A few seconds remained on the clock. Jackson State was putting the finishing touches on a 66–24 defeat of Grambling State, a typical score for a team that, openly and unabashedly, sets its sights not on merely winning games but on dominating. Devonta Davis, a Jackson State linebacker, whipped a wad of tape off his fingers and fired it toward a garbage can behind the JSU bench.
Davis might be a fine football player, able to tackle opponents from all manner of angles. But his long-range shooting skills leave something to be desired. The tape doinked off the can and hit the turf. Before celebrating with his teammates, Davis walked over to the trash, bent down, and picked up the tape. He knew that, if caught littering, he’d take up long-term tenancy in his coach’s doghouse.
Since agreeing to become head coach at Jackson State in 2020—one of the great upsets in recent college football history—Deion Sanders has done plenty. He’s turned Jackson State, an HBCU that went more than a decade without sending a player to the NFL, into a mid-major powerhouse. He was the driving force behind Travis Hunter, the top recruit last season, decommitting from Florida State (ironically, the school where Sanders starred in the 80s) and heading to central Mississippi. Sanders has brought commerce to the program, Mississippi’s beleaguered capital city, and some of his players, enriched as they now are by NIL deals.
