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“If Someone Don’t Step Up And Step Out And Hold It Down For Us There’s A Problem” | Deion Sanders Confirms He’s Leaving JSU To Become Head Coach At Colorado

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Deion Sanders has confirmed what’s been reported all week. He will officially become the head coach at Colorado following the Celebration Bowl versus North Carolina Central. Sanders relayed the information to his team right after clinching the program’s second consecutive SWAC championship with a convincing 43-24 win over rival Southern. In what was a bittersweet moment between Sanders and his team, he did his best to break down why he had to take the Colorado job.

“It’s been four or more African-American head coaches at the next level that have been terminated. I haven’t heard not one other candidate like myself to replace them. To me, that’s a problem that many don’t think about. If someone don’t step and step out and hold it down for us there’s a problem. Many detractors, I guess they don’t understand college football consists of 70 percent African-American. I don’t care where you’re at, there just happens to be more at an HBCU. But it’s not like I’m not going to speak into the lives of African-American men and women alike, because my challenge is to still provoke change no matter where I am.”

Coach Prime will take his talents to a Colorado team that went 1-11 this season and is 5-19 in the last two seasons. A stark contrast to his 27-5 record at Jackson State in two full seasons and one shortened spring seson during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rumors Swirled All Week Of Sanders’ Departure

All week there were different media outlets reporting that Sanders was gonna make an announcement following Saturday’s SWAC championship game. And that’s exactly what he did, in fact, even five-star recruit Brandon Inniss, whom Sanders and a slew of other programs are recruiting, told 247Sports that Sanders told him he was going to a Power Five school.

“He was just like, ‘Man, I’m letting you know that I’m going to a Power Five,’ and that he wants me to join him, basically.”

Well, on Saturday that came to fruition with an emotional Sanders letting his team know he was out in two weeks. Towards the end of the SWAC championship Sanders and AD Ashley Robinson, who hired him in 2020, stood together and embraced in a look-what-we-created, take-it-all in moment. Robinson pinned a letter to Sanders, thanking him for taking a chance on JSU, and bringing exposure, revenue and visibility to the HBCU world.

Sanders Will See Huge Bump In Pay, As Will Assistants

In wake of Sanders taking a Power Five job comes newfound riches. First of all, Deion is set to make $5 million per season. With incentives it could reach as much as $7 million. His assistants, whom Sanders has reiterated over and over again had outworked their salaries, will also see a huge jump in pay. There will be more support staff,  more opportunities and resources to build out his program in the way he just couldn’t at the cash- and resource-strapped HBCU.

Also the questions of which players go and which players stay will come into play. For starters, his sons Shedeur and Shilo are heading to Boulder. The 2022 No. 1 overall recruit Travis Hunter is also headed to Boulder. Kevin Coleman, another top-50 recruit, is on the plane to the Rocky Mountains as well.

While there will be plenty others, these four are locks to take their talents the Pac-12 with their coach.

Now all that’s left to do is go out on top with a Celebration Bowl win in two weeks.

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