Deion Sanders. That name is infamous in the sports world because he played both in the NFL and the MLB. Sanders attended Jackson State University, was a quarterback for the football team, and also played left and center field for the baseball team. Most athletes choose one sport to stick with after high school, but Sanders decided to play both football and baseball in college. Sanders went on to play in the MLB for nine years as a part-time player. He also played in the NFL for 14 years after being the 5th overall pick in the 1989 draft. Sanders played for four teams in the NFL throughout his 14-year career. As most things do, playing football came to an end for him, but he still wanted to be around the sport.

Sanders was the head coach of Jackson State University, his former college team, from 2020-2022. At Jackson State, he finished with a 27-5 record. He was recently offered a coaching position at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), whose football team hasn’t had a winning season since 2006. Nonetheless, Sanders accepted the coaching position at CU and has already been making changes within the program and prepping for the program’s future. 

Sanders has already started to offer scholarships to the top football prospects around the country. Not only this, but players that already had scholarship offers to play at other schools have committed to CU since the time that Sanders officially accepted the coaching job. Five of his former players at Jackson State have already entered the transfer portal, hoping to follow Sanders to CU after he departed from Jackson State. There have already been predictions on how the next season for the Buffs will be while under the new management of Sanders. Many believe that they will become true contenders in the Pac-12 conference. 

Fans from Jackson State have been upset by Sanders’ choice to move to CU, but on the other hand, Buffs fans are excited and hopeful that Sanders will be able to find a way to bring the team from the bottom of the pack to the top and take them into the playoffs for nationals. Buffs fan Cort Sanger (23) said, “I think Deon will live up to the hype at CU because he brought Jackson State back-to-back SWAC titles. They were a team no one knew about until Sanders got there.” Sanders had a lot of hype when he first announced he would be coaching at Jackson State because of his success in the NFL. He lived up to the hype out in Mississippi and only time will tell if he’ll be able to do the same thing at CU. Sanger also said, “I think people are confident in Sanders not only because of his coaching knowledge but because of the recruits he can bring in. He can get big-time players to come to play for him just because of the type of coach he is.” Assistant Reds football coach Dean Grable said, “I think he knows and loves the game. He’s played that way and he’s going to light a passion and coach the players who always seem to love him.” Deion Sanders’ choice to move to CU Boulder is a bold and defining decision in his coaching career, but only time will tell what he can do for the Buffs football program.