Jackson State has landed one of Nick Saban’s former Crimson Tide players as Joshua Lanier is headed to play for Deion Sanders.

Lanier announced the news during a press conference in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday evening.

“I knew it had to be a bigger move than just me,” Lanier said according to the Tuscaloosa News. “It had to be more about family, had to be more about God. It had to be more about a program that I could mean something to and that can give a good message to people that look up to me.”

While he was a walk-on for the Alabama program, Lanier played in seven games for the Crimson Tide last fall.

“It just gives me a good chance to first (stay) closer to home, which is good for my family,” Lanier said, “and it also gives me a way to show younger kids just because you’ve got other, bigger offers don’t mean that you have to go there. You can go to an HBCU. And hopefully once I go there and I can further my career to the NFL they can know that you can still go to an HBCU and go to the NFL.”