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Tag: deion sanders
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Deion Sanders: The 2023 60 Minutes Interview
Deion Sanders: The 2023 60 Minutes Interview – CBS News
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9/17/2023: President Zelenskyy; Into the Streets; Prime Time in Colorado
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9/17/2023: President Zelenskyy; Into the Streets; Prime Time in Colorado – CBS News
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Deion Sanders brings
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Conventionally, 60 Minutes doesn’t profile the same subject twice in two seasons. But convention doesn’t intersect with Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. Last fall, we met Sanders in Mississippi, where he was coaching Jackson State to prominence in a conference of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Then, the man who calls himself Coach Prime high-stepped it to Boulder, to the University of Colorado, taking his blazingly singular style with him. There, he hasn’t just awoken a dormant program; but has transformed it into the talk of college football, if not American sports. Sanders is revered. He is reviled. But his sudden impact is indisputable. For the second time, in two radically different environments, unapologetic as ever, he’s shaken the sport like a snowglobe.
Jon Wertheim: Are you the change agent? Are you the ultimate change agent–
Deion Sanders: I-I make a difference. I truly make a difference. I make folks nervous, man. I get folks movin’ in their seat. I get folks twiddlin’ their thumbs. I get them thinkin’ and second-guessin’ theirself. You know — have you ever been so clean that you walked in, and somebody looked down at you, then they looked at themselves? They had to check themselves because you were so clean? I have that effect.
Jon Wertheim: That’s the vibe you’re gettin–
Deion Sanders: Yeah– no, no, I have that effect. (LAUGH) That was some good game right there, boy. God, that was good–
This was the scene in the locker room two weekends ago, before the Colorado Buffaloes and their new coach, Deion Sanders, opened the season a 21-point underdog, at TCU. Colorado was fresh off a 1-11 season. TCU was fresh from playing in last season’s national championship game.
With skill and will, the Buffaloes won, 45-42, behind their star quarterback, Shedeur Sanders. But the real focus—as ever—was on Shedeur’s 56-year-old father. It was his first win as coach of a Power Five school, the highest level of college football.
Jon Wertheim: Do you feel like you were underestimated? You come here, and it’s, “I don’t know if Coach Prime can win.” You must have heard what some of these other coaches were sayin’, both secretly and out loud—
Deion Sanders: Tha– that’s fear.
Jon Wertheim: Fear.
Deion Sanders: Yeah, that’s fear. That’s like, “Hey, man. Shoot, we don’t wanna let that engine that could get goin’ because if that engine that could get goin’, he goin’ start sayin’, ‘I think I can. I think I can.’ And sooner or later, he gonna start sayin’, ‘I know I can. I know I can.’ Then sooner or later, he gonna start sayin’, ‘I did that.’”
His Colorado debut drew national attention and monster TV ratings. Interest compounded last weekend, when the Buffaloes played before the biggest home crowd in 15 years and beat rival Nebraska.
This weekend? Both Fox and ESPN dispatched their pregame shows, the Rock included, to Boulder. Then the Buffaloes rallied late to beat Colorado State in a double overtime thriller. Three games into the season, the foothills of the Rockies mark the unlikely epicenter of an entire sport.
Jon Wertheim: What’s this been like for you? (LAUGH)
Rick George: It’s– it’s been– a lotta fun.
Rick George, who hired Coach Prime, has been Colorado’s athletic director for a decade.
Rick George: It’s great– for us to be able to bring this program back to relevancy. And we had failed in my previous nine years– ten years.
Jon Wertheim: Fair to call this a bit of a hail Mary? (LAUGH)
Rick George: It wasn’t a hail Mary, but it was a moment in time for our– university and our athletic department that we were either gonna be relevant or we were gonna be irrelevant.
It’s early to quantify the full prime effect, but merchandise sales? Up 819% from last season. Instagram followers? Up more than tenfold. Season tickets? Sold out. Sanders might be the ideal coach for these shifting times in college football. Another son, Deion Jr., is part of the army of videographers filming the team nonstop for YouTube and an upcoming docuseries.
Jon Wertheim: This team won one game last season.
Deion Sanders: Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
Jon Wertheim: Is that in a way– a point of appeal?
Deion Sanders: God wouldn’t relocate me to something that was successful. That don’t make sense, do it? He had to find the most disappointing and the most difficult task. And this is what it was. And this is what it is. And I love that.
This wasn’t dissimilar to what he told us last year, that “God had called him collect” to come to Jackson State University and elevate, yes, the football program but also all HBCUs.
