The tear former LSU running back Kevin Faulk did his best to blink back slowly trickled down his right cheek and paused as if to allow everyone to share his private pain.
The National Football Foundation announced Monday that Faulk had been named to the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022.
He got the news last Thursday when he received a gift box from the CFHOF that contained a football and was asked to keep his election a secret until Monday’s official announcement.
You could call it just another chapter in the storied life of the 45-year-old Faulk, a kid from Carencro just outside of Lafayette who became LSU’s all-time rusher, played his entire 13-year NFL career with the New England Patriots, won three Super Bowl rings, retired, returned to his Louisiana roots and became running backs coach at his alma mater.
But actually, his latest honor is not merely another line in his football resume, but rather the best possible salve to temporarily fill the hole in his heart after his 19-year old daughter Kevione Faulk died suddenly Sept. 13 on the Monday following LSU’s home opener.
“Times 20, times 20,” replied an emotional Faulk when asked during his Tuesday press conference at LSU if the CFHOF honor lifted his shaken spirit. “You always say you’ve got to have faith and having faith means nothing happens to you but for you.”
Becoming the 11th LSU player or coach elected to the CFHOF also eased the pain of Faulk not being retained on the Tigers’ coaching staff by new head coach Brian Kelly.
Faulk joined the LSU staff as director of player development in 2018 and was promoted to running backs coach in 2021 by former head coach Ed Orgeron. But Kelly’s first staff hire was Frank Wilson, LSU’s former running backs coach from 2010-15 and Faulk was let go.
“It hurt,” Faulk said of being fired. “It (coaching at LSU) meant a lot because I wasn’t going anywhere, I was loyal. I’m always a Tiger.”
Faulk will forever remain one of the greatest and most popular LSU football players in history. He was a five-star prospect in the recruiting class of 1995, rated as one of the best offensive playmakers in the nation. He was a Class 5A two-time state MVP for Carencro as a dual-threat quarterback with elite running skills program averaging 8.2 yards per high school carry.
Since LSU had just suffered six straight losing seasons including the last four under Curley Hallman, there certainly wasn’t any reason for Faulk to stay home under new Tigers’ coach Gerry DiNardo other than blind loyalty.
“I was young, kind of naïve and did not understand life at that time,” Faulk recalled. “But in any big decision that I make, I always sit down by myself and ask God to give me a sign, which direction do I need to go.
“In that situation, it was my oldest daughter being born the day I got back from (an official visit to) Florida. There could be no bigger sign for me than that. Whenever she was born and I held her I knew, I knew I wasn’t going too far.”
Faulk’s LSU stats are unrivaled. He led the Tigers all four seasons in rushing, topped the SEC in rushing as a junior in 1997 and a senior in 1998 when he also led the league in scoring.
He still holds LSU career marks for rushing yards (4,577), rushing touchdowns (46), all-purpose yards (6,833, also the SEC record) and 100-yard rushing games (22). He ranks fourth in the conference in career rushing yards, is tied for third in career rushing touchdowns and was the first player in LSU history to average more than 100 yards per game during his entire career.
Faulk led the Tigers to two top 15 final rankings and three bowl victories, but it wasn’t enough to keep DiNardo from being fired at the end of the 1999 season.
“Kevin was very smart on the field, he knew every position,” said DiNardo, 69, who has been an analyst on the Big Ten Conference network since its inception in 2007. “He understood the game, conceptually, not just his position. He was mature beyond his years academically, he graduated in three years. He took care of business.”
Faulk talked DiNardo for 15 minutes on Monday after the Hall of Fame announcement went public and thanked him.
“He (DiNardo) wasn’t favored by many guys on the team, even my closest friends,” Faulk said, “but that’s what I kind of liked about him. He had a different leadership style that he stuck to. It might have burned him in the end but he stuck to it. It got him some wins.”
Faulk will be officially inducted into the CFHOF at the annual National Football Foundation awards dinner on Dec. 6.
Until then, he’s just taking life a day at a time. He’d like to coach again but no opportunities have been forthcoming, though he said he’ll likely be training individual athletes.
Through all of the heartache he and his family have suffered since September, Faulk has reflected and said he’s discovered who he is.
“I know what I need to do next – be with my family,” Faulk said. “My family has always allowed me to be me. It’s time to be there for them.”
