BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Marshall Faulk embraced the role of a newbie.
The first-year Southern coach acknowledged the “rookie vibes” he felt as one of the new faces at the Southwestern Athletic Conference football media day Wednesday inside the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel ballroom.
Despite his newness, Faulk was poised. He moved from station to station and expressed confidence in the foundation he and his staff are laying at Southern. The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back said his team isn’t where it wants to be yet, but there’s plenty of time to get there.
Faulk understands fans’ hunger for a bounce-back season after a 2-10 debacle in 2025, but he said he's not sweating the situation.
“Unfortunately, I don’t feel pressure,” Faulk said. “If pressure was something I had to worry about, I would not have taken this job. I feel that I need to make sure these players are in shape, that they take the field prepared and that when they leave this institution, they’re prepared for life. That’s the pressure right there.”
The comfort in the rebuilding process was evident among the players who accompanied Faulk to media day: redshirt junior wide receiver Cam Jefferson and redshirt junior safety Herman Brister.
Here are three Southern takeaways from SWAC media day.
Culture of accountability
One trait players have become familiar with is Faulk’s directness.
“You go up to his office, you can sit down, have a conversation with him,” Jefferson said. “He's gonna be as real as it gets. He's gonna tell you what you need to work on.”
When players aren’t living up to their potential, Faulk tells them that without sugarcoating the message. One of those candid conversations was with running back Trey Holly. Faulk has pushed the SWAC’s fourth-leading rusher to no longer be a “me guy” and instead set an example for his teammates.
“I’m just authentic with them,” Faulk said. “That’s how I was coached, that’s how I like it. At the end of the day, when you tell them the truth, you don’t have to go back on anything.”
Players have gravitated toward that honesty and are using it with each other.
“We got to hold each other accountable,” Brister said. “I think that’s what we kind of lacked last year, accountability. So coach Faulk came in, and that was one of his biggest things: accountability and discipline.”
Chip on shoulder
Reminiscing on the 2025 season isn’t a regular activity at Southern.
After being voted the No. 1 team in the SWAC West a year ago after a conference championship game appearance, the Jaguars finished tied for the worst record in the league.
The sting fuels Brister.
“It’s definitely a chip on my shoulder. I refuse to do what happened again last year,” Brister said. “You can expect a different attitude out of me, and along with a lot of the other guys who were on the team last year. Even the newer guys are like, ‘I don’t want to be part of a 2-10 team.’ We know what’s at stake, and we know we’ve got to come out with a chip on our shoulder regardless.”
Faulk said he has no issue with players drawing from that disappointment.
“That’s good. That matters to me. That means there’s some pride in there,” he said. “You go 2-10, you end on a high note by winning the Bayou Classic, but most of the season was for naught.
“When your returning players take pride in the product they put on the field and say, ‘Man, we don’t like how we represented ourselves,’ then you know you have the right players.”
Starting QB questions
While Faulk believes in naming a starting quarterback before preseason camp, Southern doesn't have one to announce yet.
“I hate going into a fall camp with a quarterback competition,” he said.
The plan is to name a starter hopefully after the first week of August camp. The team has seven quarterbacks on the roster.
“We have some guys in the developmental phase. Some of those quarterbacks play other positions as well,” he said. “So having that athlete position, having a guy with the ability to play quarterback, it helps us. If we get into a game and we’re not moving the ball the way we want to, we’ll be diverse enough to have options. That’s what you want. You’ve got to have options in this game.”
The quarterback room includes two returners in senior Ashton Strother and redshirt freshman Dillon Compton, who did not appear in a game last season. The high school signees are Vashaun Coulon (St. Augustine), Mario Litmer (Highlands High School in Kentucky) and Eddie Mamudi (Blake High School in Florida). The transfers are sophomore Wyatt McCauley from Long Beach (California) City College and junior Christian Johnson from Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College.