Deion Sanders is now coaching Colorado football, but he continues to make sure it is known that the initial success of him and his son Shedeur Sanders on the collegiate level took place at an HBCU.
Following his team’s incredible 43-35 win over Colorado State on Saturday Sanders was asked by reporters about his confidence in Shedeur Sanders to lead his team on a 98-yard drive with a minute-and-a-half remaining. The elder Sanders reminded people that his son did the same thing at Jackson State.
“Shedeur has been that – you guys just hadn’t seen it – because he was at an HBCU. And we were secluded. I guess no one had TVs and they didn’t work out here, the television that we were playing on last year,” Sanders said. “But this is who he is. No matter of where he came from, that’s who that guy is.”
Shedeur himself echoed the same sentiments in his time in front of the media, drawing on moments like JSU’s comeback win over Southern in 2021 and his game-tying drive against North Carolina Central in the Celebration Bowl.
“I don’t think THAT moment makes him, he’s had a lot of those moments – you just haven’t seen them,” Sanders told reporters. “So you’re just getting the opportunity to see those moments – that’s who he is. I never doubted the fact that if the ball’s in his hands, what he’s going to do.”
The win improved Colorado to 3-0 on the season. The game was a days-long culmination of media attention on the Boulder, CO school that included multiple days of broadcast from ESPN and other media outlets with the Colorado Stadium sideline looking like the stands of a heavyweight bout mixed with an NBA All-Star Game.
Deion Sanders was asked what it like to have his team become Black America’s de facto college football team the way the Georgetown Hoyas were the same f0r college basketball under John Thompson in the 1980s.
“To even be mentioned in those likes – It’s tremendous. It’s not a burden, whatsoever, it’s a blessing. We’re thankful for that. But I don’t think our young men inside that locker room understand the moment. That’s what I told them in that last series, ‘Guys, this is a moment you’ll never forget. And let’s maximize this moment. And they went out and did it.”