The mad rush of football has settled down for Marshall Faulk. Instead of tucking in the ball, Faulk is toting the books.
"I'm carrying 18 hours," he said Tuesday, one day after the spring semester began at San Diego State.In between classes, the sophomore picked up the AT&T Season-Long Distance Award for leading major college football with a 163-yard rushing average last fall.
Faulk, the 1992 Heisman Trophy runner-up and a two-time All-American, also discussed for the first time his decision to remain in school. There had been speculation, particularly among television commentators, that Faulk would fight the NFL's rule that prevents second-year players from declaring for the draft.
"School is a priority. That's just the way it is," said Faulk.
"Me and my mom and a couple of other people talked it over and my mom wanted me to stay," Faulk said. "I really wanted to stay. I've only been here two years, I've made a couple of good friends here. The team is growing and I feel I'm just not where I need to be at physically and mentally to enter into the NFL. I thought it would be best for me to come back to school.
"It was pretty much already thought out probably before the year had started."
Despite all the distractions last fall, Faulk pulled a B average in public administration. "I surprised myself," he said.
Faulk will have much less pressure on him this spring but anticipates a few distractions anyway.
"It's freer, but I have a feeling that I'm going to end up traveling. I'm going to go to all different type of All-American things," he said. "The thing I'm going to try to do is keep my head in school. In spring you figure you'd do better in school, but you end up doing worse in school because you get too much time to go do things."
Faulk sprained his right knee early in a 45-41 loss to Fresno State that cost the Aztecs the Western Athletic Conference title. The next week Miami routed SDSU 63-17 and Hurricanes quarterback Gino Torretta went on to win the Heisman.
Faulk said he doesn't regret missing that game.
"I feel that it was a smart decision that me and the doctors and the insurance people made," he said.
"My knee is doing great," Faulk added. "I'm rehabing maybe three or four times a week. I play basketball, jog; I do just about everything I used to do."
Faulk has missed nearly six full games in two seasons, including 31/2 during his freshman year after he suffered two broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
"The thing I feel with injuries is, if you can come back and do just as good a job as you did right before you left, I feel you overcame adversity," Faulk said. "It didn't disappoint me at all.
"I got the rib injury, sat out two or three weeks, came back and produced. This year it just happened at the end of the year and I didn't have a chance to come back and show that I was ready."
San Diego State, a disappointing 5-5-1 in 1992, opens the 1993 season at home against Division I-AA Cal State-Northridge on Sept. 4.