He stayed three seasons, but the same night last December that JSU won the conference championship, Sanders announced he was off to Colorado to climb another mountain.
Jon Wertheim: You left Jackson State and you left quick. What did you tell those kids–
Deion Sanders: No, I didn’t leave quick.
Jon Wertheim: –what– what did you tell those kids–
Deion Sanders: I didn’t (LAUGH) leave quick.
Jon Wertheim: You were–
Deion Sanders: I didn’t leave quick. I left when I was supposed to leave.
Jon Wertheim: Alright
Deion Sanders: We finished. Most coaches get a new job and they leave expeditiously. I finished the task.
Jon Wertheim: You say finished the task, was there– was there more work you could’ve done in Jackson, or–
Deion Sanders: I think we did a tremendous job in Jackson. I think we laid down a tremendous blueprint.
We tried to press Sanders on the circumstances surrounding his abandoning the mission at Jackson State. He’s hinted the school’s lack of forward-thinking may have factored in his decision. But on this topic, he was about as elusive as he was returning punts for touchdowns in the NFL.
Jon Wertheim: What did you tell those kids when you left?
Deion Sanders: Opportunity called. Sooner or later in life, there will be opportunity that knocks at your door. And at this juncture in my life, I felt like the opportunity for not only me, but for my kids as well, was tremendous. Not only did we take several kids from that team, three trainers, maybe 12 to 14 staffers. So we afforded to give people a tremendous opportunity here.
The distance between Jackson and Boulder is a thousand miles and immeasurably further culturally. Sanders went from a city that is 83% Black to one that is 1% Black. From a place with a water crisis; to the kind of hipster college town where there’s a shop devoted to kites.
Jon Wertheim: What are your first impressions?
Deion Sanders: Beautiful. Unbelievable. Just the whole peace and serenity of it all. I had never fathom comin’ here. I ain’t ever even vacation here, man. I ain’t ever been skiin’ or whatever you call it, snowboarding or whatever, all the stuff. You know – I ain’t never been none of that.
Jon Wertheim: You don’t even fly fish.
Deion Sanders: No, I don’t. I fish, I’m fly while I fish, but I don’t (laughter) fly fish.
Still, he wasted no time ingratiating himself in the community, including a visit to Peggy Coppom, a 98-year-old Buffaloes superfan.
Peggy Coppom: Are you Prime?
Deion Sanders: That’s what they call me.
Peggy Coppom:Do I call you that or Deion?
Deion: No, no, call me anything you want. We good.
Peggy Coppom:Well how about good lookin’?
Deion Sanders: There you go.
Peggy Coppom:That’ll do? Okay.He was less embracing of the incumbent Colorado players. At the first team meeting in December, Sanders encouraged players to enter the transfer portal, an open market for athletes to find new schools.
Deion Sanders at team meeting: I promise you it is my job to get rid of you.
And make room for superior talent he planned to bring in. More than 50 players eventually transferred out.
Jon Wertheim: You got here, and you didn’t pull punches. You told some of these guys–
Deion Sanders: Have I ever? You take a team that’s won one game, and you fire the whole coachin’ staff. So, who did the coaching staff recruit? The kids. So, the kids are just as much to blame as the coaching staff. And I came to the conclusion that a multitude of them couldn’t help us get to where we wanted to go.
Jon Wertheim: You told most of these guys the more you jump in, the more room you’re gonna make. “Those of you we don’t run off, we’re gonna try to make you quit.”
Deion Sanders: Yeah–
Jon Wertheim: You made it very clear.
Deion Sanders: Yeah. Now, if you went for that, if you was– were able to let words run you off, you ain’t for us because we’re a old-school staff. We coach hard. We coach tough. We’re disciplinarians. So, if you’re allowing verbiage to run you off because you don’t feel secure with your ability, you ain’t for us.
Jon Wertheim: If some kid said, “You know what? No. I’m stayin’. You’re not gonna run me off with your words.”
Deion Sanders: Right. Stay.
Jon Wertheim: So–
Deion Sanders: Prove it.
Jon Wertheim: I’m sure that your straight talk was appreciated by some. But– is this scorched-earth policy good for– for college football or for the kids?
Deion Sanders: I think truth is good for kids. We’re so busy lyin’, we don’t even recognize the truth no more in– in society. We want everybody to feel good. That’s not– that’s not the way life is. Now, it is my job to make sure I have what we need to win. That makes a lot of people feel good. Winning does–
Jon Wertheim: W– I– I gotta push back on this. You’re– you’re–
Deion Sanders: Well, push–
Jon Wertheim: –a father of college athletes–
Deion Sanders: Five, yes.
Jon Wertheim: If they called you and say, “Hey, we got a new coach, and they’re tellin’ me to get in the transfer portal.”
Deion Sanders: I’d say, “Son, you must be h– y– you must not be doin’ well.”
Jon Wertheim: That’s what you’d say–
Deion Sanders: “You– you must not be doin’ well because you should be a asset and not a liability.” I’m honest with my kids.
His kids include Shedeur, the star quarterback, and Shilo, a starting safety.
Jon Wertheim: You guys have any idea that you were gonna be this good and capture the country the way you have?
Shedeur Sanders: Yeah.
Shilo Sanders: Of course…
Jon Wertheim: You did?
Shedeur Sanders: Yeah…
Shilo Sanders: I mean, we both didn’t come here, have our dad coachin’ just to lose (laughs)
A year ago to the day, we watched Shedeur, fling and zing touchdown passes at Jackson State.
But there were questions about whether he could do the same against stiffer competition. Well, in his first two games at Colorado, he threw for nearly 1,000 yards, without an interception.
Jon Wertheim: You were puttin’ up big numbers at Jackson State. You’re doin’ it here against teams of the Big Ten…
Shedeur Sanders: Yeah, the…
Jon Wertheim: …Big 12.
Shedeur Sanders: Yeah, it…
Jon Wertheim: Must be gratifying.
Shedeur Sanders: Yeah, no. These two games was the most yards I passed for my career. So it’s just, it’s just excitin’ knownin’ that, you know, it translatin’ like on a bigger stage. I just feel better.
He’s also—and, again, welcome to today’s college sports—translated his success into riches, thanks to NIL, name/image/likeness, income. So much so he drives a $190,000 Mercedes Maybach. And Shedeur might not even be the team’s best player. Travis Hunter also followed Coach Prime from Jackson to Colorado. His coach lets him play offense and defense—virtually unheard of in the modern college game.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve got two really good Heisman-quality players on this team.
Deion Sanders: Yes.
Jon Wertheim: Your son and Travis Hunter.
Deion Sanders: Yes sir.
Jon Wertheim: First half of the first game of the season, you’re already publicly talking about Travis Hunter’s Heisman chances. Who does that?
Deion Sanders: A coach that loves his kids. A coach that understands that’s what those kids desire. And I’m supposed to do that. That’s what we told them when they were coming and choosing to play for us. My kids that play for me, they didn’t choose a university. They chose me. That’s a difference.
Coaches have chosen to join Sanders as well. The staff he overhauled and upgraded includes former head coaches and former coordinators from schools like Alabama.
Jon Wertheim: Now that you’re a Power Five guy, who’s the best coach in college football today?
Deion Sanders: Let me see– let me see a mirror so I can look at it. (LAUGHTER)
Jon Wertheim: You feel that.
Deion Sanders: What– you think I’m gonna sit up here and tell you somebody else? You– you think– you think that’s the way I operate? That somebody else got that on me? But I tell you this, I love and I adore and I respect and every time I do a commercial with Coach Saban, it’s a gift. Just sitting in his presence and hearing him and– and throwing something else out there so I can hear his viewpoint on it. Because he’s forgotten more things than I may ever accomplish. So I’m a student looking up to this wonderful teacher saying, “Just– just– just throw me a crumb of what you know.”
For all the bling and bluster, there is some humility, and the current mania may die down a bit as Colorado faces a welter of tougher opponents the rest of the season. But Deion Sanders has invigorated a campus, a program, an entire sport.
And, damn, if he hasn’t made it fun.
Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Matthew Lev.
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Deion Sanders transforming Colorado college football, bringing
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Deion Sanders has reinvigorated the Colorado Buffaloes football program, bringing “Prime Time” hype to a team that won just one game last season.
The team debuted this season with a 45-42 win over TCU, last year’s national runner-up, then dispatched Nebraska, 36-14. Sanders is credited with turning the Jackson State University Tigers around and, with his move to Colorado, he’s turned the program there into the unlikely epicenter of college football.
“God wouldn’t relocate me to something that was successful,” Sanders said. “That don’t make sense, do it? He had to find the most disappointing and the most difficult task. And this is what it was. And this is what it is. And I love that.”
Sanders, also known as Coach Prime, previously told 60 Minutes that God called him to Jackson State University. The coach, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member, stayed there three seasons, but last December, on the same night that JSU won the Conference Championship, Sanders announced he was off to Colorado to climb another mountain.
The coach has hinted that JSU’s lack of resources may have factored into his decision to leave, but he’s largely been elusive on the topic.
“Sooner or later in life, there will be opportunity that knocks at your door,” Sanders said. “And at this juncture in my life, I felt like the opportunity for not only me, but for my kids as well, was tremendous.”
The distance between Jackson and Boulder is a thousand miles, and immeasurably further culturally. Sanders went from a city that is 83% Black to one that is 1% Black. The move brought him from a place with a water crisis to the kind of hipster college town where there’s a shop devoted to kites.
He brought his sons, new Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and defensive back Shilo, with him. Shedeur and Shilo knew they would capture attention with the move.
“I mean, we both didn’t come here, have our dad coaching just to lose,” Shilo Sanders said.
Shedeur Sanders put up big numbers at Jackson State. There were questions about whether he could do the same against stiffer competition, but in his first two games at Colorado, he threw for nearly a thousand yards, without an interception.
Travis Hunter also followed Coach Sanders from Jackson to Colorado. He’s playing offense and defense, which is virtually unheard of in the modern college game. Sanders has already publicly talked about Hunter’s Heisman chances.
Hunter and Coach Sanders’ sons aren’t the only new members of the Buffaloes. At the first team meeting in December, Sanders encouraged players to enter the transfer portal, an open market for athletes to find new schools. More than 50 players eventually transferred out as part of Sanders’ roster overhaul.
“You take a team that’s won one game, and you fire the whole coaching staff. … So, who did the coaching staff recruit? The kids. So, the kids are just as much to blame as the coaching staff,” he said. “And I came up to the conclusion that a multitude of them couldn’t help us get to where we wanted to go.”
He said he was there to “coach hard” and “coach tough.” Sanders said he brought an old-school staff of disciplinarians to Colorado.
“My kids that play for me,” he said, “they didn’t choose a university. They chose me. That’s a difference.”
The change has been a lot of fun for Rick George, who hired Coach Sanders. George has been Colorado’s athletic director for a decade.
“It’s great for us to be able to bring this program back to relevancy,” George said. “And we had failed in my previous nine years, 10 years.”
It’s too early to quantify Sanders’ full effect, but merchandise sales for the team are already up 819% from last season. Instagram followers are up more than tenfold and season tickets are sold out.
Sanders’ sudden impact is indisputable.
“I make a difference. I truly make a difference,” the coach said. “I make folks nervous, man. I get folks moving in their seat. I get folks twiddling their thumbs. I get them thinking and second-guessing theirself.”
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Colorado Rallies Back To Beat Colorado State In Double Overtime Thriller
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BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — His mom gave the pregame speech. His defensive-back son started the scoring with an 80-yard pick-six. His quarterback son won it with a 98-yard drive for the ages and an overtime not soon forgotten.
It was quite a day for Deion Sanders. With a bunch of celebrity friends in town, too, to take it all in.
Shedeur Sanders threw a TD pass to Michael Harrison in the second overtime after leading the drive to tie the game with 36 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and No. 18 Colorado rallied to beat Colorado State 43-35 early Sunday in front of a full house packed with famous names.
Sanders connected with Harrison for an 18-yard score and then found an open Xavier Weaver on the 2-point conversion. The Colorado defense took it from there, with Trevor Woods intercepting Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi’s pass on fourth-and-23 to end the game at nearly 12:30 a.m. local time.
It set off a celebration as fans rushed the field for a second straight week. This was the biggest fourth quarter comeback for Colorado since 2005.
“We showed that we have no surrender or give-up in us,” Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders said. “They never doubted themselves.”
In the first OT, Shedeur Sanders patiently waited in the pocket until Harrison flashed open for a 3-yard score. Fowler-Nicolosi followed by connecting with Tory Horton on an 8-yard score.
With 2:06 remaining in the fourth quarter, Sanders and the Buffaloes (3-0) got the ball back on the 2-yard line and trailing 28-20. He led a seven-play drive that culminated with a 45-yard TD pass to Jimmy Horn Jr. with 36 seconds left. Sanders hit Harrison for the 2-point conversion.
“Well, we do it in practice all the time, so it’s not really a surprise to us,” Sanders said of the 98-yard drive. “We like these high-pressure moments”
“This is who he is,” Deion Sanders said.
A 23 1/2-point underdog, the Rams led for a large chunk of the game. Their unraveling was 17 penalties for 182 yards, including a flag for a block below the waist that nullified a touchdown in the second overtime.
Rams coach Jay Norvell added spice to the Rocky Mountain Showdown earlier in the week by taking a jab at Deion Sanders for not taking off his sunglasses and hat in interviews. After the game, Sanders and Norvell shook hands near midfield amid a sea of fans.
“This rivalry has been going on way longer and before I got here,” said Norvell, who’s in his second season at Colorado State. “It’s going to be going on way after I leave.”
As for their squabble, it’s water under the bridge to Sanders.
“I wish the best for him,” he said.
Sanders and the Buffaloes fed off the perceived slight all the way into the game. Shilo Sanders donned sunglasses after his 80-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter as his proud father raced down the sideline in happiness.
“Those ticket prices were worth it today,” Shilo Sanders said.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, right, hugs his son, safety Shilo Sanders, after he returned an interception for a touchdown in the first half of a game against Colorado State on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Shedeur Sanders finished with 348 yards, four TDs and one interception for the Buffaloes, who won their sixth straight over the Rams (0-2). Sanders was missing receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, who was ruled out in the third quarter with an undisclosed injury and taken to the hospital for further evaluation. He could be out a few weeks.
Colorado State put a bye week to good use by finding ways to contain Sanders and the explosive Colorado offense for moments of the game. The Rams tried to spoil the party hosted by Deion Sanders, who had big-name celebrities in town such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and rapper Lil Wayne.
Fowler-Nicolosi had 367 yards and three TDs. Receiver Tory Horton caught a TD pass and threw another on a trick play to tight end Dallin Holker.
“Every loss hurts but this one does hurt a little more just the way we lost it,” Fowler-Nicolosi said. “It’s brutal.”
It was chippy at times, with Rams defensive lineman Mohamed Kamara getting a finger in the face mask from Shedeur Sanders after a play. Kamara was later disqualified in overtime for a targeting call on Sanders.
The emotions heated up early, too, with both teams gathering at midfield about an hour before kickoff and exchanging some words. Hunter left the gathering to run over to the student section and fire up the fans.
Deion Sanders has turned the Buffaloes into the talk of college football since taking over a team that went 1-11 last season.
This weekend, both ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” were both on campus. Some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment turned up in Boulder, including “The Rock” appearing on the set of GameDay and took off his jacket to reveal he was wearing Shedeur Sanders’ No. 2 jersey. The Buffaloes took the field to a mini-concert performed by Lil Wayne in the end zone just before kickoff ( Deion Sanders gifted him a jersey).
“They’ve got Lil Wayne over here, Coach Prime doing his thing. They’ve got a whole animal running around,” Shilo Sanders said of the pregame festivities that also included the live buffalo mascot Ralphie running the field. “I would’ve been so scared if I was the other team.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Colorado State: The Rams have lost 17 straight games to ranked teams on the road, according to Pac-12 research.
Colorado: The announced attendance was 53,141 in a game where tickets were going for an average purchase price is $214, according to TickPick. The Buffaloes have sold out five home games this season and are close to selling out a sixth (Arizona on Nov. 11).
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Hard to say how voters will judge this. It was an epic comeback. But the Buffaloes were a big favorite.
UP NEXT
Colorado State: Play at Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Colorado: At No. 13 Oregon on Saturday.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll
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Deion Sanders Gets Scolded For His Manners By Opposing Coach Days Before Game
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Colorado State football coach Jay Norvell may have tugged on Superman’s cape in appearing to shame University of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders days before their game. (Watch the video below.)
But Norvell didn’t let the fact that his team is a 23.5-point underdog on Saturday stop him from shading Deion Sanders and his shades.
“I sat down with ESPN today and I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder,” Norvell said on his show Wednesday. “I told them, I took my hat off and I took my glasses off. I said when I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat off and my glasses off. That’s what my mother taught me.”
Here’s Sanders at a press conference last month with hat and sunglasses, which he often wears in interviews.
Norvell said his team was tired of the publicity surrounding its in-state rival after having to do interviews with ESPN leading up to the game.
“They’re not gonna like us, no matter what we say or do,” Norvell said of Colorado, per USA Today. “It doesn’t matter. OK, so let’s go up there and play. That’s just how I feel about it. I don’t mean to take over the show. I’m just tired of it. I mean, I’m tired of all that stuff. And I know everybody else is too. So let’s go play.”
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Colorado Keeps Rolling In Sold-Out Home Debut Of Coach Deion Sanders
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BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Shedeur Sanders accounted for three scores, Colorado’s defense forced four turnovers and the 22nd-ranked Buffaloes beat longtime rival Nebraska 36-14 on Saturday in the home debut of Deion Sanders at sold-out Folsom Field.
After Coach Prime’s team was the story of Week 1 with an upset of TCU, the Buffs showed it was no fluke.
