorado","tag-former-nfl-standout","tag-grambling-state","tag-hbcu","tag-hbcu-southern-university","tag-head-coach","tag-jaguar-nation","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lane-kiffin","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-marshall-faulk","tag-mvp","tag-season","tag-texas-southern"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}