Southern and Alabama State Christen the Birmingham Football Classic With Faulk’s Coaching Debut

Marshall Faulk’s Head-Coaching Debut Headlines the Inaugural Birmingham Football Classic

A Pro Football Hall of Famer makes his head-coaching debut Saturday when Southern University faces Alabama State at historic Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in the inaugural Birmingham Football Classic. Kickoff at Legion Field is set for 2 p.m. Central, with the game airing nationally on ESPNU and the winner claiming the first Mayor’s Cup.

All eyes will be on the Southern sideline, where Marshall Faulk begins his college head-coaching career. The former San Diego State star and one of the most decorated running backs in NFL history was named the 22nd head coach in Southern football history in December, arriving after a 2025 season spent as running backs coach at Colorado. Saturday will be the first game Faulk has ever coached as a head coach at any level, a debut he’ll make against a team coming off one of the better seasons in the SWAC.

Southern is looking to turn the page on a rough 2025, when the Jaguars went 2-10 overall and 1-7 in SWAC play. They did close the season on a high note, however, beating rival Grambling State 28-27 in the Bayou Classic. Faulk inherits a roster that returns two preseason All-SWAC selections in running back Trey Holly, who rushed for 904 yards and nine touchdowns on 169 carries (5.3 yards per carry) a year ago, and safety Herman Brister III, who racked up 84 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and nine pass breakups.

Alabama State arrives in considerably better form. The Hornets went 10-2 overall and 7-1 in the SWAC in 2025, finishing tied for first in the conference’s East Division, and they’ve won two straight in this series. Head coach Eddie Robinson Jr. is 30-16 overall in his fifth season leading his alma mater and 21-11 in SWAC play, and he enters 2026 as the winningest active coach by percentage in program history among those with more than a handful of seasons at the helm. Robinson, a linebacker at Alabama State from 1988 to 1992, was a second-round pick of the Houston Oilers in the 1992 NFL Draft and went on to an NFL career that also included stops with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tennessee Oilers and Titans, and the Buffalo Bills, reaching Super Bowl XXXIV with Tennessee. Nicknamed “Steady Eddie” during his playing days, Robinson finished his pro career with 850 tackles, 23 sacks and six interceptions, and he was a two-time All-SWAC linebacker and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year in both 1990 and 1991 as a player at Alabama State. He’s since been inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame, the Alabama State Sports Hall of Fame and the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

Robinson brought in a new offensive coordinator this offseason in Tony Hull, who arrives after coordinating the offense at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, while Billy Gresham returns for a fifth season as defensive coordinator after nine years on the Hornets’ staff. The unit they’ll build on produced 5,526 yards of total offense against 4,317 allowed in 2025, a season in which Alabama State’s only two losses came on the road, at UAB and at Jackson State. Quarterback Andrew Body led the passing game, completing 113 of 160 attempts for 1,770 yards and 20 touchdowns against a single interception, with Te’Sean Smoot also seeing significant time under center. Running back Jamarie Hostzclaw paced the ground game with 693 yards and seven touchdowns, while receiver Jalen Jones led all pass-catchers with 51 receptions for 1,167 yards and nine scores. Marcus Harris II led the team in scoring with 96 points, and kicker Andrew Abu-Akel connected on 9 of 11 field-goal attempts, an 81.8 percent clip.

The two programs know each other well, even if Saturday’s meeting is a fresh start for both benches. Southern holds a 30-14 edge in the all-time series, but Alabama State has won the last two meetings, including a 30-7 win on Sept. 6, 2025, in Baton Rouge. Neither of Saturday’s head coaches was on the sideline for that game, adding to the sense that both programs are opening a new chapter at the same time and in the same building.

Legion Field itself adds to the occasion. Known as the “Old Gray Lady,” the stadium has hosted more than a century of Southern football history in Alabama, and it now becomes the home of a new event in the Birmingham Football Classic and the Mayor’s Cup that accompanies it. Alabama State returns home to Montgomery next, hosting Lane College on Sept. 6, while Southern’s debut season under Faulk continues to take shape from here.