lane kiffin

Move over, Lane Kiffin?

Former NFL Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk was also hired by a college program in Baton Rouge, La., over the weekend.

But not by the school that’s complicit in all kinds of disruption and consternation because of the coach it hired. That would be SEC power Louisiana State hiring Kiffin away from Mississippi.

This would be HBCU Southern University, which ended a nine-game losing streak with a season-ending victory over Grambling State in the rivals’ storied Bayou Classic on Saturday.

“Coach Faulk to take the reins. Welcome to Jaguar Nation,” Southern University athletics wrote in a post on X.

Faulk joins a growing roster of current and former HBCU coaches who enjoyed distinguished NFL careers.

In the last year, DeSean Jackson was hired by Delaware State and Michael Vick at Norfolk State. Sean Gilbert is the head coach at Livingston College.

Eddie George was the coach at Tennessee State, Greg Ellis at Texas College and Cris Dishman at Texas Southern. The tradition goes back to Super Bowl-winning quarterback Doug Williams coaching at Morehouse and Grambling.

Although Faulk, 52, doesn’t have a long resume as a coach, he makes up for it in accolades as a player.

Faulk, whose No. 28 jersey was retired by the Rams, was the NFL offensive rookie of the year, a three-time offensive player of the year, the 2000 MVP, a six-time All-Pro and a seven-time Pro Bowl pick.

He began coaching just this season, serving as running backs coach at Colorado under Deion Sanders — another coach who cut his teeth at an HBCU, Jackson State.

Faulk made it sound as if he wouldn’t have coached under just anyone.

“Let me say this in the nicest way: I’m not a regular dude,” he told ESPN. “If I’m going to work for somebody, or coach under somebody, it’s got to be somebody.”

And on Monday in his introductory press conference as head coach at Southern, it seems that Faulk wouldn’t have left Colorado for just anyone, either. He credited a couple of notable Southern alumni — “the catalyst of me being here” — with getting him to take the chance: his former teammate and fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Aeneas Williams and former NBA standout and coach Avery Johnson, both in attendance.

They were happy to do their part, with Johnson thanking everyone who had a hand in the decision, later saying it is a “pivotal moment.”

“I graduated from Southern in 1988,” he said of New Orleans native Faulk, “and I have never been this excited about a football coach in the hiring of Marshall Faulk.”

For his part, Faulk nodded to what might have been. “I could have stayed at Colorado. I was comfortable. But I’ve never done well in life when comfortable. … And I’m not gonna lie to you,” he said, according to USA Today. “This is uncomfortable, and I like it.”

And he made a promise during the conference streamed live on Monday on YouTube by HBCU Gameday: “There’s no fear in me. Winners win.”

After five seasons with the Colts, Faulk helped lead the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” attack to a Super Bowl XXXIV victory in January 2000. The following season, Faulk was named NFL MVP.

Those were the St. Louis Rams. Faulk retired in 2005, long before the team returned to Los Angeles in 2015.

Williams noted that Faulk has more to offer than his own playing accolades, that he’s one of the smartest people he’s played with.

“He’s been taught by the best,” he said. “Many don’t know that when Marshall played at San Diego State that Coach Sean Payton was his offensive coordinator. He was mentored by Mike Martz, our head coach. … He’s a teacher.”

Williams continued: “He’s excited. I’m excited. And the Jaguar nation should be excited. … Southern is getting ready to move.”

Deputy Editor Dawn M. Burkes contributed to this report.

Lane Kiffin has left Mississippi to become the new coach at Louisiana State. But not before getting some key advice from his former USC boss, he has revealed. Key advice that also came indirectly from his late father.

More than two decades ago, Kiffin helped USC win two national championships as an assistant coach under Pete Carroll.

And long before that, Carroll and Kiffin’s father, renowned defensive coach Monte Kiffin, worked together on several coaching staffs at the college and NFL levels.

Kiffin has said that he wished his father, who died last year at age 84, was around to advise him as he struggled with the decision over his latest career move.

On Sunday just before boarding a private jet from Oxford, Miss., to Baton Rogue, La., Kiffin said he ended up receiving that fatherly advice from his former mentor, current Las Vegas Raiders coach Carroll.

“Coach Carroll said, ‘Your dad would tell you to go, man, take the shot,’” Kiffin said to ESPN’s Marty Smith. “‘Take the shot. You accomplished a lot here.’”

Kiffin was 55-19 in six seasons at Ole Miss, including an 11-1 record and an expected invite to the College Football Playoff this season. While Kiffin has said he had hoped to continue coaching the Rebels in the postseason, defensive coordinator Pete Golding will serve as head coach going forward.

Carroll and Monte Kiffin were both members of the Arkansas coaching staff in 1977 (two years after Lane Kiffin was born) — Carroll as a graduate assistant and the elder Kiffin as defensive coordinator. Monte Kiffin’s only head coaching job was at North Carolina State from 1980 to 1982, and Carroll was his defensive coordinator all three seasons.

Their careers would cross paths from 1984 to 1990 on the coaching staffs of the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets. One of the architects of the successful “Tampa 2 defense,” Monte Kiffin achieved his greatest notoriety as defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1996 to 2008, winning a Super Bowl following the 2002 season.

“Of all the great coaches I have worked with, none would have a more fundamental impact on the tactical side of my coaching than Monte Kiffin,” Carroll wrote in his 2010 book, “Win Forever.”

Carroll added: “His great contribution to my career, however, came early on — long before I ever entered the NFL— when he impressed upon me a simple but powerful belief: ‘In order to be successful, you must have a consistent philosophy. If you change who you are from year to year,’” he explained, ‘you’re never going to be great at anything.’”

Monte Kiffin, left, served as son Lane Kiffin’s defensive coordinator at USC from 2010 to 2012.

(Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In his first season as USC coach in 2001, Carroll hired Lane Kiffin as his tight ends coach. Kiffin was promoted to receivers coach in 2002 and eventually had passing game coordinator, recruiting coordinator and offensive coordinator added to his duties before leaving after the 2006 season.

After two seasons as head coach of the Oakland Raiders and one as head coach at Tennessee, Kiffin returned to USC to replace Carroll, who had taken the job as coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Kiffin was 28-15 with the Trojans. He was fired five games into his fourth season, hours after a lopsided loss to Arizona State.

Kiffin went on to become an assistant on coach Nick Saban‘s staff at Alabama before head coaching stints at Florida Atlantic and Mississippi. On many of his coaching stops, Kiffin hired his father as part of his staff, including at Tennessee and USC as defensive coordinator, Florida Atlantic as a defensive assistant and Mississippi as a player personnel analyst.

On Saturday, as he weighed his options between Mississippi and LSU, Kiffin took to X and posted a photo featuring a sketch of his father giving a thumbs-up sign.

“Wish I could hug you right now and you could guide me,” Kiffin wrote to his dad. “Love ya.”

In a way, Monte Kiffin did end up providing guidance. Kiffin told Smith that he thought back to his father’s funeral and all the people that reached out “from around all those different spots — N.C. State, all the different spots he coached.”

“They said he was able to impact them and how much that meant to them,” Kiffin said. “And so I’ve really strived since that day to really try to impact people and help people through life, through my journey. So I just prayed a lot and made a family decision and hopefully get a chance to go, you know, impact a whole new set of people.”