It was a Jackson State football victory, but the Tigers have a lot of work to do

For Jackson State's T.C. Taylor, the emotions were hard to contain in his first home game as head coach entering the W.C. Gorden Classic. Taylor, a former wide receiver at Jackson State, didn't just lead his team out on the field — he sprinted. At the end of the team's bench was JSU athletic director Ashley Robinson, who was waiting to give Taylor a hug.

"Big emotions," he said. "When I ran out that tunnel and saw all that sea of red in the stands, it meant a lot to me and brought back memories of me as a player. And now to be up here leading these young men out that tunnel, it's just a lot of emotions."

In 2022, Jackson State beat Bethune-Cookman 48-8, and many had expected more of the same this season. On Saturday, the Tigers were in a battle against a pesky Bethune-Cookman team, but managed to win 22-16.

Jackson State has an open date this week, and here are three things it will need to work on:

Special teams: Jackson State makes history

The Tigers are in need of kickers. In the loss to Texas State last week, placekicker Gerardo Baeza was injured. In practice this week, punter Matt Noll was hurt. Without a kicker, Taylor turned to long snapper Avery Salerno to punt. And for the first time in Jackson State school history, the Tigers used a female kicker in Leilani Armenta.

She is the third female kicker to play in an NCAA football game, joining Katie Hnida (New Mexico, 2003) and Sarah Fuller (Vanderbilt, 2020). On Saturday, Haley Van Voorhis, a safety at Division III Shenandoah University, became the first woman non-kicker to appear in an NCAA football game.

"My back was against the wall," Taylor said. "I had to find somebody, I talked to Dr. Ted Flogaites, our championship soccer coach. He had a young lady over there, they call her LL, she did well in high school. She had some teams looking at her coming out of high school. She came out and did what we asked her to do."

Taylor said in all of his years coaching, he never had two kickers get hurt in the same season.

Defense needs to continue to make plays

Jackson State trailed 9-8 at halftime. It managed to gain some breathing room on an Irv Mulligan 66-yard touchdown scamper with 3:38 to play in the game, giving JSU a 22-9 lead. But the defense seemed to get lax and played as if the Tigers already had the victory.

But when Bethune-Cookman quarterback Walter Simmons III found Dacarri Allen-Johnson behind the Jackson State defense for a touchdown, the Tigers' lead shrank to six points.

Bethune-Cookman tried an onside kick, but JSU recovered it to preserve the victory.

The numbers were good on the run defense after giving up 399 yards to Texas State. It still felt like Bethune-Cookman was able to move the ball, though it had just 58 yards rushing on 25 carries. The pass defense gave up 172 yards and one touchdown.

"I have been on the defense all week," Taylor said. "Great job by our defense. I had been riding them all week about their performance last week against Texas State."

This game was much closer than it should have been. Jackson State needs to play to the level it did against South Carolina State in the season-opening 37-7 win.

Jason Brown needs to complete passes

Make no mistake about it, JSU will go only as far as quarterback Jason Brown takes them. The good news is that the Tigers are capable of winning games even when he plays poorly. Since the South Carolina State game, Brown has yet to carry the team on his arm. His numbers were good enough against Bethune-Cookman (13 of 24 passing for 90 yards, one touchdown, one interception), but he is capable of much more.

Jackson State is not going to win a lot of games once teams start packing the box with eight defenders and take away Mulligan. At some point, Brown is going to have to lead a drive and stand tall in the pocket and deliver the ball on time.

JACKSON STATE USES FEMALE KICKER Jackson State uses female kicker, makes school history in NCAA football game

The Tigers have yet to put together a full game from offense to defense to special teams.

"I got to get this football team to play all three phases," Taylor said. "One week it's the offense, one week it's the defense. Special teams has to continue to get better. But I'm still waiting to see our entire football team come out here and dominate a football game."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson State football may have won, but holes were exposed