ARIZONA STATE FOOTBALL
Deion Sanders becomes next head football coach at Colorado
Dec 3, 2022, 7:49 PM | Updated: 10:04 pm
Head coach Deion Sanders of the Jackson State Tigers looks on before the game against the Southern University Jaguars in the SWAC Championship at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium on December 03, 2022 in Jackson, Mississippi. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)
Deion Sanders will become the next head coach of the Colorado football team, the school announced on Saturday night.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported Friday that Sanders and his associates spent the week recruiting on-field staff, support staff and transfer portal players to Colorado.
Sanders capped his third season as the head coach of Jackson State with a win in the SWAC championship game on Saturday to finish with a 27-5 record.
Per Thamel, Colorado’s board of regents has called a special meeting for Sunday at 10 a.m. (Arizona time) but haven’t provided any further details.
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As other schools have filled their head coaching vacancies in the past week, with national signing day and the opening of the transfer portal fast approaching, Colorado has waited until championship weekend plays out.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer has been at Jackson State, a historically Black college that plays in the NCAA’s Championship Subdivision, since 2020.
Colorado could prove to be quite a challenge for the 55-year-old Sanders, who inherits a program that’s had one full-length winning season since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
The Buffaloes are coming off a 1-11 season in which Karl Dorrell was dismissed in October and interim coach Mike Sanford finished out the season that culminated with a 63-21 blowout loss to No. 12 Utah at home.
He was 8-15 overall in three seasons. Mike Sanford finished 1-6 as the interim head coach after Dorrell was fired. The Buffaloes have appeared in just two bowl games since moving to the Pac-12 in 2011.
The hiring of Sanders brings instant name recognition and a track record of being able to recruit top-level talent. It’s certainly energized the campus and the community, with a fan at a recent Colorado basketball game holding up a sign that read, “It’s Time 4 Prime.”
An All-American at Florida State, Sanders was a standout with five NFL teams, including the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, where he won a Super Bowl with each. He also played nine MLB seasons and reached the World Series with the Atlanta Braves in 1992.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
