Travis Hunter sent shockwaves throughout the whole of college football when he signed with the Deion Sanders led Jackson State University football team.
Hunter was the number one or two recruit depending on various websites, and this is the first time since the star era started in 2006 that a Football Championship Series (FCS) program has signed a 5 star recruit. The crazy thing is that 24/7 Sports graded LAST year’s recruiting class better than this year’s even though Jackson State signed a 5 star this year
In the 70’s and 80’s the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) were actually a great place to grab talent from by the NFL. Players such as Walter Payton, Doug Williams the first African American QB to win a super bowl as the starting QB for the previously known Washington Redskins. And just a afterthought, the GOAT Jerry Rice also went to a HBCU.
HBCUs Catching Up
Now, I’m not claiming that teams such as Alabama will fall behind to these teams or anything, but I think that these HBCUs now have Deion Sanders on their side, which is a great tool, especially for Jackson State because he is their coach. There’s no question Travis Hunter will be a star pretty much instantly. Players will want to go to this team and in turn, it will put HBCUs even more on the map to go to their conferences because people will wanna go and take on the giant.
For the record, I’m not saying that the 2 HBCU conferences in the FCS will now instantly challenge the SEC or anything like that. I’m just saying that they will pull a little talent from the FBS because of the attractions that these places provide, especially Jackson State.
Jackson made it to the celebration bowl this year as a 11-1 team but lost by 21 points because Deion Sanders claimed they overlooked them. I guarantee their power will only grow from now on now that they got the most athletic person in high school football in this current year.
This is absurd but imagine if someday we get the FBS champion playing against the FCS champion or the best HBCU team. That would be a blowout now, but did Travis Hunter swing the tides or is he just an anomaly? We will find out later in this years next signing day and in future years. I guarantee in the coming years there will be a few people following in Hunter’s footsteps, maybe just to Jackson State because of the incredible pull to be coached by a NFL hall of famer.