The fascinating thing about the still-very-young Deion Sanders era at Jackson State is the ways it's been the same and different from every other head coaching tenure at every level of college football.
He's doing the same things other head coaches do, but because they're being done by one of the most accomplished, famous and charismatic players in football history, they're completely different.
Case in point: this interview Coach Prime sat for with the David Banner Podcast.
Every head coach spends a portion of his honeymoon era making the media rounds, promising the public that, dadgumit, We're not only going to win, we're going to do it the right way with men who go to class, call their moms and help old ladies cross the street.
"I want these young men to be professionals," Sanders said. "They can be great fathers, they can be community leaders, they can be great sons, they can be whatever they desire to be.... I want these young men to affect change. When a kid comes out of JSU and matriculates out of our program, I want you to know he's there. He doesn't even have to open his mouth. Just the way he carries himself -- the way he rolls back his shoulders, the way he carries his head, the way he's articulating himself. When he walks in, the temperature should immediately go from 74 to 72, 73. He should cool the whole situation."
But, in his Deion way, he went farther than that. In that pastoral way of his, he doesn't just promise his flock the moon, he tells them how long it'll take to get there and what kind of snacks they'll eat along the way.
"I want to provoke change in every aspect of that community," he continued. "I expect the crime rate to go down, my brother. I expect teenage pregnancy to decrease. I expect unity. I expect the white, the Black, the Hispanic, the Asian, everyone to see each other at a game and strike up conversations they wouldn't normally have."
Again, every new head coach does, this to a degree. He's speaking metaphorically to illustrate a point of what's possible at Jackson State. Only Deion has the oomph, the self-confidence, the chutzpah to take it as far as he does, but it works because he's Deion and so far he's exceeded expectations.
But, still. I'm confident you won't find Nick Saban, in the early days of his time in Tuscaloosa, priming the faithful to expect the teen pregnancy rate in Alabama to fall through the sheer force of Crimson Tide football.