Jackson State quarterbacks get extended look in first fall camp scrimmage

BY HBCU SPORTS

In less than three weeks, Jackson State will embark on a new era with the same mission to win the SWAC championship and avenge consecutive losses in the Celebration Bowl.

But first, the group under first-year head coach TC Taylor along with a host of new players at key positions, will have to get through fall camp first in order to sort out the depth chart.

And the biggest position up for grabs is the starting quarterback job. After the first official scrimmage of camp, the position battle is far from being decided.

Right now, the two-time defending SWAC champions are without 2022 Black College Football Player of the Year, Shedeur Sanders. He threw for 3,732 yards and 40 touchdowns last season before transferring to Colorado to play for his father, Deion Sanders.

Among the possible predecessors for the starting job is University of Lousiana transfer Zy McDonald, Jacobian Morgan, and former South Carolina and Virginia Tech quarterback Jason Brown.

“Execution-wise, I thought we were good,” Taylor said. “Offensively, we’ve got to make sure we put some drives together. We had a couple of turnovers, which is a great job by the defense to force turnovers, which we emphasize. We saw some backs that looked really good. J.D. Martin is what we think he is. Irv Mulligan had some good plays as well. Our red-zone offense was excellent. We scored a number of touchdowns when we got there. Defensively, we have to be better in the red zone, but overall they flew around and competed. Everything was pretty clean for the most part, and it’s right where I expected us to be.”

All three quarterbacks each led scoring drives as they currently lead the competition for the starting quarterback job.

“Overall, the quarterbacks played well, minus the turnovers, with one coming on a tipped ball,” Taylor said. “We saw some guys make some plays. They each had good command of the offense and looked good in rotation. It’s all about rhythm for those guys, and we are playing them with a lot of different receivers. We’re going to continue to coach them and continue to evaluate them over the next few weeks.”