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Deion Sanders served as the head coach of the Jackson State Tigers college football program for three seasons between 2020 and 2022. He was massively successful during his time there, putting together an impressive 27-6 record and winning two Southwestern Athletic Conference championships.
Following last football season, Sanders became the coach of the Colorado Buffaloes in the Pac-12. The move was a bit of a surprise, especially after Sanders claimed that he planned on remaining at Jackson State.
On "The Pivot" podcast, Sanders discussed the reasoning behind his decision to leave.
"It wasn't just the resources. It was the ideology, the thought processnand the forward thinking. It was meeting me at the crossroads. That's what was involved in that. And sooner or later, you have to really look in the mirror and say, 'Are they going to get there? No. Do they even want to get there?' And I had to ask those questions and really be honest with it."
Sanders discussed how he wants to eventually compete for a college football national championship as a coach.
He acknowledged that schools like Jackson State are at a severe disadvantage due to their lack of resources, such as funding and recruiting, to truly compete with the annual elite programs. He said this was part of the issue, but it goes deeper than that.
The bigger problem, Deion Sanders pointed out, is that he was unsure if Jackson State, an HBCU, was really willing to go all in to get to the next level. The university currently plays in the Football Championship Subdivision, the second-level of the college football competition structure.
Also, because the SWAC has a championship game (and two traditional late-season games that conflict with the playoff schedule), its member schools usually don't compete in the FCS playoffs. A SWAC school has never won a playoff game, either in Division I-AA or, now, the FCS.
His concerns were that they were too content with where they were and didn't necessarily represent the same championship mindset that he has. He apparently believes joining the Colorado Buffaloes gives him a better chance at achieving his goals.
Colorado, which plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision, won the national title in 1990, when the school was part of the Big Eight and polls determined the national champion. But the top tier of Division I football is drastically different. CU has had one winning season and one AP Top 25 finish since 2005 (excluding a 4-2 mark in the COVID-affected 2020 season). The Buffaloes went 1-11 last season.
Deion Sanders' incredibly fast track to success as a head coach
When Deion Sanders was hired to take over at Jackson State, he had very little coaching experience to fall back on.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer and two-time Super Bowl winner after a dazzling career at Florida State was likely hired more for name recognition than for his accomplishments as a coach. He spent just five years coaching high school football in all positions before being named a college head coach.
Following the 2020 college football season severely interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanders found immediate success in Years Two and Three. He registered a perfect 16-0 SWAC record and posted the first undefeated regular-season in school history in 2022. He also attracted some of the country's top recruits to commit to JSU, which was basically unheard of for this type of program.
