Alabama State head coach Eddie Robinson Jr. and Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders had a contentious handshake following the Tigers' 26-12 victory on Saturday in Montgomery.
Robinson Jr. reached midfield first and waited on Sanders to arrive. The two shook hands, and Robinson Jr. pushed Sanders away when the Jackson State head coach attempted to initiate a hug. Sanders appeared to be upset by the situation as Robinson Jr. walked away.
"I guess, me being upfront, I thought it was a lot of disrespect the whole week," the first-year Alabama State head coach said during his postgame meeting with the media. "You're not going to be disrespectful the whole week in the media. We didn't talk in the pregame. I was out there the whole time at the 50-yard line. He walked through our whole huddle in our end zone and came the long way around to get to his sideline in the pregame. I thought that wasn't classy at all."
Robinson Jr., who was an All-American linebacker at Alabama State before going on to a long NFL career, was just getting started.
"I'm not about to give you a bro hug," Robinson Jr. said. "I'm going to always be respectful and respect the game. You got some great (former SWAC coaches), WC Gorden, Eddie G. Robinson, Marino Casem, those guys. He ain't SWAC. I'm SWAC. He ain't SWAC. He's in the conference doing a great job. You can't knock that. Got a great team. His son should be up for the Heisman Trophy. I love Shedeur. I love what he's doing for the conference. Probably one of the best we've had since Steve McNair was in there. Love all that, but you're not going to come here and disrespect me and my team and my school and want to bro hug. Shake my hand and get the hell off. Period."
Robinson Jr. was upset that Sanders called for a pass play in the final seconds with backup quarterback J.P. Andrade in the game. Andrade threw a deep incompletion on first down following a defensive stop with 1:04 left in the game.
"I hope he comes back next year," Jackson said. "I pray he doesn't get a Power 5 job, so we can play him next year in Jackson. We ain't friends, he ain't never called me, I ain't never called him. Great player, everybody wanted to go out there and be Prime Time as a little kid. He's a great coach. But you can't do all that stuff all week and then come back with your backup quarterback and want to run a hitch-and-go to try to put more points on the board. That's disrespectful. Game was out of hand, 26-12, with 40 seconds left. We had no timeouts, take a damn knee. But he decided to run a hitch-and-go, so we started blitzing, tried to knock him out of the game, too. That's how we got to play. Ain't no quarters given. You want to do that, don't come try to bro hug like we're friends. We ain't friends. You didn't shake my hand before the game. Why you shake my hand after the game? Period, that's it."
As far as the game goes, Shedeur Sanders was tremendous, going 30 of 46 for 332 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
Alabama State (3-3 overall, 1-2 SWAC) took the lead in the first quarter on a 19-yard pass from Dematrius Davis to Kisean Johnson. Jackson State scored the next 17 points of the game, with Sanders throwing a pair of touchdown passes in that stretch. The Hornets pulled to within 17-12 with 12 minutes left in the game on a fumble recovery in the end zone by Keeundra Salter.
Jackson State (5-0, 3-0) scored the final nine points of the game.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email steve.irvine@1819news.com.
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