Latest news with #Faulk
USA Today
10 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Auburn EDGE Keldric Faulk is a top-10 defensive end in EA Sports College Football 26
Auburn edge rusher Keldric Faulk makes top-ten defensive players in EA Sports College Football Big things are expected from Auburn edge rusher Keldric Faulk for the 2025 season. In the newest edition of the EA Sports College Football video game, he is listed as one of the top ten defensive players. He ranks No. 9 with a 93 overall rating. He is one of five players from the SEC to make the top ten. The other players from the Southeastern Conference are Anthony Hill Jr. (Texas), Dylan Stewart (South Carolina), Jermod McCoy (Tennessee), and Colin Simmons (Texas). EA Sports College Football 26 will be released on July 10th. Faulk was second on the team last season with seven sacks behind Jalen McLeod who had eight. With McLeod now gone, Faulk will have to be the leader on the team in getting to the quarterback. If this season works out for Faulk, as many experts believe, he could be a first round draft pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. ESPN's Matt Miller recently tabbed Faulk going No. 13 to the Dallas Cowboys in next year's draft. He will need help among the Tigers defensive front this season to eclipse his numbers from a year ago. The EA Sports video game is not the only one who sees Faulk as a top ten player. Earlier in the off-season, Pro Football Focus ranked Faulk at No. 5 in their top ten edge defenders. He has shown great improvement each year he has played at Auburn. He was selected to the All-SEC Freshman Team after the 2023 season with 36 tackles and one sack. The hope for Auburn fans will be he continues his yearly improvement and is a key part of a special season for the Tigers. Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__
USA Today
a day ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Auburn EDGE projected to land with Dallas Cowboys in ESPN's latest NFL mock draft
Faulk's draft stock continues to rise as the 2025 season draws closer. Keldric Faulk's NFL draft stock continues to rise as the 2025 season draws closer. The talented Auburn pass rusher received another first-round projection this week as ESPN's Matt Miller pairs Faulk with the Dallas Cowboys at No. 13 overall in his latest mock draft released Monday. Although the draft order for next year's draft will not be revealed until after the 2025 season concludes, Miller used the latest data from ESPN's Football Power Index to build his mock draft. Miller feels that Faulk would mesh nicely with linebacker Micah Parsons to give Dallas a speedy pass rush game. The Cowboys enter the season still needing to sign Micah Parsons to a long-term extension. While they signed Dante Fowler Jr. this offseason, Dallas needs more on the edge after passing on the position in the 2025 draft. At 6-foot-6, 288 pounds, Faulk is a versatile player who can play along the defensive line, from 3-technique to a true outside edge. He can generate pressure from inside and out, as evidenced by his 24 edge pressures and five interior pressures last season. Faulk's size and strength would be fun to pair with Parsons' speed. Faulk ranks No. 16 in Pro Football Focus' Big Board ahead of the 2026 NFL draft after taking a giant step forward in development last season. He improved his season grade from 67.5 as a freshman to 83.8 as a sophomore, and drastically increased his numbers in snaps, sacks, and quarterback hurries. PFF sees high draft potential in Faulk after he finished in the top 20 in several categories last season. His 83.8 overall PFF grade was more than 16 points better than what he posted as a freshman and is the fifth-best mark of any returning Power Four edge rusher. The former four-star recruit is at his best in the run game, tying for eighth among Power Four edges with 23 run-defense stops last year. Faulk is still developing moves as a pass rusher, but he did show improvement there with nine sacks and 45 pressures last year. Both those figures stood in the top-20 of the Power Four. Faulk's first-round chatter is music to Auburn's ears, as the program has not produced a first-rounder since 2020. Its current five-year drought matches its drought from 2015-19 for the program's longest since 2000. Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__
USA Today
21-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Auburn Tigers football: Keldric Faulk 2025 player profile
Auburn EDGE rusher Keldric Faulk is poised for first-round greatness in 2025. Auburn football's NFL draft first-round drought extended to five years in 2025. However, Auburn EDGE rusher Keldric Faulk could change Auburn's luck in next year's draft. USA TODAY Sports feels that Faulk could go as early as No. 6 overall in the 2026 NFL draft, where he would head to the Carolina Panthers. Other outlets, including CBS Sports, also view Faulk as a first-rounder for next year's draft. It is easy to see why Faulk is regarded as a first-round pick. He has participated in every game of his two-year Auburn career, making starts in the last 20 games at defensive end. Faulk is as solid a pass rusher as he is a run-stopper. Over his career, Faulk has created 65 quarterback pressures with 46 hurries and eight sacks. He has also finished second behind Jalen McLeod in stopping the run with a 83.4 run-defense grade according to Pro Football Focus. Following McLeod's departure, Faulk is poised to be the Tigers' top pass rusher on this season's unit. Here's a look at Keldric Faulk's 2025 player profile. Keldric Faulk's personal profile Keldric Faulk as a recruit Keldric Faulk's career numbers Keldric Faulk's PFF report card The best photos of Keldric Faulk's career Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hope Florida Foundation paid woman who then posted video praising charity
