Two thoughts on Alabama State’s win over Marshall Faulk, Southern

Alabama State pulled off a comeback victory over Marshall Faulk and the Southern University Jaguars in the Birmingham Football Classic on Saturday afternoon to kick off the football season.

Southern University looked impressive in Faulk’s first game as head coach, pulling out a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter, but Alabama State quickly fought to regain control of the game and ultimately prevailed.

Here are two thoughts on the game regarding both Alabama State and Southern University.

Southern looked better than expected

Southern University looks way better than I thought they would. At the beginning of the year, coming out of Media Day, I was concerned that Fox’s start to his tenure with Southern would be strenuous.

Given the fact that Marshall Faulk seemingly hadn’t settled on a starting quarterback, as well as how vague he was in media availabilities, it seemed like Southern was going to be a team in disarray. It looked like a team with a first-year head coach in a new system, one that might be a little better than the Terrence Graves era but still bound to have its struggles.

Instead, they came out of the gate swinging, with Christian Johnson as the starting quarterback. Johnson transferred to Southern University from Hutchinson Community College, where he was part of the 2024 NJCAA Division I national championship team.

He put up impressive numbers at Hutchinson, throwing for 3,103 passing yards and rushing for 907 yards, with 42 total touchdowns across his two seasons there. His resume heading into the game made it clear he earned the nod.

Johnson proved to be a solid QB1 for Southern, helping them secure a 14-3 lead early in the game. He showed his ability to run the ball and his ability as a passer, and I think that dual-threat ability is going to be essential for the up-tempo offense Marshall Faulk is looking to build.

We saw other names step up in the offense outside of Trey Holly, such as Daejawn Smith. Holly didn’t put up the eye-popping numbers he normally does, but he was still a productive part of the offense, both on the ground and through the air, getting the majority of the snaps at running back.

Southern is going to be way better than I thought they would be, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they measure up in the SWAC under Marshall Faulk, especially with some tough matchups still on their schedule.

Alabama State started off rough but stuck the landing

Alabama State’s offense returns several key contributors, such as Andrew Body and Jamarie Hoytzclaw To start the game, it looked like the offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Eddie Robinson Jr. and his coaching staff appeared to be really conservative in how he was running the offense, and it wasn’t as free-flowing as we saw a year ago. I believe that allowed Southern to stake out an early advantage.

But we saw the lights flicker on for Alabama State’s offense once Southern went up 14-3, as they immediately answered with a touchdown, and we saw Andrew Body featured more in the attack. The two-headed monster of Body and Hostzclaw in the backfield is going to be pivotal.

Hostzclaw is one of the better running backs in the SWAC and has proven his ability to make plays, so much so that in certain stretches Southern simply wasn’t able to contain him. And Andrew Body is still electric in the run game, even breaking off an 18-yard run early in the contest. The threat of Hostzclaw breaking off a big run, combined with Andrew Body keeping the ball and navigating his way down the field, is a real problem for opposing defenses, and it validates their ranking as the projected top team in the SWAC East out of SWAC Media Day.

But as the season goes on, I want to see a little more consistency from their offensive unit. And I believe we will, because this is week zero, and it appears that programs around the HBCU nation are still trying to figure out both their rosters and their winning formula.

The Alabama State we saw today is not the Alabama State we’ll see play Jackson State and Prairie View A&M in back-to-back weeks leading into Thanksgiving weekend. I still believe they’re championship contenders, but there are certainly some things they’ll need to work on.