"I talked to Brett Favre": Shedeur Sanders reveals biggest reason to pick HBCU over P5 in NIL-driven college football

On Tuesday's appearance on Raiders star Maxx Crosby's show, Colorado Buffaloes quarterback and NFL-bound Shedeur Sanders recalled his decision to choose to begin his career at Jackson State University, an HBCU, instead of chasing a Power Five (P5) spotlight straight out of high school.

As a senior at Trinity Christian School, Sanders completed 251-of-366 pass attempts for 3,702 yards and 43 touchdowns. Recruiting agencies gave him a four-star rating, and while he initially committed to playing for Florida Atlantic, he flipped to Jackson State where his father, Deion Sanders, was named the head coach.

Sanders told Crosby that it was the conversation with Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and other people which helped him in his decision.

“My whole thing was—I had resources,” Shedeur said (9:30 onwards). “So I talked to Brett Favre, I talked to different people, and the main thing they told me was the most important thing to do is get reps. Play. Make your mistakes.”

With the glitz of NIL deals and high-profile programs, Shedeur Sanders didn’t chase the biggest offer and instead sought the best fit, where he could grow, develop and be trusted with the keys to the offense.

"Somewhere I wasn’t going to have to play nervous, somewhere with a head coach who believed in me," Sanders said. "That’s why I was going to go to Willie Taggart. Because I understood the personal connection.

"So that’s the thing, you know, Maxx—if you’ve got a personal connection with the coach and it’s somebody you want to play for, then that’s different. He’s going to get the best out of you. But if it’s just like—they're just tolerating you? You’re not going to be your best self."

Shedeur Sanders addresses claims that "he has never played without his dad"

Deion Sanders has been like a shadow to Shedeur Sanders' journey to the NFL. At Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas, Deion worked as an offensive coordinator. Then, after being signed as the head coach of Jackson State, he managed to bring Shedeur there.

Then, two years ago, when Coach Prime became the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, he brought Shedeur and several other players with him from Jackson State.

As such, there have been doubts about the quarterback's ability to play without his dad. Shedeur had an answer for them during his conversation with Maxx Crosby.

"For me, Dad was there to manage everything, like being the face of the program, attracting X, Y and Z. But my OCs ran everything," Shedeur Sanders added (11:50). "No matter if I had a problem with anything or not, Dad would be like, ‘You feel me? Be a man. Go handle it and say whatever you need to say.’

"So it wasn’t one of those situations where Dad gave me anything. That narrative is just nonsense. You obviously don’t know him as a person, or you haven’t talked to anybody who had a good career being on the team ... He was 10 times harder on me than he is on the quarterbacks now."

When Shedeur Sanders gets picked in the upcoming NFL draft, it will mark the first time for him to play on a team with no direct influence from his dad. Who knows, maybe Deion teams up with Shedeur in the NFL at some point.