The Deion Sanders’ Jackson State experiment may bust, but all credit him for trying

For those with a strong arm, they could throw a baseball from historic Mt. Olive Cemetery and hit the practice field where Deion Sanders operates college football’s boldest modern sociological experiment.

Mt. Olive Cemetery, essentially on Jackson State University’s campus in Jackson, Miss., is the burial home of Black Americans as far back as the 19th century.

Included in this small plot is a statue of former slave James Hill, who was elected to and served as Mississippi’s secretary of state from 1874 to 1878.

Reconstruction officially ended in 1877.

The finger prints of slavery, the Civil War, the end of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and segregation still permeate this region of the country.

Forty-five minutes west of Jackson is Vicksburg, a town that fell to Union General U.S. Grant on July 4, 1863. Vicksburg did not celebrate Independence Day for another 81 years.

Jackson is the capital of Mississippi, and this is the town where former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders is trying to become this era’s Eddie Robinson.

Deion is trying to bring attention, and money, to a school, and an entire level of football, that college athletics often treats like a burden more than a priority.

(For the record, this is not a shill Deion column. I am not Deion’s biggest fan; he blocked me on Twitter because, historically, Deion has never liked contact. Alas, credit where it belongs.)

As much of a disaster as Deion’s charter “Prime Prep Academy” schools in DFW were, his steps into college coaching are working.

When you walk the Jackson State University campus, drive up and down Walter Payton Drive and then JSU’s surrounding neighborhoods, then you can see what Deion is up against.

Forget covering Jerry Rice or Michael Irvin, this is the most difficult assignment Deion has ever tried in his Hall of Fame career.

College football is increasingly about nothing but big; big money, big stadiums, and big toys. Jackson State has an enrollment of 7,000, and plays in the SWAC of the FCS.

He’s trying to level a playing field that tilts almost at a 90-degree angle away from Jackson State, and schools just like Jackson State.

For years prominent Black Americans have wondered/lobbied for America’s top high school Black student athletes to attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The hope is if an HBCU could put together a dominant team, or teams, that the money will flow to the respective and athletic departments.

Even if you don’t care much for Deion’s mouth, give him credit for the mission and trying to see this through.

This is Year No. 3 for Head Coach Deion Sanders at Jackson State, and the results say he found his niche.

The Tigers finished 3-3 in the abbreviated spring FCS season of ‘21, which was moved because of COVID. Last fall, the team was 11-2 and Deion has done what Deion does: Attract attention.

His son, Sedeur Sanders, is the starting quarterback who could have attended bigger power schools.

Deion signed one of the nation’s top high school prospects, corner/receiver Travis Hunter last year, as well as four-star receiver Kevin Coleman. Both players could have gone pretty much anywhere.

HBCUs never bring in high school players of this caliber.

When Hunter changed his long-standing commitment from Florida State to Jackson State, he made a point of saying he wanted to “blaze a trail” for top student athletes to consider attending HBCUs.

Deion recently announced that former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator, and Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer, has joined his staff as an analyst for 2022.

This summer, Jackson State was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated; the last time an HBCU received such attention was in 1994, when Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair was on the cover.

Before McNair, the only other time an HBCU was on the cover of SI was 1985, with Grambling and coach Eddie Robinson.

For forever, Grambling was the only HBCU name, because of Robinson.

In football, Jackson State was known as the school that produced Payton, Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jackie Slater as well as Robert Brazile and Lem Barney.

A memorial for Payton, who died in 1999, sits outside of the Walter Payton Health and Recreation Center, which is adjacent to the football’s practice football field, which is encircled by the track.

This is a modest campus with modest athletic facilities; it does not compare to the celebrity college football facilities that surround Jackson State all over the south.

Jackson State’s football budget in 2021 was $2.1 million; its recruiting budget is less than $20,000.

By comparison, Ole Miss’ athletic department expenses in 2020 eclipsed $112 million. That figure is fairly standard in Power 5.

The idea that Jackson State can compete with nearby Ole Miss, Mississippi State, or any Power 5 football program, for top talent was previously thought to be preposterous.

But this about an aspiration far bigger than reaching the NFL, or winning an SEC title game.

The aspiration is to lift a class of Americans.

The next step in this process for JSU isn’t beating Alabama; it’s making the FCS playoffs, something JSU narrowly missed out on last season.

One HBCU team has won an FCS playoff game this century - Tennessee State, in 2013.

The step after that is to turn JSU into the top team in FCS.

The step after that is to turn JSU into a program people want to watch, and to land on TV.

These steps will require years. The reality is it may not work.

This is harder than anything Deion has ever attempted to do.

No matter what you think of Deion Sanders, credit him for trying.

He doesn’t have to be here.