By Kendrick Marshall
HBCU Sports
https://hbcusports.com/
Marshall Faulk’s first spring practice as Southern University’s head football coach began with a message that was as simple as it was direct: get better every day — individually and collectively.
Speaking after the Jaguars opened spring drills Monday, the Pro Football Hall of Famer made it clear that his first goal isn’t about schemes or depth charts. It’s about mindset.
“Each person has to have a goal to get better each day,” Faulk told the media on Monday. “Pick something out in your game and improve on it. If everybody does that, then collectively we get better as a team.”
Decisions already on the horizon
For Faulk, who took over a team that won two games in 2025, the first few weeks of practice are about discovery as much as development. “We have no idea right now what we have,” he admitted. “We inherited some guys, brought in some recruits, added some walk-ons — it’s a pot of gumbo. Now we’ve got to mix it all together and hope it tastes as good as gumbo does.”
The first order of business will be to figure out who the team’s quarterback will be — something that Faulk said will be solidified well before the season opener versus Alabama State on Aug. 29.
Right now, the main participants in that battle will be returning quarterbacks Ashton Strother and Dillon Compton, along with high school signee Vashaun Coulon, one of the top prep passers in Louisiana.
That process, Faulk said, will be rooted in competition and accountability — a message he’s already made clear to his players. “If any of you think because of your high school film you deserve to start, you’re in the wrong place,” he told them. “This spring is all about competition. The best players are going to play.”
Faulk also said he works closely with the running backs — a position he would have some input in. It is a group headlined by LSU transfer Trey Holly, who briefly was in the transfer portal before deciding to stay at Southern.
Faulk is adjusting to being a head coach
Faulk admitted he’s learning, too. “I told the players, this message is for me as well. I’m a rookie again, but in a field I know well,” he said. “I’m allowing my coaches to evaluate me, to help me get better just like I expect them to help our players.”
The first-year head coach said his excitement for the new role was hard to contain. “I didn’t even sleep last night,” Faulk smiled. “I kept waking up saying, ‘Yeah, I’m actually the head coach now.’”
Kendrick Marshall is an award-winning journalist and a graduate of Jackson State University.
