HBCU Football: High Draft Grades for Land, WR Leaves Jackson State, NCCU Gets Championship Rings
The HBCU Legends Sports Beat shares an FAMU Rattler receives high grades among the FCS draft hopefuls, another JSU Tiger will enter the NCAA transfer portal, and NCCU celebrates its 2022 HBCU National Championship.
ISAIAH LAND LANDS HIGH FCS GRADES
The lanky and quite speedy linebacker out of Florida A&M, Isaiah Land, graded high in evaluating FCS draft prospects in a roundtable with Eric Galko (Optimum Scouting), Emory Hunt (Football Gameplan/CBS Sports), and Ric Serritella (NFL Draft Bible/SI).
Chris Haley (The Analyst) quizzed the NFL Draft experts on their top-five FCS draft-eligible players. HBCU All-American Isaiah Land was rated high by Galko and Serritella.
- Galko: No. 4 - Land projects for the 4th or 5th round.
- Serritella: No. 3 - Land project for the 4th round.
Surprisingly, the 'Czar of the Playbook' (Hunt) didn't have an HBCU prospect in his top-five candidates.
Willie Gaines; Credit: Gaines Twitter Account
WR WILLIE GAINES ENTERS THE PORTAL
First, Sy'veon Wilkerson jettisons the Jackson State football program to enter the NCAA transfer portal. We've learned that speedy wideout Willie "Big Play" Gaines will do the same.
Gaines played in 13 games for the Tigers in 2022. He caught 27 passes for 446 yards (16.5 yds/catch) and five touchdowns. His longest reception was an 86-yard bomb from Shedeur Sanders against Grambling State to go up 51-17 and ice the game on Sept. 17, 2022.
Gaines has big-play ability, and his speed to blazing. Let's keep an eye on where he lands.
NCCU CELEBRATES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Over the weekend, the NCCU Eagles celebrated their 2022 HBCU National Championship at a ring ceremony held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Cary, NC, on Friday, Apr. 14. NCCU Class of 2008 alum and former record-setting quarterback Jordan Reid (ESPN) gave the keynote address to the team at the event.
The coaches and players received their National Championship rings with the Eagles logo surrounded by diamonds inside of football with the wording National and Champions engraved on each side of the rings' face. Congratulations Eagles!!!