Jackson State head coach T.C. Taylor isn’t interested in adding fuel to the fire.
With the Tigers preparing to open the 2026 season against Southern in the John Merritt Classic, Taylor was asked whether comments made by Tennessee State defensive coordinator Cedric Thornton during the offseason could add another layer to an already heated rivalry.
Taylor’s response was simple: let the coaches talk.
“Coaches are going to talk,” Taylor said Monday on the SWAC coaches media call. “We just let them talk.”
Thornton, a Jackson native, has made headlines during the offseason, creating additional intrigue around a rivalry that already carries plenty of history and emotion.
While appearing as a guest on The Uproar Radio Show, a Tennessee State-centric broadcast, Thornton said the Tigers would not lose to Jackson state.
“It is non-negotiable that we going to lose this game,” he said. “We are not losing this game. I don’t care what I got to do.”
But Taylor said Jackson State won’t allow the offseason noise to become a distraction.
“It’s the first game for us,” Taylor said. “We’re just excited to be back playing football on the road, you know, in a classic John Merritt Classic.”
For Taylor, the focus is less on personal rivalries and more on starting the season with a victory.
“We don’t want to make it personal,” he said. “It’s just a game that we got to have. We want to start this season off the right way.”
That message has been consistent inside the Jackson State locker room as the Tigers prepare for one of their biggest games of the year right out of the gate.
Taylor said his players have been instructed to ignore the outside noise, including comments made by opposing coaches or anything written about the matchup.
“We’re not going to get into the newspaper clippings and things like that or what people got to say about us,” Taylor said.
Instead, Taylor wants his team to settle the rivalry the old-fashioned way — on the field.
“All we can do is go out and show it this weekend,” he said.
