When Deion Sanders was leaving Jackson State in December 2022 to take the head coaching job at the University of Colorado, he was adamant that the Tigers’ offensive coordinator, Thomas T.C. Taylor, was the man to be his successor.
The 46-year-old former JSU quarterback and wide receiver, who played for his alma mater from 1998 to 2001, has honored Sanders’s ringing endorsement early in his tenure after being named the program’s 22nd head coach by winning the SWAC East division this season with an 8-0 record (10-2 overall). He is taking his team into this Saturday’s Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game (ESPN2, 3:00 p.m.) at the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson to face the Southern Jaguars, who took the SWAC West.The Jaguars finished 7-1 in the conference and 8-4 overall.
It will be the second time in the last three seasons that JSU and Southern play each other in the conference championship. The victor will meet MEAC champ South Carolina State, which is 9-3 and ended their conference schedule 5-0, in the Cricket Celebration Bowl (ABC, 12:00 p.m.) on Dec,14 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., for what is considered the HBCU national championship.
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On Monday, Taylor was named the 2024 SWAC Coach of the Year. Tigers senior running back Irv Mulligan earned the Offensive Player of the Year award wandhile first-year running back Travis Terrell Jr., a kick and return specialist, garnered Freshman of the Year.
“I told the coaches this morning, since that was announced, I’m nothing without you guys,” said Taylor on Monday via Michael Chavez of the “Clarion Ledger.” “I tell the players as well. We got some players out here [who’ve] been doing some great things.”
Southern’s junior defensive end Ckelby Givens was voted the conference’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year. The Jaguars are helmed by 56-year-old rookie head coach Terrence Graves, who was hired last December after serving as Southern’s assistant head coach/special teams coordinator/linebackers coach. Graves has coached in the SWAC, for 24 years with positions at Grambling State and Mississippi Valley State.