JAYDEN’S THE MAN! | We knew that already, but he’s a member of the DCTF / Whataburger Super Team
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football — pretty much the authority statewide when it comes to high school football — released its 2024 Whataburger Super Team on Monday, and to the surprise of absolutely, positively nobody, Kilgore High School defensive back Jayden Sanders is on it.
Sanders has been a lockdown defender for coach Clint Fuller’s Bulldogs, and will now move on to likely star at the University of Michigan in the same fashion.
But Sanders was named to the Whataburger Super Team on Monday, along with a host of East Texans; unfortunately, no other player from the ETBlitz.com coverage area was on the list, but Sanders’ selection was a no-brainer.
People in sports media were raving about Sanders already, and then it really ramped up after they saw him in person during Kilgore’s run in the 7-on-7 state championship last summer.
Sanders, the son of former KHS athletes Nick Sanders and Whitney Clark, then announced his verbal commitment to Michigan back in August, just before the start of the season, and eventually signed with the Wolverines in December.
Jayden finished with 46 tackles, 14 pass break-ups and three interceptions on defense — three interceptions because not that many teams wanted to take a chance throwing at him, if they could help it.
On offense, Sanders gave opposing defenses fits: 54 catches, 958 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He was one of the reasons Kilgore went 14-2, won the District 9-4A, Division I championship, and reached the 4A state championship game in mid-December. And he was also a member of the DCTF’s Rising 100.
Other players from East Texas that were selected were Carthage’s Kash Courtney, an offensive lineman; Longview linebacker Brenden Reese; Pleasant Grove defensive lineman Lance Jackson; and Jefferson running back Kamran Williams.
They were chosen by the fans, and just under 300,000 votes were cast.
Whataburger partners with Dave Campbell’s Texas Football as the annual team’s main sponsor, and DKT Investments / Whataburger is also an advertising partner with ETBlitz.com, sponsoring our boys and girls player of the week each week for going on two years.
