Marshall Faulk doesn’t just know Texas Southern’s quarterback.

Southern’s first-year coach actually wished he could’ve kept him in Baton Rouge and away from the transfer portal in January.

“Cam (McCoy) wanted to be here,” Faulk said at Tuesday’s media availability. “I wanted him to be here.”

Now, almost a year later, he is game-planning a defense for former Jaguars starting quarterback Cam’Ron McCoy when Southern faces Texas Southern (1-5, 0-3 SWAC) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Like Southern (3-4, 1-2), the Tigers are coming off a bye week.

While Faulk didn’t coach McCoy, he was familiar with the 6-foot-1, 195-pound dual-threat’s talent. He also knew that McCoy’s desire to play college baseball, as he had at two previous stops, was important to him. That is when the impasse in keeping McCoy at Southern emerged, as Faulk wanted his quarterbacks fighting for the starting job to be fully committed to helping him rebuild the Jaguars program.

“The words that I chose, that I said to Cam was, ‘It will not be fair to you if you want to play baseball and football because right now the other guys that play quarterback, they are going to be here full time,’” Faulk said. “‘They'll have an advantage over you. If you want to play baseball, you might want to look at other opportunities elsewhere.’”

Following that discussion, McCoy, a St. Louis, Missouri native, entered the transfer portal for the third time Jan. 12 ahead of his senior season. He did so before telling Faulk directly, Southern’s coach said. Faulk also mentioned that he has a two-decade relationship with McCoy’s agent, Harold Lewis, who admitted the situation wasn’t handled properly.

“Once he realized what he did, then his agent called me because his agent had one of his junior agents handling Cam,” Faulk said. “So Harold then called me and said, ‘Coach, he messed up.’ I was like, ‘It's too late.’ Like he chose somebody else. He went to the prom with somebody else, and it's too late.”

McCoy announced his commitment to Texas Southern Jan. 25.

Faulk said that after he became coach, he made sure to talk with every player regarding their future at Southern or elsewhere. These conversations happened by position group and individually.

“‘If you are going to enter the portal, please have a conversation with me,’” Faulk said then. “‘Not because I'm trying to keep you. I want to help you. I want to make sure that you're getting a proper offer, that they put it in writing and that nobody pulls the rug from underneath you.’ Because what happens is, a lot of these schools, they tell kids to get in the portal, and then once they're no longer with the school, they then rescind some of the stuff that they say they're going to give them because you don't have somewhere to go.”

At SWAC football media day in August, McCoy was asked why he transferred to Texas Southern by a Jackson, Mississippi-based news channel WJTV.

“Just a place I can call home,” he said. “A place that can get me prepared for the next level. With our pro-style offense, I believe that's the best place I could be right now to get me a step closer to the NFL.”

McCoy started his collegiate career in 2022 at Eastern Michigan, transferred to Jackson State for the 2024 season and played at Southern last year. At both Jackson State and Eastern Michigan, he was listed as a right-handed pitcher on their rosters. McCoy entered the portal a month before Southern’s baseball season started.

Even though Texas Southern is the only team without a Southwestern Athletic Conference win, McCoy is having an improved season. He has completed 56.6% of his passes for 1,107 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions in six games. He also has run for 141 yards and three touchdowns.

During Southern’s 2-10 season, McCoy made five starts and appeared in 10 games. He completed 47.2% of his passes for 698 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. He rushed for 239 yards and four touchdowns.

He also helped lead Southern to a 28-27 victory over Grambling in the 52nd Bayou Classic. In the contest, he threw for 148 yards and a touchdown, completing 6 of 18 passes.