In Jim Trotter's latest piece for The Athletic entitled “Jackson State has moved on from Deion Sanders, but his shadow still lingers”, head coach T.C. Taylor spoke about succeeding Deion Sanders and the expectation for the Tigers.

“If I was trying to be [Deion Sanders], I couldn’t be as good as I was going to be,” Taylor said in a statement obtained by Trotter.. “I don’t care about the cameras and stuff like that. I’m not knocking it, but it’s not my way of doing things. My players have grasped that, and they do a good job with it. A lot of these guys have been around for a couple of years. They’ve known me, so I can’t try to be (the coach who) just left.”

Taylor is a Jackson State lifer, as Trotter points out in his piece. He played for Jackson State in the 1990s, first joining the team as a quarterback and then transitioning to play wide receiver. After a couple of stints at other schools as an assistant, he rejoined the Tigers under the Deion Sanders regime. He was a pivotal assistant coach on the two SWAC Championship-winning squads and got the call to lead his alma mater shortly after Sanders's departure from the program.

According to Taylor, there's always been an expectation of winning and greatness at Jackson State that he knows about as an alumni and former player.

“The expectation I have for myself and my coaches, my players, anybody that’s in this building, is that we have to win. I tell them all the time: I get it. I grew up in it. I played in it. Mediocrity is not OK. The city of Jackson expects (wins) on a weekly basis, and that’s what we’re going to try to give them. We can’t afford to have bad games.”

His comments to Trotter make his anger at how his team finished their blowout 24-6 game against Mississippi Valley State all the more understandable. With 28 seconds left in the game, Jackson State allowed a 52-yard run by DePhabian Fant.

Taylor was fired up at the end of the game, saying to reporters on the sideline after the game, “It's still the same deal man. We can't close out games for some reason. They get that cheap touchdown right there at the end. And then I think [they were] backed up on the minus two-yard line. The offense had three or four turnovers today. But, we got to learn how to [expletive] finish games right now. We're still growing as a football team. But I mean, unacceptable.”

Jackson State looks to live up to lofty expectations as they gear up to play the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff on Saturday at 3 PM EST. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.