Brian SchaibleTue, December 2, 2025 at 1:47 PM UTC·2 min readHow one conversation with Deion Sanders altered Marshall Faulk’s future originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Marshall Faulk didn’t waste time describing what this moment meant. He opened his Southern University introductory press conference with clarity and conviction.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“The pride has never left. So we don’t have to bring it back,” Faulk told the crowd. “It’s always been here.”
But the most revealing moment came when Faulk explained how, after two decades of others urging him to coach, the breakthrough finally happened during his season at Colorado under Coach Prime.
“And when I went to Colorado with Coach Prime, I found it,” Faulk said. “I was like, ‘Wow, there’s something here for me to teach and to make sure that the next generation is playing the game the right way.’”
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Before Faulk reached the podium, Southern officials talked openly about how firmly Deion Sanders steered him toward this opportunity. One recalled speaking with Prime firsthand.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Hey, man, I encouraged Marshall to not only interview for the job, but to accept the job if that’s was in his heart to do,” Sanders told them. He followed it with something even more personal. “Make no mistake about it. It is and I’m going to miss Marshall Faulk.”
Those words carried weight. And Faulk didn’t hide how long the message had followed him.
“All they kept telling me over the past 20 something years that I needed to be coaching,” he said. What changed in Boulder was that it finally resonated. “There’s something here for me to teach,” he repeated, confirming the spark was real.
Now he brings that purpose forward.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Winners win. That’s it. Winners win. And if you’re a winner, then you win,” Faulk said. “It’s definitely…a calling to be coaching.”
And with Coach Prime’s push behind him, Faulk is finally answering that call.
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