TALLAHASSEE – The Hope Florida Foundation paid a Lakeland physical therapy assistant $588 in March. Days later, a social media video popped up of the woman praising how the organization tied to First Lady Casey DeSantis helped her out of poverty. 'I had no high school diploma,' said Ginger Faulk, a 35-year-old mother of two, describing her circumstances when she contacted Hope Florida in 2021. 'I couldn't pay the rent or put food on the table, until I met my Hope Navigator.' Hope Florida gave her the resources to get an education, Faulk said in the video, adding that she graduated from college with honors 'as a medical practitioner.' The curious payment to Faulk — disclosed among other foundation expenditures in response to a public records request from the Orlando Sentinel — adds to the swirl of questions surrounding the state's Hope Florida program and the Hope Florida Foundation, its associated non-profit. DeSantis administration officials have claimed the program has helped 30,000 people off welfare but have provided scant details about who and how. An earlier report by the Sentinel about the experience of another Hope Florida client, touted in an online magazine, found the claims did not match what the woman said actually happened, overstating the help she was given. Reached by phone, Faulk declined to comment for this story. The Hope Florida Foundation and Department of Children and Families, which oversees the foundation, did not respond to questions about the money sent to Faulk either. Faulk's video was released just as Gov. Ron DeSantis was pushing the Legislature to make Hope Florida an official part of the state government, instead of a loosely affiliated program across more than a dozen different state agencies without a budget of its own. Within weeks, that effort sparked a legislative inquiry into the program. The inquiry, led by a House committee led by Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, soon prompted controversy when it was revealed that $10 million from a $67 million Medicaid settlement meant to pay back Florida for prescription drug overpayments instead landed in the coffers of the Hope Florida Foundation. That money was then quickly redistributed to two nonprofits that in turn gave millions to a DeSantis-backed political committee set up to defeat Amendment 3, the ballot measure that would have made recreational pot legal. The March payment was the second time in two years Faulk received money from the Hope Florida Foundation. She also was given $392 in May 2024. And she appeared to be on the administration's radar. DeSantis mentioned her in his state-of-the-state speech at the opening of the 60-day legislative session in March, using her story to pitch his Hope Florida legislation, which would ultimately be rejected by lawmakers. And last year the DeSantises honored Faulk as a Florida Hero at the governor's mansion. The Florida Heroes brochure said she was a hero for using Hope Florida to get short-term rental and utility assistance from a local charity so she could focus on her education and career goals, pass her GED and enroll in a CareerSource healthcare program. Without knowing why the foundation paid her, Faulk's video casts some doubt over her motive for providing a testimonial, said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University. 'There is nothing wrong with a recipient expressing gratitude,' Jarvis said. 'But if she was paid, as a paid spokesperson, that should be disclosed.' The payments to Faulk are among the dozens of unexplained payments listed in the foundation's $550,000 worth of expenditures made since its inception in August of 2023. The list of payments provided to the Sentinel did not include any details about the purpose of the spending. The largest single payment was $100,000 to Florida Emergency Management Assistance Inc., also known as the Florida Disaster Foundation, a direct support organization for the Division of Emergency Management created in 2023. Two Panhandle resorts owned by the same company received the next largest amount of money — $55,500 to the St. Joe Resort and $40,000 to Camp Creek Inn. The largest collective expense was the distribution of $1,000 bonuses to each of the 156 state workers who had been reassigned as Hope Navigators. Another half dozen state employees received bonuses of $2,500 each. Mallory McManus, the former deputy chief of staff at DCF, received $7,456. The Hope Florida Foundation and DCF did not respond to questions about these expenditures, either. 'Those expenditures need more clarity and detail,' Jarvis said. The larger sums raise the most questions, including what services those companies provided to receive those funds and how they spent it, Jarvis said. Also, he asked, what is the foundation doing with the remaining $1.5 million? 'What are the plans for that?' Prior to receiving its now controversial $10 million donation from the Medicaid provider, the foundation had only raised $2 million and paid out the $550,000, according to a spreadsheet the Orlando Sentinel received. The records only identify the amount paid, the date and the recipient. Requests for supporting documentation that might explain the purpose of the donations are still pending.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tackling history was no ordinary task for future BYU professor
