Shedeur Sanders (born February 7, 2002) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

who currently plays for the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffaloes ...

. He previously played at Jackson State. Sanders is the son of

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coac ...

cornerback and University of Colorado head coach

Deion Sanders Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American football coach and former player who is the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. Nicknamed "Prime Time", he played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons ...

Early life and high school

Sanders attended Trinity Christian School in

Cedar Hill, Texas Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. Per the 2020 United Stat ...

, where his father was the school's offensive coordinator. As a senior, he completed 251-of-366 pass attempts for 3,702 yards and 43 touchdowns. Sanders was rated a four-star prospect and initially committed to play college football at Florida Atlantic over offers from Florida State, Florida,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

, and Alabama. Sanders flipped his commitment to Jackson State after his father was named the Tigers' head coach.

College career

Jackson State

Sanders enrolled at Jackson State in January 2021, but was ineligible to play for the team in its Spring 2021 season, which was abbreviated and delayed from its normally intended fall 2020 schedule due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. Sanders was named the Tigers' starting quarterback going into the 2021 fall season and passed for 3,231 yards with 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was named the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates ...

(SWAC) Freshman of the Year and second team All-SWAC and won the

Jerry Rice Award The Jerry Rice Award is awarded annually in the United States to the most outstanding freshman player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of college football as chosen by a nationwide panel of media and college sports in ...

as the most outstanding freshman in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

, becoming the first player from a

Historically Black college or university Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

(HBCU) to win the award. To open his sophomore season, Sanders completed 29 of 33 passes for 323 yards and five touchdowns in the Tigers' 59–3 win over

Florida A&M Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...

. He completed 70.6% of his pass attempts for 3,732 yards with 40 touchdowns and six interceptions as a sophomore and was named the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year. Sanders entered the NCAA transfer portal after the

2022 Celebration Bowl The 2022 Celebration Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 17, 2022, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The seventh annual Celebration Bowl, the game featured the Jackson State Tigers, champions of the Southwestern ...

Colorado

On December 21, 2022, Sanders joined his father and transferred to the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado s ...

Personal life

Sanders older brother, Shilo, played football at South Carolina before transferring to Jackson State prior to the 2021 season. Sanders signed a

Name, Image and Likeness In college athletics in the United States, the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") has historically resisted efforts to compensate college athletes. However, after years of effort by those in favor of student athlete compensation, c ...

(NIL) deal with

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was first develope ...

on January 27, 2022, becoming the first player from an HBCU to do so. Sanders also has NIL agreements with

Beats by Dre Beats Electronics LLC (also known as Beats by Dr. Dre, or simply Beats by Dre) is an American consumer audio products manufacturer headquartered in Culver City, California. The company was founded by music producer Dr. Dre and record company ex ...

and BRADY, an apparel company founded by NFL quarterback

Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with whic ...

References

External links

Jackson State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Shedeur 2002 births Living people American football quarterbacks Jackson State Tigers football players People from Cedar Hill, Texas Sportspeople from Tyler, Texas Players of American football from Texas African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople