Deion Sanders, also affectionately called 'Prime Time', is a former American football cornerback. The two-time Super Bowl champion was not just one of the best cornerbacks in the game but he also excelled as a baseball outfielder. He played nine seasons in Major League Baseball. During High School, Deion was a letterman and excelled in football, basketball, and baseball. He was so good at all three sports that he later went on to play professional football as well as baseball. The two-sport athlete was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Sanders continued his multi-sport association in college with the Florida State Seminoles where he was part of their football, baseball, and track teams. Since then, Deion Sanders is the only player to have ever played in a Super Bowl as well as a World Series in baseball. Although he retired from professional sports in 2005, he has continued to give back to football first by delving into a broadcasting career and later moving to a coaching career.
Deion Sanders’ Coaching Job
After being in the football coaching field for several years, Deion Sanders was approached by the University of Colorado Boulder to become the head coach of their college football team in December 2022. The Colorado Buffaloes belong to the PAC-12 Conference of the NCAA’s (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division 1 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision). The Division 1 FBS is the United States’ highest level of college football. The Buffaloes, who were previously a charter member of the Big-12 Conference, returned to this conference in 2024.
Colorado’s college football team played its first season back in 1890. The University which is located in the city of Boulder, Colorado, plays its home games at Folsom Field which opened in 1924. However, the stadium has undergone multiple renovations since then. Although the team has 26 conference championships, and 5 division championships, while participating in 29 Bowl games, it does not have much success to show when it comes to hardware. Their Bowl record stands at 12-17 and they have lost the last four games with their last win coming in 2004. Furthermore, 1990 was the only year when the Buffaloes won the National Championship. With Sanders at the helm, the Buffaloes managed to win 4 of their 12 games in 2023, which was a 3-game improvement over 2022.
Deion Sanders’ Coaching Career
Sanders first dabbled into coaching when he co-founded the Prime Prep Academy for football. Various schools enrolled into the academy and Sanders was the head coach there for two years in 2012 and 2013. He then received a job as head coach in Triple A Academy where he would again coach for two years in 2015 and 2016. Then in 2017, Sanders received an offer to become the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian High School which meant he got to coach two of his younger sons, Shilo and Shedeur.
Deion Sanders at Jackson State University
In September 2020, Sanders got his first real stint at coaching at a higher level. The Jackson State Tigers football team approached him to be their head coach. The Tigers belong to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) of the NCAA Division 1 FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) which is the United States college football’s second-highest division after the FBS.
Unfortunately for Sanders, he took over the team when the pandemic was still at large, and thus the season began late at the start of 2021. In his seven games as the head coach, he was able to guide the team to only four victories with one of them coming via a forfeiture. His fortunes, however, changed for the better the next season as he coached the team to an 11-2 record earning him the fall 2021 Eddie Robinson Award which is given to the best head coach of the season in the FCS.
The 2022 season even saw Sanders go one better as the Tigers finished the year with a 12-1 record. In both seasons, Sander’s team finished in the top spot in the SWAC. Unfortunately, though, the Tigers ended up losing back-to-back Celebration Bowl games in 2021 and 2022. As a result of his exemplary work at Jackson State, Deion was offered the head coach job at the University of Colorado Boulder for the upcoming 2023 year.
FAQs on Deion Sanders
A. While Deion Sanders was coaching at Jackson State, he experienced blood flow problems to his foot and as a result, had to have two toes amputated due to blood clots.
A. Deion Sanders is coaching at the University of Colorado as of 2024.
A. Deion Sanders spent close to three years coaching the Jackson State Tigers football team from 2020 to 2022.
A. Deion Sanders has won two consecutive Super Bowls, first with the San Francisco 49ers in 1994 and the second with the Dallas Cowboys in 1995.
