When Deion Sanders was named the 21st football coach at Jackson State on Sept. 21, 2020, the Pro Football Hall of Famer was very candid and matter of fact in his goals for a program that had not witnessed its historic winning tradition since 2013.
Sanders said he wanted to level the playing field at JSU and historically Black colleges and universities, create a “navigation system” that led players to the NFL, recruit “game changers,” change the game “in the blink of an eye” and celebrate when the program scored. Those were only some of earliest sayings from Sanders.
Three years later, Jackson State (12-0) sits hours away from its second appearance in the Celebration Bowl—a clash between the MEAC and SWAC champions—on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta and a matchup that will be featured on ABC in primetime hours. This campaign, JSU recorded its first undefeated season in program history after going 11-2 in the 2021 and losing in the Celebration Bowl to South Carolina State a year ago.
