Southern coach Marshall Faulk didn’t pull any punches after his Jaguars got absolutely leveled by No. 22 Houston on Saturday, calling the brutal 77-6 blowout nothing more than a “preseason crash-dummy test” for the Cougars. Faulk, a first-year coach, witnessed firsthand the kind of early-season tuneup game that has become a glaring, almost grotesque, tradition in the new era of college football.
Just Call Them “Cannon Fodder”
That wasn’t a game, right? Faulk nailed it when he told reporters, “That wasn’t really a game, that was kind of a preseason crash-dummy test for Houston to work on all the good plays.” It’s a shocking admission but also completely honest. And get this: Southern literally got paid $450,000 to be on the wrong end of that beatdown. For decades, the big-time programs have lined up these matchups against lower-level schools in the early weeks, but what used to be Division I-A versus Division I-AA is now straight-up FBS versus FCS slaughterhouses. Faulk gets it, saying, “Let’s just be real, OK? They’re better than us. We’re FCS, everybody knows what this is, let it be what it is.” It’s a reality check that is tough to swallow, but it’s the truth on the field.
The Portal Has Changed Everything, But Not For The Better
This problem has only gotten worse, and you know why? The transfer portal, hands down. The best young players at FCS schools, the ones who could actually make these games competitive, are now chasing those big bucks and ending up with the FBS programs. Faulk reflected on this from the sidelines, saying he was “literally standing on the sideline thinking to myself, back when let’s say Southern had juniors and seniors . . . this could be a competitive game playing a team like Houston.” It speaks volumes about how much the landscape has shifted, leaving FCS schools struggling to even maintain a semblance of parity against the college football giants.
These “crash-test dummy” games are a stark reminder of the financial and talent divide in college football right now. What it means for teams like Southern is a brutal path, and what it means for fans is watching these lopsided affairs early in the season, knowing the outcome is pretty much decided before kickoff. You gotta wonder if this can keep going on without some kind of change.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Pro Football Talk.
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