Shedeur Sanders threw for 393 yards and two scores, while running for another touchdown. He capped his 6-yard romp with the dance steps his dad made famous during his playing days.
The Buffaloes (2-0) needed a moment to wake up given the early kickoff. But once they did, they were unstoppable. After punting on their first four drives, Sanders and the offense scored on seven of eight possessions to turn the game into a rout. The Buffaloes outgained the Huskers (0-2) by a 454-341 margin.
The fans ran onto the field to celebrate with a second remaining. After a momentary delay, the official announced it was over and more rushed out.
BOULDER, CO – SEPTEMBER 9: Head coach Matt Rhule of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and head coach Deion Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes have a word after a Colorado Buffaloes win at Folsom Field on September 9, 2023 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) Dustin Bradford via Getty Images
The contest featured two coaches trying to turn around programs that have fallen on lean times. Deion Sanders has elevated Colorado to the point where the Buffaloes had 53,241 fans in attendance — their largest crowd in 15 years — and tickets going for roughly $400. His counterpart, Matt Rhule, is still looking for his first win at Nebraska.
Xavier Weaver hauled in 10 passes for 170 yards and a score, while Jace Feely connected on three field goals.
Shedeur Sanders stayed cool despite being under constant pressure and sacked seven times. He distributed the production, just like he did in a 45-42 win at TCU last weekend.
Tar’Varish Dawson had a big afternoon, with a 30-yard touchdown catch and an 8-yard score on a reverse.
The defense held the Cornhuskers in check until Colorado’s offense got revved up.
Nebraska quarterback Jeff Sims fumbled two snaps, lost another on a botched handoff and had a pass picked off. He was knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter when he appeared to have his left leg rolled on as he scrambled to make a throw.
Travis Hunter, the versatile cornerback and receiver, rarely left the field. He finished with three catches for 73 yards, while also making four tackles. Hunter played 129 snaps at TCU.
The fans showed up early to get good seats as Folsom Field kicked off its 100th season in electric fashion. The crew for Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” was on hand, too, and welcomed Colorado royalty Kordell Stewart and Michael Westbrook to the set. Hall of Fame receivers Michael Irvin and Terrell Owens also were at the game.
The seat everyone wanted on the Colorado sideline? The newly unveiled “turnover throne,” of course. Jordan Domineck, Arden Walker and Bishop Thomas recovered fumbles, while Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig had an interception.
Nebraska: Nebraska has dropped its last five nonconference road games.
Colorado: The Buffaloes have their first three-game winning streak over the Huskers since the 1950s.
Colorado should be on the rise once again.
Nebraska: Host Northern Illinois on Saturday.
Colorado: Host another rival, Colorado State, on Saturday night.
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New Colorado coach Deion Sanders already making an impact
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BOULDER, Colorado (AP) — New Colorado coach Deion Sanders can’t yet point to any on-field wins in Boulder, but signs of a massive shift in mood and expectation abound at this school and in this city around what has been a forlorn football program.
Hired in December after a highly successful run as Jackson State’s head coach, the NFL Hall of Fame cornerback is in the midst of running practices with his new team in preparation for Colorado’s annual intrasquad spring game on April 22.
The school announced earlier this week that the game, which is also being nationally televised on ESPN, had sold out with more than 45,000 people expected to be on hand. It would stand out as the highest attendance ever for Colorado’s spring game, eclipsing the previous high of 17,800 in 2008. Indeed, according to the school, the anticipated attendance will be higher than the combined total for the previous nine spring games.
“We haven’t won a game. There’s no impact right now,” Sanders said at a news conference Saturday. “The financial aspect of what’s going on, that’s a blessing. Somebody’s profiting really well and I’m happy for that, especially this university because they deserve it. And to display and show what’s here, in your beloved city, I think that’s a beautiful thing to bring that to fruition.”
Sanders, popularly known as “Primetime” in his playing days but better known now as “Coach Prime,” said he likes the way the team is starting to mesh. He can sense the eagerness and desire among his players and the students he’s met to turn around the program.
“I can’t wait for the spring game, really looking forward to it, because I want to see the difference in the atmosphere and the feeling and the spirit of everything,” said Sanders, who is taking over a program that has had a losing record in its last six seasons, including a 1-11 finish last season.
“I spoke to the School of Business yesterday and it was phenomenal,” Sanders said. “Those kids were hungry. Every kid had a pencil and piece of paper and taking notes and they were on every darn word, every thought, everything I uttered, they were on it. They wanted it. I loved that.”
Sanders insists change has to be made by both players and fans.
