Deion Sanders, once again, is on a mission.
In the process, he’s shattering virtually all the staid norms in college football.
Advocating for his own players? Sure.
Touting his Jackson State program’s fan base? Sanders knows his audience.
Seeking to elevate the profiles of his peers – not just coaches on his staff but at Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as his direct rivals in the Southwestern Athletic Conference?
Welcome to Coach Prime’s latest barnstorming topic.
When the former Florida State All-American who had decorated careers in both Major League Baseball and the NFL isn’t standing on his faith or taking umbrage at being Alabama State’s homecoming foe this weekend – “We can’t wait to be their homecoming! It’s going to be a great game because we are their homecoming!” Sanders emphasizes – he is trumpeting the bona fides of the players and coaches against whom his Tigers are competing week in and week out.
“When I played the game, contrary to what many would think, I never spoke ill of not one opponent,” Sanders said Monday on the SWAC coaches’ teleconference. “Ever. In my life, in my career, ever said anything derogatory about my opponent. I don’t care how they attacked me or what they said about me, I would always build that guy up because I’ve never been insecure about anything. I know who I am and I know what God gave me. I know how to exercise and utilize my gifts. So for me to down another person? What sense does that make. I’d rather lift a guy up and elevate those guys.”
Sanders, four games into his second full season atop the JSU program and already with a SWAC championship to go along with a 15-2 mark in his last 17 games, is adamant this cause is dear to him because of what he sees week after week in competing with SWAC programs oftentimes rich in history but short on exposure.
“These coaches in the SWAC and in the FCS can really coach their butts off but they rarely get the opportunities,” Sanders said. “Hopefully we can advance and give them opportunities.
“These kids can play, we show you that. How can a guy play at a certain level but a coach can’t coach at a certain level? I don’t understand that philosophy. I don’t understand why we think it should be that way, it’s not. I want all these guys to think about elevation.”
While there are instances of HBCU and SWAC coaches climbing the coaching ladder for opportunities at the sport’s higher levels, there does not seem to be any precedent for a successful coach at that level to catapult from an HBCU/SWAC program into an Football Bowls Subdivision coaching position.
“It’s coaches in the SWAC that can coach their butt off,” Sanders said. “I want to ask them what is up. Do you now want to go to another level? Do you not want to go to the NFL? Do you not want to go to the Power-5 (conference)?
“They can dial it up and they’re working with less resources than many are working with. I wish to God they could be blessed to be promoted.”
Though Sanders doesn’t think his efforts seeking to uplift those around him, even rivals, likely resonates now with his current team, he does hope it’s an eventual example for them.
“I don’t think those guys are understanding that at this level,” he said. “When you’re in college, it’s me, me, me. You want to get to the next level, it’s all about you. You want to get your grades, get to the next level, get a girlfriend on campus. Or whatever they have. I don’t think guys see it that way, but hopefully as they mature they understand how important their teammates, the guys around them and their coaching staff, everybody in that circle that really has been created to advance you.
“We are a wonderful unit around here. We wouldn’t be what we are without our trainers, our equipment people, general support staff; we have a good thing going around here and I love it.”