Jackson State football's Deion Sanders assesses Shedeur Sanders' debut: 'He played aight'
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Jackson State freshman quarterback Shedeur Sanders walked into the Tigers' locker room at halftime and told his father, JSU coach Deion Sanders, one thing.
"Alright, I'll stop trying to be Lamar Jackson," Shedeur Sanders said.
Sanders fumbled the ball three times and lost two in his college debut, but he still scored the only touchdown in JSU's 7-6 win over Florida A&M at the Orange Blossom Classic in Hard Rock Stadium.
Sanders reached the end zone on a 1-yard run with 11 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The former four-star prospect also completed 18 of 24 passes for 221 yards and was sacked twice.
"Shedeur was aight," Deion Sanders said. "I was in his butt, but you got to understand I'm as father, too, and I know what he's capable of doing. He was trying to do too much early on, made a couple bad decisions and fumbled."
Deion Sanders attributed his son's early mistakes to the 19-year-old watching so much football in his free time.
"He sees too much of the game and tries to do too much instead of just letting the game come to you, man," Sanders said. "Let it come to you. Just take what they give you. Sometimes he sees too much. It's a blessing and a curse."
Shedeur Sanders had a moment in the third quarter when he had to signal for JSU's Sonic Boom of the South band to quiet down while the Tigers were near their own end zone. Playing in front of a crowd of more than 30,000 fans in an NFL stadium is a far cry from the crowds he played in front of Trinity Christian in Cedar Hill, Texas, where he became one of the top QB recruits in the nation.
"I was really excited for game time because last time I played, I played in front of 200 people in high school," he said. "So leading up to this game, I knew it was going to be stuff that I wasn't used to. Just being able to play in this atmosphere, and then just really actually living in a moment. It was really exciting to me."
Sunday ushered in JSU's new-look roster, which was overhauled in the offseason with the highest-rated recruiting class in FCS history and a slew of additions from the transfer portal.
JSU's leading receiver was freshman Trevonte Rucker, also a four-star recruit.South Carolina transfer Shilo Sanders, Shedeur's older brother, finished second on the team with seven tackles. Freshman Cam'Ron Silmon finished with six tackles, including the game-clinching sack with 10 seconds remaining.
"(This is) a defense I've been waiting on, man, since the spring was here," said JSU linebacker Aubrey Miller Jr., a Missouri transfer who led the team with nine tackles. "They came and they provided and I was able to do my thing as well. It's a full defense thing."
Shedeur Sanders threw some passes behind his receivers early, but he made smart plays late in the game that helped the Tigers win. When the Tigers needed to chew up game time in the fourth quarter — with the running game struggling — he executed several short passes that kept the clock running. He found his top target, Rucker, in tight coverage and spread the ball to seven targets on a seven-play, 73-yard drive to begin the quarter.
The drive ended on downs on fourth-and-1 at the FAMU 19-yard line, but it also drained 4:47 of game clock and allowed JSU to take control of field position.
"We enjoyed ourselves today," Deion Sanders said. " We played great defensively, offensively, we're really sporadic we got to do better inside the 40s. We'll fix it. We'll clean it up. But it was a great win. ... . I'm a perfectionist, and it's gonna be hard to sleep tonight, but I rather sleep with a dub than sleep with an L."