Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has seen success on the sidelines in recent years, transforming Jackson State into a Division I Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse. Sanders parlayed that success into a Division I FBS job at Colorado, leading some pundits to wonder about his coaching ceiling. However, Prime Time is making it clear that he has no interest into ascending into the NFL coaching ranks.
In a conversation with Bri Amaranthus of SI.com, Sanders admitted that he doesn’t have “any desire or ambition to coach in the NFL.” Sanders specifically points to Dallas, where he won a championship and earned three All-Pro nods during a five-year stint. While he acknowledged that he loves Jerry Jones and “that whole family,” he also believes he’s “cut a little different” when it comes to dealing with today’s players.
“I have a problem with men getting their checks and not doing their jobs,” Sanders said. “I would be too tough as a coach in the NFL because I still have those old-school attributes.”
While it isn’t unheard of for a college coach to take the leap directly to an NFL head coaching job, there have only been 12 such hirings since 2000, and many of those coaches had some NFL assistant coaching experience before earning college HC gigs. The most recent hiring — Urban Meyer is Jacksonville — ended in disaster, and we’ve seen Matt Rhule and Kliff Kingsbury also lose their jobs over the past year. Jim Harbaugh is one of the lone successes in that 12-man grouping (other than Harbaugh, Bill O’Brien and Chip Kelly are the only other two coaches with positive records), so it’ll probably be a bit before we see a similar hiring.
As a result, even if Sanders was interested in an NFL gig, he’d likely have to take the assistant-coaching route. However, that kind of gig doesn’t interest the 55-year-old.
“I’m not an assistant coach. That is not me,” said Sanders. “I am a head coach … I don’t settle for mediocrity whatsoever. You are going to do it this way, we are going to work our butts off, we are going to be a team. The only thing that is individual about you is the way you play.”
Sanders started his coaching career about a decade ago at Prime Prep Academy, a school that he co-founded. He later coached his sons at Trinity Christian High School before taking the Jackson State job in 2020. After going 4-3 during the shortened 2020 campaign, Sanders helped guide the school to a 23-3 record across the 2021 and 2022 campaigns. Sanders also made headlines when he recruited defensive back Travis Hunter, making the player the first five-star recruit to join an FCS program.