Shedeur Sanders Named Top HBCU Football Player for 2022 Season

He accounted for 46 total touchdowns last year for Jackson State.

Former Jackson State quarterback Shedeur Sanders was named the Deacon Jones Trophy winner for his 2022 season performance on Saturday. The award annually is given to the best football player at Historically Black College or University. 

The quarterback passed for 3,752 yards and rushed for 174 yards in 13 games this past season. He threw 40 touchdown passes and scored six rushing touchdowns as the Tigers went 12–1, with their lone loss of the season coming in the Celebration Bowl against North Carolina Central. 

Despite Sanders’s dazzling play and gaudy statistics, he went on to transfer in the offseason. He’s following his coach and father, Deion Sanders, to Colorado as a junior. 

🏈 BREAKING NEWS 🏈@GoJSUTigersFB QB SHEDEUR SANDERS wins Deacon Jones Trophy as the 2022 Black College Football Player of the Year. pic.twitter.com/tFSoP6kIkc

— BlackCollegeFootball (@BCFHOF) February 25, 2023

Colorado went 1–11 last year, including 1-8 in the Pac-12 to finish last in the conference. But with the coaching change, the addition of Sanders, a haul of transfers and an improved recruiting class—it will be a brand new Buffaloes team in 2023.