Down the stretch of his team’s undefeated regular-season schedule, Deion Sanders addressed with his Jackson State players the outside coaching chatter of Sanders being a viable candidate at other college football programs.
On Monday, Coach Prime again followed through on his vow to maintain an open dialogue as Sanders’s coaching star continues to elevate with his work atop the Tigers’ program.
During the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s title-game press conference, Sanders confirmed multiple reports that the University of Colorado had offered its vacant head coaching job to the College and Pro Football Hall of Famer who’s guided JSU to a 22-2 mark in two full seasons.
“Yeah, definitely, the report is true,” Sanders said. “They’re not the only ones. The report is true. I’m not going to sit here and tell all my business, but they’re not the only ones.
“I would be a liar if I told you (Colorado officials) didn’t [offer Sanders the job]. You know they did, I know they did, everybody there knows they did. It is what it is. That’s not my focus right now. My focus is to win and to be dominant and then, not even to go on to the dern celebration bowl, my focus is right here to be dominant in this beloved stadium on Saturday. That’s my focus. And I keep the main thing the main thing. I have an innate ability to focus and keep the main thing the main thing.”
Jackson State, the No. 5 team in the Football Championship Subdivision Coaches Top 25, hosts SWAC rival Southern on Saturday for the league’s overall title and a berth in the prestigious HBCU Celebration Bowl next month in Atlanta.
Sanders emphasized that the outside attention from other schools who have spoken to Sanders would not be a distraction to the Tigers.
“Well to someone else who hasn’t been that dude, it’s intoxicating,” Sanders said of the attention. “I’ve been Prime for a long time, dog. Attention ain’t nothing new to me. C’mon. I’m not being braggadocious but this ain ’t new to me.
“Being in the spotlight ain’t new to me, but I’ve got to turn that spotlight and channel it to my kids, channel it to my coaches, channel it to the support staff.”
In addition to the Colorado job, Sanders has been linked to the opening at USF and a year ago was considered for the TCU job. Arkansas also interviewed Sanders before he hired Sam Pittman two years ago.