Rumors of head football coach Deion Sanders leaving Jackson State have swirled almost since he first arrived. Sanders recently sat down with hosts Christopher Neely and Charles Bishop of Thee Pregame Show to set the record straight.
See the full conversation here:
Leaving Jackson State is Leaving a Calling
“There’s one thing that I always see when we’re around each other,” Neely said. “I see you at peace. But let me tell you what I’ve never seen. I’ve never seen you at peace like the level I have spending today with you out here at Country Prime and riding around on the four-wheeler.”
“Dorothy said it best,” Sanders said. “There’s no place like home.”
“But where I’m going with that Coach, is the sacrifice of that peace,” Neely said. “To do what you’re doing for HBCUs, to do what you’re doing for coaching at Jackson State, do you ever get to a point where you have to step back and evaluate what you are sacrificing?”
Sanders’ answer was simple.
“No,” he said. “Because it’s a calling.”
An Opportunity to Level the Playing Field
Sanders said he hears the echoes of those questioning his next move.
“Let me address that,” he said. “I’m happy where I am. It’s a calling where I am. God didn’t give me a timetable and say, ‘You got to be there for that long.’ God told me to go do that, do what I ask you to do, and do it at a high level.”
Sanders doesn’t know the timetable for his coaching career, but his primary concern is his coaching staff.
“I feel like I have a phenomenal coaching staff,” he said. “They’re coaching their butts off and some type of way, I’m trying to find ways to even compensate them even more, because they’ve out-coached their salaries.”
Sanders said a coaching job at a school in the Power Five conference wouldn’t change his lifestyle.
“That don’t do nothing for me, I’m good,” he said. “God has sustained me, I’m good.”
For this reason, Sanders wants to level the playing field at Jackson State.
“I’m trying to create ways now to bring in more revenue for us at an HBCU, so that I can stabilize my guys,” he said. “That’s where I am right now, because I don’t need them thirsty and hungry, man. I don’t want that, I don’t need that, I’m not built like that.”
Sanders said some of his staff members are people that have been with him for 20 years.
“We’ve been coaching peewee ball all the way up,” he said. “Those are my dudes. Others are relationships from relationships or relationships that I’ve had over 20 years. I want to see them blessed.”