It was simply a cold call, not unlike that of a telemarketer, that set the stage for unquestionably one of the games of the year this weekend in Football Championship Subdivision play.
Jackson State, coached by Deion Sanders and having climbed to a modern-era program-record best No. 6 national ranking in the FCS Coaches Poll, had a hole on its 2022 schedule, and Sanders wanted to ensure the Tigers’ homecoming opponent was more steak than cake.
Enter Campbell, also coached by a former NFL star in ex-Carolina Panthers standout Mike Minter and currently atop the Big South Conference standings as well as receiving votes in the FCS’s national rankings.
“I think our wonderful A.D. Ashley Robinson just reached out and called him because we had a date open that we were trying to fill with an opponent that can play,” Sanders, aka Coach Prime and a Pro Football Hall of Famer, said of this showcase-game’s origin story. “Not someone that’s a cupcake. Someone that can flat-out play. That’s what they present.
“(Coach Minter) does a great job recruiting, does a great job of coaching, and they can play the game. They have a few guys that are pro-caliber guys as well like we do. So, it should be a tremendous contest.”
Both programs are the recruiting envies of their FCS peers; Campbell (4-2) is seeking to post its second-straight top-ranked recruiting class in FCS while Sanders’s Tigers program continues to draw interest from elite prospects with multiple Power-5 scholarship offers.
JSU has quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Coach Prime’s son, sitting No. 3 nationally among FCS quarterbacks in passing yards (1,998), touchdowns (22) and eighth in passing efficiency at 163.84. When healthy, the Tigers also have former consensus five-star recruit Travis Hunter – a former commitment to Sanders’s alma mater, Florida State.
The Camels have offensive tackle Mike Edwards, a Wake Forest transfer and Reese’s Senior Bowl watch-list selection, as well as freshman safety Myles Rowser. He’s a former four-star prospect starting for Campbell in the secondary after initially pledging to Arkansas among a crowded field of offers that included home-state Big Ten power programs Michigan and Michigan State, among others.
“I respect him, he respects me from what I’ve done and he’s done,” Minter told FootballScoop. “It was a match made in heaven; No. 1 recruiting class and No. 2 recruiting class. No matter how you look at it, the transfers they had and they were No. 1 and we were No. 2, or the high school guys signed. There’s going to be a lot around that, and we knew that once we decided to do it. What better way to do it than at their homecoming? We get kids who can go experience what HBCU football is all about at one of the most exciting programs in HBCU football.”
Minter revealed that Sanders, who notably starred in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, quickly corrected him when Minter undershot his expected attendance for the clash, which has been slotted into a 3 p.m. kick Saturday on ESPN+.
“When me and Deion were on the phone, and I said something about, ‘I know you’ll have at least 25,000 (fans),’” Minter said, “Deion said, ‘ What are you talking about?’ He said we’ll have 65,000. Deion is the greatest salesman of all time.
“This game should be nationally televised as an FCS bigtime game. Two ex-NFL guys, coaching and giving back to young people. There are a lot of stories around this. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to rep FCS football this way and then having a great HBCU program going against our program.”
Sanders wants the game to showcase what he sees as pro prospects on both sidelines – and players being improved at each respective school.
“It’s not just getting those guys, recruiting those guys, it’s winning with those guys; it’s getting these guys developed,” Sanders said. “So they can go to the next level. It’s one thing to get them, now you’ve got to go develop them so that you can win, so that you can get the eyeballs of the country.
“We can say what we want, but the team that wins the most in the NFL, the most guys that go to the Pro Bowl, normally are the top teams. So you’ve got to win but you’ve got to develop these guys.”
Both coaches also speak to the importance of bringing additional visibility to their players and programs; shining a light on Black coaches and illuminating the HBCU culture.
“Listen, it’s very important we do that with our young people today and expose them to everything,” said Minter, the Panthers’ career record-holder for both games played and interceptions. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot going on in this world. It’s more important than ever that we come together rather than to divide. I think this is a way of doing that, to bring two different types of universities together to play at the homecoming of an HBCU program. HBCUs sometimes don’t get credit that they deserve. Sometimes programs like ours don’t want to go to an HBCU and play a homecoming game, and I’m like why not? This is one of most exciting experiences that my young African-American players can go experience.
“I think it’s great that me and Deion were able to see what we could come up with and now take advantage of it.”
On the field, the teams share some common strengths. Both Campbell and JSU have the ability to dial up defensive pressure to harass opposing quarterbacks; their offenses average 4.37 and 4.96 yards-per-rush respectively.
“When you hear of a big line, you normally hear about running the football,” Sanders said. “Shoot, we’re pretty good at running the football as well throwing the football. We really have a balanced team. That presents you with some advantages. But it’s also some disadvantages as well because when you get ready to throw the dern football, those big guys got to move.
“I remember when I first got here at Jackson, I think we had two guys that was like 800 pounds between the two. I got them out of here so quick. They couldn’t move; the only time they moved was at the training table. They moved really well in there. So it’s not always what you think, but in those regards those two guys at Campbell, they can move.”
Just as this game can move the needle for attention on FCS and HBCU programs.