“If we’re going to change the game here, that means the fans have got to change, too,” he said. “We want to impact them as well. We want them to be ready for us like we want to be ready for them.”
If his players are anything like their coach, they’ll be ready, for primetime. Sanders attended the conference wearing a cowboy hat with a gold chain and traditional coach’s whistle draped around his neck. He was asked if he would like to see some of his players, which include his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, take on any of his football characteristics as is sometimes wont between players and coaches.
“I hope so,” Sanders said with a smile. “God, I hope so. That’s what I want. That’s what I’m looking for.”
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Deion Sanders has decided to stop coaching at a historically Black college. Here’s why people are so upset | CNN
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CNN
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College football fans and HBCU alumni are still coming to terms with Deion Sanders announcing his departure from Jackson State University for his new head coaching gig at the University of Colorado.
The move struck a chord, especially among alumni of the Mississippi college, with some calling Sanders a “sell out” for leaving the historically Black JSU for the predominantly white CU.
Others are angry about him selling the dream of changing the athletic culture at historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, across the US and leaving after only three years.
While some were hopeful about everything Sanders said he could accomplish for JSU and other HBCUs, they “failed to realize this history of segregation, the history of integration and the history of the way TV contracts work really put these schools behind the 8-ball, so to speak,” said Louis Moore, a history professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
It’s complicated, but the anger, confusion and disappointment about Sanders’ move stem from a culture of loyalty and reverence for history that’s unique to HBCUs, experts told CNN. But Coach Prime’s exit also highlights a decades long discussion about equity in collegiate athletics.
Here’s a look into the conversation that fueled this week’s debate:
Sanders had been coaching the JSU Tigers the past three seasons, compiling a 26-5 record and most recently winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship over Southern University.
The school took a chance on Sanders, who had no collegiate coaching experience. He’d previously been the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian School, a private school near Dallas.
What he did bring was exposure, to both Jackson State and HBCUs overall.
“I could be an assistant in any college, or a head coach in any college, but at such a time as this, God called me to Jackson State and me to these men,” Sanders said in 2020 when it was announced he’d be the new JSU head coach.
Sanders also promised to the change the HBCU landscape, in essence becoming a savior of HBCU athletics and putting these schools on the map.
He did that, sort of. Since his arrival, JSU was featured on ESPN’s “First Take” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The school was showcased at the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, and even featured in a Pepsi ad. Sanders also donated half his salary to complete renovations to the school’s football stadium, according to CNN affiliate WLBT-TV.
All of this in the span of three years gave many hope he was in it for the long run. That, obviously, was not the case.
“You weren’t going to bring this attention to all these other schools in the time period he was there. If he was really going to accomplish that, that’s a 10-year program, at least,” sports journalist Bomani Jones, a Clark Atlanta University alumnus, told CNN’s Don Lemon this week.
Additionally, what Sanders didn’t take into consideration was the culture of loyalty at HBCUs.
“There is an assumption that HBCUs breed this loyalty, definitely among it’s alumni, definitely among athletes and supposedly among coaches and Deion Sanders demystified that,” said Billy Hawkins, a professor at the University of Houston and the author of “The New Plantation: Black Athletes, College Sports, and Predominantly White NCAA Institutions.”
Two HBCU coaches known for their long tenures include Eddie Robinson, Grambling State University’s head football coach between the 1940s and 1990s, and Jake Gaither who led Florida A&M’s program from 1945 to 1969, according to the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
But, it’s problematic to expect coaches to stay for such a long time, Hawkins said.
“When you look at HBCUs, they’re probably the only institutions that had that type of institutional memory in athletic coaching even (predominantly white institutions) have only had maybe a few that have hung around 10, 15, 20 years,” he said.
Sanders arrival and departure from Jackson State speaks to many issues of history and equity.
HBCUs were created for Black Americans who were barred from attending predominantly white institutions, or PWIs. Officials at these institutions initially did not even want sports programs because Black athletes rarely went professional in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hawkins said.
Despite this, football was introduced at HBCUs in the 1890s, according to the nonprofit African American Registry. It wasn’t until after World War II that the golden age of Black college football began and HBCUs were producing more talent per capita than just about any other school in the country, said Derrick E. White, a history professor at the University of Kentucky and half of “The Black Athlete” podcast.
“These schools (had) tiny budgets, but because of segregation were able to produce this wealth of talent,” White said.
Between 1961 and 2002, Jackson State had 94 players drafted into the NFL. The school had 11 players drafted in 1968, breaking a then Mississippi state record, according its website.
