After three empty trips to the Celebration Bowl as an assistant coach, Jackson State football head coach T.C. Taylor was determined to leave with an HBCU national title.
As the final second rolled down the clock on Jackson State’s dominant 28-7 win on Saturday, the Jackson State crowd chanted his name loud and clear.
“That was unbelievable,” a jubilant Taylor told the media after the game. “That’s a moment I never forget. But to get on that stage, I’ve been waiting a long time to get on that stage. To hoist that trophy up, you know? And it was unbelievable.”
It was a crowning moment for a man who patiently waited for it.
Taylor’s first trip came in 2016 when he was a member of new Kennesaw State head coach Jerry Mack’s staff at North Carolina Central. The team lost to Grambling State after a litany of eras in the final minutes.
The former Jackson State star who says he attended his first JSU game at the age of 10 was viewed as a potential head coach in waiting when he joined John Hendrick’s staff in 2019. But Deion Sanders’ unexpected arrival in 2020 meant Taylor had to bide his time as position coach as well as a short stint as offensive coordinator.
“I trust in God. And he had already told me the blueprint and everything, but he also told me ‘be really when it get here,” Taylor said. “And I always prepared that way.”
The program won back-to-back SWAC titles in 2021 and 2022, but came up short in its quest for the HBCU title at the Celebration Bowl. Taylor was named Sanders’ successor by Director of Athletics Ashley Robinson and then went to work of re-building without many of the big names that propelled it into the national consciousness.
“When I had that opportunity — I pulled my sleeves up and went to work,” Taylor said. “I knew what I want my roster to like. I knew what I wanted this coaching staff to look like. And, I knew we were going to be successful. I wanted this moment. I knew this moment was going to happen, kind of wanting to last year.”
JSU went 7-4 in Taylor’s first season — a solid record — but solid only goes so far in Jackson. Taylor felt like the program was close, but he had to re-tool again via recruiting both new players and coaches.
“We had an opportunity to be really good. And those guys came in here and changed the culture — believed in me,” Taylor said. “ I had a lot of turnover on the coaching staff after the first year. They came in here and bought into the culture. I said, ‘we’re going to work our butts off because, we were going to get to this moment.”
Taylor expressed his desire to come away with a different result than his first three Celebration Bowl trips during Friday’s pre-game press conference.
“I’ve been here several times, but I’ve seen that confetti fall on other people each and every time,” Taylor told the media on Friday morning. “So I want to experience that, take some of that home, too, with me.”
Twenty four hours and one dominant performance later, T.C. Taylor got his wish — including his confetti.
“When I raised the trophy up, they were kind of late with the confetti,” Taylor said with a grin. “I’m like, I’ve been seeing everybody in previous years getting confetti while they raise that trophy. You finna give me the confetti today. But it felt great. It felt great.”