After days of anticipation and speculation, it’s happening – Prime Time is coming to Boulder.
Jackson State head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has accepted an offer to become the next head coach at Colorado, the school announced Saturday.
Sanders recently finished his third season at Jackson State, a historically Black university in Jackson, Miss., where he went 27-5 in that time. His final two teams went 23-2, including a 12-0 record this season following the Tigers’ 43-24 victory Saturday against Southern in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship game. In the three seasons before Sanders was hired, Jackson State went 12-21.
He’ll replace Karl Dorrell, who was fired Oct. 2, nearly midway through his third season with the program. Under Dorrell’s watch, the Buffs went 8-15, including an 0-5 mark this season before he was terminated.
"There were a number of highly qualified and impressive candidates interested in becoming the next head football coach at Colorado, but none of them had the pedigree, the knowledge and the ability to connect with student-athletes like Deion Sanders," athletic director Rick George said in a statement. "Not only will Coach Prime energize our fanbase, I'm confident that he will lead our program back to national prominence while leading a team of high quality and high character."
Sanders will be formally introduced as the Buffs' new head coach at a 1:30 p.m. press conference Sunday.
RELATED: COLUMN: Colorado made the best hire it could to expedite turnaround | Rounding up the best social media reaction to the Deion Sanders hire
Chatter linking Sanders to the open Colorado job had been building for the better part of the past two weeks, turning what initially seemed like an odd pairing into an increasingly likely possibility. Sanders himself confirmed in a press conference earlier this week that he had been offered the job. On Friday night, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Sanders had been “preparing to make an exit” to Colorado, with Sanders and his associates spending this week making inquiries to potential staff members and “a prominent player in the NCAA transfer portal.”
Sanders did not speak to reporters after Jackson State's win Saturday.
"Deion Sanders' stature transcends sports, and his hiring elevates not only the football program but the university as a whole," CU Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano said in a statement. "I'm thankful Deion has chosen to join our Buffalo family and I applaud Rick George for a truly inspired choice. This is an exciting new chapter in the long, storied history of Colorado football and I look forward to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our students, supporters and fans to cheer on "Coach Prime" and our student-athletes next fall."
Details and terms of Sanders' contract have yet to be released, but as a public university subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, those figures from Colorado should be available relatively soon. A report from CBS Colorado set Sanders' contract at $5 million per year.
His hiring comes with historical significance, too. With Sanders following Dorrell and Mel Tucker, Colorado is the first program in FBS history to have three consecutive Black head coaches, not including interims.
Between the success of his teams, his outsized personality and his legendary playing career, Sanders emerged as a high-profile option for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams in need of a new head coach. In a 60 Minutes profile of Sanders last month, he was asked what he would do if a Power Five program came to him with an offer.
“I’m going to have to entertain it,” he said. “Yes, I’m going to have to entertain it. Straight up. I’d be a fool not to.”
That scenario has now played out in real time. Sanders not only entertained the overture, but accepted it. And now, Colorado is the school that stands to benefit from it.
Sanders’ arrival will instantly make the Buffs, who have languished in national obscurity for much of the past 20 years, one of the sport’s most captivating and relevant programs in a way they haven’t been since the early 2000s, if not longer.
With the implementation of the NCAA’s one-time transfer exemption, Colorado won’t morph into a conference title contender overnight, but what was likely the worst Power Five roster in the country should get an immediate infusion of talent. Those new arrivals could include some of Sanders’ marquee players at Jackson State – a group highlighted by his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, and cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter. The younger Sanders, a sophomore, entered the SWAC championship with 3,083 passing yards, 32 touchdowns and six interceptions this season and is a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, given annually to the top Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) player. Hunter, a freshman, was the No. 1 recruit nationally in the 2022 class and is a finalist for the Jerry Rice Award, which is presented annually to the best freshman in the FCS.
For all his success on the field and the recruiting trail, Sanders will be faced with the challenges of making the jump from the FCS to a Power Five conference – to say nothing of what awaits him once he gets to Boulder.
The Buffs are fresh off a 1-11 finish in 2022, tied for the worst single-season win percentage in school history. They didn’t just lose, but were regularly blown out, falling by an average of 32.4 points per game in their 11 losses. While a nadir of sorts, the 2022 season was the 13th time in the past 15 years that Colorado failed to make a bowl game. In a 15-season stretch from 1988-2002, the Buffs made 13 bowl games and finished ranked 10 times, including six top-10 finishes. In 1990, they claimed a share of the national championship, the first and only one in program history.
A Fort Myers, Fla. native, Sanders entered college coaching at a relatively late stage in his life, accepting the Jackson State job when he was already 53 years old. Over a 15-year NFL career, Sanders was a two-time Super Bowl champion, a six-time first-team All-Pro and an eight-time Pro Bowler. He was the 1994 NFL defensive player of the year and made the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1990s. He was the rare professional two-sport athlete, as he played for New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants in a baseball career that stretched from 1989-2001.
Following his final retirement from football in 2006, Sanders worked as an analyst for CBS Sports and the NFL Network. He coached high-school football, as well, serving stints as the head coach at Prime Prep Academy – a school in Texas he co-founded – the head coach at Triple A Academy and the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas, where he had the opportunity to coach his sons, Shedeur and Shilo.