Integration in the late 1960s and early 1970s ended the golden age.
“HBCUs used to be seen as the mecca of Black intellectual ability, now with the drain that took place or the migration of Blacks to PWIs – both as students and as athletes – there is that perception that they’re less than,” Hawkins said. “Along with this absence of resources, there is also notion and ideology of intellectual inferiority and I think that spills over into athletics as well, thus they don’t necessarily receive the same types of sponsorships and endorsements because there’s this assumption there’s an inferior performance.”
A 1984 Supreme Court ruling widened the gap between HBCUs and their counterparts even more. The ruling said the NCAA could no longer control whose games aired on television. Conferences – like the SEC, ACC and Big 10 – were now able to negotiate with TV networks directly.
“All small colleges get shut out of this TV funding model because people on ABC don’t want to see Dartmouth or Grambling,” White said, adding that smaller Division I schools learned to depend on donors who had millions to pour into their college programs.
And historically, because of a lack of generational wealth among many Black families in the US, HBCUs don’t have that wealthy donor base.
So, combine a history of segregation, a loss of resources to integration and lack of equity getting multimillion dollar TV deals, and HBCUs get left behind financially and athletically.
Then comes Sanders, who talked about rebuilding the JSU brand, bringing in recruits and amplifying HBCUs to the mainstream.
“He sold the big dream. Now if you paid any attention, you knew the dream he was selling wasn’t possible – it was not an achievable one that he had – but he sold it and he got people to believe it, then he chucked the deuce and left,” Jones, the sports journalist, told CNN’s Don Lemon.
Sanders move out west also highlights another issue in college sports, a lack of Black head coaches in big league schools. His move is definitely progress for Black coaches in college football.
Sanders is one of three HBCU coaches to go to a PWI, experts say, and the first to go to a Power 5 school. A Black head coach has also never won a Football Bowl Subdivision – the top tier of Division I – national championship.
“They don’t get a chance,” said Moore, the Grand Valley State professor and other half of “The Black Athlete” podcast.
Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in HBCUs from the election of Vice President Kamala Harris, a Howard University alumna, to companies increasing recruitment among HBCU students and Ralph Lauren collaborating with Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in Atlanta. The New York Times even reported the current climate has led elite Black students to choose HBCUs over elite PWIs.
Sanders was part of this resurgence and played his part, bringing even more eyes to these schools.
“Nobody was talking about HBCUs,” said Shannon Sharpe, a Hall of Famer and HBCU alumnus, on his Fox show “Undisputed.”
“They’re on television and that’s because of him,” Sharpe said of Sanders. “He gave you the blueprint, now follow the blueprint.”
Part of that blueprint, experts said, is HBCUs not needing to imitate PWIs, but instead remembering the product that makes them unique to their fan base.
“At HBCUs, the entire experience is a cultural expression,” Hawkins said, referring to the marching bands and their electrifying halftime shows that make football games a combination of music and sports.
The schools also offer a space for Black students where they don’t have to represent the entire race, said White, the University of Kentucky professor. Remembering these elements about what makes the experience unique will help Jackson State move forward after Sanders.
“It’s gonna take a visionary administrator, not just an athletic director, … to wed to the academic mission, the cultural mission and the athletic mission to really propel not just the individual school forward, but all Black schools.”
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Deion Sanders hired as the next head coach for University of Colorado football | CNN
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Coach Prime is officially heading to Boulder, Colorado.
Football legend Deion Sanders has been named the new University of Colorado football head coach, the school announced Saturday.
Sanders will be leaving Jackson State University, where he coached the Tigers for the past three seasons, compiling a record of 26-5 – including going undefeated this season. The Tigers won the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship earlier Saturday, defeating Southern University 43-24.
“There were a number of highly qualified and impressive candidates interested in becoming the next head football coach at Colorado, but none of them had the pedigree, the knowledge and the ability to connect with student-athletes like Deion Sanders,” Colorado athletic director Rick George said in a statement.
“Not only will Coach Prime energize our fanbase, I’m confident that he will lead our program back to national prominence while leading a team of high quality and high character.”
Sanders was drafted as a first-rounder in 1989 by the Atlanta Falcons out of Florida State and played in the league for 14 seasons with several franchises. He won two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Sanders also played for five different Major League Baseball teams in 11 years. He is the first athlete to have competed in a Super Bowl and a World Series.
In October, Colorado fired Karl Dorrell after an 0-5 start and an 8-15 overall record in three years as head coach. Interim head coach Mike Sanford went 1-6 as the Buffaloes finished the season with the worst record in the Pac-12 Conference.
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