Marshall Faulk carries the ball during game against UCLA on Nov. 26, 1992, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. | Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press The students in his classes wouldn't know it, but back when BYU English professor Frank Christiansen was finding his own way, as a wide-eyed, college kid in Provo, he ran right into history, or at least a football player destined to make some — and paid a painful price. 'Him coming through the line, and the line parting like the Red Sea with me sitting there eight yards deep,' is what Christiansen told the 'Y's Guys' podcast about his encounter with San Diego State running back Marshall Faulk. 'Given how quick he was, the thing you would expect was that he would have tried to side-step me, but I hit him head on.' Frank Christiansen from his playing days as a student at BYU | BYU Photo Faulk was just 5-foot-10 and 211 pounds and he ran with the electric charge of a lightning bolt and for a moment, Christiansen, a 6-2, 205-pound weakside safety at BYU, wasn't quite sure what hit him. Advertisement 'It was the first and only stinger I ever had — just fire down my whole left side and it kind of stunned me,' he said. 'I never saw anybody with that kind of speed, in-pads speed. 'All they needed to do was give him a little bit of momentum. If they could give him four yards, he was already at full speed. Once he had any kind of open field, it was incredibly difficult to track him down.' The future NFL Hall of Famer blistered BYU's defense on that night in 1992 for a LaVell Edwards Stadium record 299 yards rushing on 35 carries. Faulk also scored three touchdowns in the Aztecs' 45-38 victory. The following year in San Diego, he picked up where he left off and ran for 252 yards and three touchdowns against Christiansen and the Cougars, but in a 45-44 defeat. 'For what a running back can do, like as a lethal weapon, he's the one who had the best tools,' Christiansen said. 'He was amazing.' Advertisement Faulk finished his college career with 4,589 rushing yards and 57 touchdowns. As a pro with the Colts and Rams, he ran for 12,279 yards and 100 touchdowns. But, as fate would have it, Faulk wasn't the only future Hall of Famer to collide with Christiansen. When the Cougars rolled into South Bend in 1992, Notre Dame's star runner Jerome Bettis, ran at the BYU defense like a human battering ram. 'I almost made a singular contribution to the outcome of that game,' Christiansen said. 'He tried to run through the line, and I hit him as he was being slowed up and kind of kinked his neck. He had to come out of the game, and I thought, 'I had put Jerome Bettis out!' The bad news for BYU was that Bettis returned. Advertisement 'He came back with a vengeance,' Christiansen said. 'He was making up for lost time (in the second half).' Bettis finished the game with 113 yards rushing and scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to turn a tight 21-16 Notre Dame lead into a 42-16 victory. Notre Dame running back Jerome Bettis rushes for a touchdown against Northwestern in Chicago, Sept. 5, 1992. Others are unidentified. | Barry Jarvinen, Associated Press Christiansen grew up watching his father, James, teach at BYU and after earning his under-graduate and master's degrees in Provo and a doctorate at Brown, he decided to do the same. Christiansen has been teaching American Literature since 2002 and from his seat in the English Department, has watched the football program transition to the Big 12. Advertisement 'It's hard to imagine,' he said. 'We are talking the WAC (when) I was playing. It was a far cry (from today). This is top tier. It's inspiring to see how the program has evolved.' Last season's 11-2 record impressed Christiansen and has made him cautiously optimistic for more success this fall. 'There is reason to (believe) they can repeat and do well. So many of those games could have gone the other way last year. It's hard to know,' he said, before returning to his roots. 'I'm excited for the defense.' For a kid who was schooled by a pair of legends, Faulk and Bettis, Christiansen is proof you can take a player out of the defense and turn him into a professor, but you can't take the defensive mindset out of either of them. Advertisement 'Every defensive back will tell you, if you have a defensive line that can penetrate and contain it makes all the difference in the world,' he said. 'It's everything.' Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts 'Y's Guys' at and is the author of the children's book 'C is for Cougar,' available at
