Southern Miss football hires new offensive coordinator

In the days following the national media firestorm ignited by USM’s attempt at hiring Art Briles, Southern Miss has moved quickly to douse those flames with a much less controversial coaching move.

First reported by footballscoop.com, Southern Miss has hired former Arkansas State offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner to fill the same position under Jay Hopson.

Faulkner was let go after the Red Wolves finished 8-5 in 2018, having made other previous stops at Middle Tennessee, Murray State, Central Arkansas, and Valdosta State.

He’ll take over an offense set to return 10 of 11 starters from a year ago, but has quite a ways to go in the run game. Last season, only four FBS teams had a worse yards per carry average than the Golden Eagles while Arkansas State was a top 50 team in that department.

Faulkner replaces Shannon Dawson, who left for Houston in January.