A series of injuries made TC Taylor’s first season as Jackson State head coach a rough one, even though the Tigers finished with a respectable 7-4 record in 2023.
This season, JSU has added talent to the roster at every position and that depth will be their key tonight as they open the season at Louisiana-Monroe.
“All three phases look good; we have great depth at every position,” Taylor said during the SWAC Coaches’ Conference on Monday. “That’s something I stressed to my staff when recruiting. I wanted every position to be talented and ready to play. That’s a great problem to have.”
Jackson State’s last trip to Monroe ended in a 12-7 loss in 2021 when Taylor was an assistant on Deion Sanders’ staff. A handful of players and staff members remain from that close matchup, and Taylor believes his team has just as good a chance to win tonight as it did three years ago.
“We were up there in that game. If you can make it to the fourth quarter, you have a good chance,” he said. “If we go down there, don’t lose the ball and create some turnovers, we have a great chance to win this football game. They have a new team, new personnel, so there’s not a lot of information from them to evaluate their talent, but football is football.”
Taylor views tonight as a test to see how his team fares against the usual opposition and is confident the Tigers will rise to the challenge.
“We’ll also have some new faces that we’re excited to see. We talk about the physicality of our football team. This is a great game to measure ourselves and see where we stand,” he explained. “Any time you get to play an FBS opponent, you get a chance to see where your football team stands.”
