Southern University’s football team is headed back to Tiger Stadium in 2028, and this time there’s a lot more than just a lopsided scoreboard to talk about.
LSU formally added Southern to its 2028 non-conference schedule on Tuesday, with the game set for Sept. 9 in Baton Rouge. It’ll be the second all-time meeting between the in-state programs. The first one came in 2022, when LSU won 65-17, but the score wasn’t the only thing people remember from that day.
Southern’s Human Jukebox marching band went viral during that game, especially when they played Cameo’s Neck in Tiger Stadium. The performance got national attention and became the kind of moment that outlasts the final score. Fans still bring it up. It was that good.
Southern didn’t let the loss wreck its season either. The Jaguars rebounded to win the SWAC West and made it to the SWAC Championship Game, where they faced Jackson State and Deion Sanders. That turned out to be Sanders’s last conference game before he left for Colorado. So that year had some history baked into it, even beyond the band meme.
By the time 2028 rolls around, Southern will look different on the sideline. Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk will be entering his third season as head coach. He took over the program in 2026. That hire alone shifted the conversation around Southern’s football future.
Faulk and LSU head coach Lane Kiffin already have a connection. They worked together at LSU’s coaching clinic back in April, and Kiffin talked openly about how impressed he was with Faulk’s transition into coaching. Kiffin said he didn’t really know Faulk personally before that, but he remembered watching him play in the NFL.
“I was at the game when they beat the Bucks to go to the Super Bowl in St. Louis,” Kiffin said. “My dad was the coordinator at the Bucs so I was there at the game. Greatest show on turf.”
That kind of respect from Kiffin matters, and it gives this 2028 matchup an extra layer. It’s not just LSU against an in-state FCS opponent. It’s a Hall of Famer trying to build something at an HBCU against a coach who has won at multiple Power Five programs.
The game itself is still more than two years away, but schedules fill up fast. For Southern, it’s another chance to measure itself against an SEC opponent. For players on that roster, it’s a stage to show what they can do against top-tier talent. And for fans, it’s a return to a game that already gave them one of the best band moments college football has seen in years.
Leave a Comment