Marshall Faulk is setting out to build a recruiting pipeline strong enough to challenge LSU for Louisiana talent. The Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Deion Sanders staffer has taken over as Southern University’s new head coach on a three-year deal worth $400,000 per year. And from the moment he signed, Faulk made it clear that his focus is on making Southern a real force in Baton Rouge and a serious player in the state’s recruiting race.

To prove he is all about that action, Faulk recently visited Central Louisiana to swap notes with high school coaches and community leaders. While hanging out at the OakWing Golf Club in Alexandria, he told local station KALB 5 News that he is setting up a tight network of local “eyes and ears.”

“Obviously today is a golf day, but really a lot of family and a lot of friends are up in this area. These are my eyes, my eyes for the talent in this area. We’re aggressive about recruiting the state of Louisiana, so when there’s good talent and players coming up here, we’re hanging out with some of the people that I know, just making sure they’re the eyes and ears that we need to let us know when there’s talent in this area, to help us grow the rich history of football at Southern University,” Faulk told KALB 5.

Louisiana has produced elite high school talent that often stays in-state. Even though it has a much smaller population of roughly 4.6 or 4.7 million people compared to giant states like Texas (30+ million), it produces elite, NFL-caliber players at an unreal rate.

Year after year, college scouts from all over the country flock to the state to get their hands on Louisiana stars, which is why the state ranks in the top five nationally with around 60 players on active NFL kickoff rosters.

One of the primary reasons Lane Kiffin reportedly took the LSU job is the program’s access to in-state blue-chip recruits. Since LSU is the only big powerhouse college football program in Louisiana with football-obsessed boosters, they make sure that in-state recruiting is their number one priority.

According to 1130 Tigers, on average, local Louisiana kids make up 50% to 60% of LSU’s entire recruiting class each year, including 56% of their 2026 class. No other state maintains this level of in-state recruiting dominance.

When it comes to the top 10 players in the state, LSU usually locks down about 70% to 80% of them. So far, Lane Kiffin has landed a couple of them already, such as Lamar Brown (the nation’s No. 1 player from the 2026 class), five-star Richard Anderson, and others. The Tigers’ recruiting team has been working extra hours to win the pledges of the top in-state talents from the 2027 class.

Needless to say, Kiffin relies on keeping those local stars at home to survive the brutality of the SEC.

But can Faulk step into the ring and break up LSU’s monopoly on the region?

It’s not like Marshall Faulk plans to overthrow Kiffin, but he’s aiming to bridge the gap between LSU’s powerhouse SEC platform and Southern’s rich HBCU tradition, at least when it comes to three-star or lower-rated in-state players.

LSU has a giant SEC platform, millions in NIL money, crazy nice facilities, and games on national TV every week. Even though Southern’s football program is pretty well-equipped, they can’t compete, especially when it comes to financial packages. However, he’s giving players a shot to play at an HBCU rather than sitting on an SEC bench for three years.