In his first season with Southern University, Marshall Faulk has been very candid about his thoughts. He made headlines with a comment during SWAC Media Day about the FBS being the next level for HBCU players, and not the NFL. Faulk's latest comment, following the team's 50-31 victory over Louisiana Christian University on Saturday, could signal that the Pro Football Hall of Fame running back-turned-coach is going a bit too far.

Although the Jaguars had a phenomenal outing, Faulk was perplexed by special-teams issues, including a surprise onside kick, a penalty on opening kickoff, and a mishandled extra point. This led Faulk to be a bit too candid, often musing about firing or cutting players, as would happen in professional leagues. This made Faulk a bit too candid, often musing about firing or cutting players, as would happen in professional leagues.

“I mean, if this was a league where I could cut and fire players, I would. You know? I'm just being truthful to you. Like, literally we practice that every damn day. We talk about it. We were talking about it before it happened, and it's just, uh, it, it, it has to be a concern and a priority to the guys on the front line, and it's not. And guess what? We're gonna see it again. We're gonna see it again. If I was playing us, I would do it on the first kickoff. Like, literally.”

Faulk's comments drift a little bit past tough love and more into an insult to the players. He says he wants to develop Southern University. In the first few games of the season, they have been far from perfect, but they've shown flashes of brilliance that should excite Jaguar fans. Between the emergence of Christian Johnson as the clear QB1 and an improving running back room behind former LSU standout Trei Holiday, Southern is very well poised to make noise in the SWAC West sooner rather than later.

So why do those positives seem to be overlooked, and even when Faulk highlights what should improve, why is it so harsh? So why do those positives seem to be overlooked, and even when FOG points out what should improve, why is it so harsh? I get that in sports, athletes are taught to embrace tough coaching, and coaches are incentivized to be tough on their players to build resilience and strengthen their intestinal fortitude.

But when do we consider these comments throwing players under the bus? When does Faulk accept that perfection won't come immediately? It's a process that will take time as the season progresses; what Southern is in Week 3 might not be who they are in early November, with the Bayou Classic looming.

That's what concerns me about how his tenure will go in this new era of college athletics: Is Marshall Faulk trying to build a sustainable winner that can compete in the SWAC year after year, or is he trying to go the Deion Sanders route: a quick rebuild into a SWAC title winner and a celebratory participant, then leave to go to a Power Five program?

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That's where his comments about the Power Five being seen as the next level for HBCU players get interesting. In those comments during SWAC Media Day, he emphasized developing players to ultimately go and secure financial empowerment and institutions with larger NIL budgets.

“I believe that the next level is no longer the NFL,” Faulk said during SWAC Football Media Day, according to HBCU Gameday. “We get poached by the FBS. They want our players…They have an opportunity to maybe go somewhere and make good money while they're in college. The game has changed. The landscape of college football has changed.”

In those comments, he emphasized preparing those student-athletes for the next level, suggesting a level of development common in college athletics.

“I believe that we as coaches, we have to look at it for what it is and start preparing these kids and coaching them and making sure they have the capacity to move on to the next level,” he added.

His abandoning that development philosophy the moment things go awry isn't an encouraging sign for the Jaguars' outlook. Faulk is a first-year coach and will ultimately grow and develop as he serves in the position, but, supposed tough love or not, the comments about “cutting and firing players” if he could just seem like a bridge too far. Could be a red flag should problems persist during this tenure in the future