When Deion Sanders left Jackson State for Colorado in December of 2023, many observers predicted a Humpty Dumpty-like fall for the proud JSU Tiger football program.
Surely seemed that way. After all, not only did Neon Deion abruptly head for the mountains, he took his best players with him, most notably his quarterbacking son Shedeur Sanders and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. Losing Hunter was like losing three players in one: a wide receiver no one could cover, a shut-down cornerback and a kick returner deluxe. Nine Tigers in all, 11 if you count Hunter three times, transferred to Colorado, including the teams’s leading passer, leading rusher, leading receiver, leading scorer, best kick returner and best offensive lineman. Oh yeah, and Deion took six assistant coaches with him, as well.
This was going to be more than a rebuilding job, it was going to be like starting over. To former Jackson State football standout T.C. Taylor fell the task of reconstructing the Tigers.
Don’t look now, but that mission has been accomplished — and then some.
I don’t know if all the kings horses and all the king’s men could have done it, but Taylor certainly has put the Tigers back together again. Two seasons in, Taylor has achieved what Sanders never did at JSU. That is, he has won the Celebration Bowl and the HCBU National Championship. After an impressive-considering-the-circumstances 7-4 season in year one A.D. (after Deion), Taylor’s Tigers finished the 2024 season with a 12-2 record, 10 consecutive victories, the SWAC Championship, a 28-7 victory over South Carolina State in the Celebration Bowl and the HBCU national crown. In that 10-game win streak, the Tigers’s victory margin was a whopping 24 points per game.
The contrasts between Deion Sanders and Taylor are stark. When Sanders was at JSU, all cameras and microphones were aimed at him and that was clearly the way he wanted it. Taylor, on the other hand, consistently deflects all praise and attention to his players and his assistants. Taylor is as low-key and humble as Sanders was flashy and egocentric.
At JSU, Sanders was a welcomed outsider, a native Floridian and Florida State All American who had spent little if any time in Mississippi before coming to Jackson. Taylor was born in McComb, played for the venerable Greg Wall at South Pike High in Magnolia and then at Jackson State for coaches James “Big Daddy” Carson and Robert “Judge” Hughes. He came to JSU as a quarterback, but switched over to wide receiver after passing master Robert Kent won the QB job. All Taylor did was catch a school record 84 passes for 1,234 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior. He is a Tiger to his core. Put it this way: After games, when the coaches and players join together and sing the lovely JSU alma mater “Jackson Fair,” Taylor really knows the words and sings them proudly, hand over his heart.
Taylor is an old school coach who preaches blocking, tackling, sound special teams and protecting the football. The Tigers have been excellent in all phases under his leadership.
His success does not surprise Wall, who coached him for three seasons at South Pike.
“T.C. was a good ol’ country boy who studied the game,” says Wall, who won 247 games and lost only 70 in 31 seasons as a high school head coach. “He was a smart kid who never made the same mistake twice. He had a good head for the game. He could have been a great safety or cornerback, too, but we couldn’t risk it. He was our offense.”
Taylor’s third Jackson State team will open the season Saturday at 2 p.m. at The Vet, before playing at Southern Miss the following week. After winning 10 straight and a national HBCU championship, what do the Tigers do for an encore?
“We are chasing greatness,” Taylor said Monday. ”We have a chance to go back-to-back as SWAC and national champions. That’s our goal. That would be great for the city of Jackson.”
