In his latest bout of unfiltered Coach Prime criticism, Mike Farrell Sports’ Scott Salomon claimed that Deion Sanders would’ve “served college football better” had he not left Jackson State for the Colorado football program.
“It looks like this season is going to play out exactly as I surmised,” Salomon said while counting all of his chickens before they hatch with three games remaining. “Coach Prime was as successful as I thought he would be. He should have left his Louis Vuitton luggage in Jackson, Miss., as he is not going bowling, and his first season will be marked as a failure in Boulder.
“He would have served college football much better at the helm of Jackson State, where he was building a solid program and instilling football in the blood of a fanbase that needed something to believe in.”
Coach Prime made 100 times more of an impact on the sport with Colorado football than he would have at Jackson State
I’d hate to have to keep up a Coach Prime hater schtick long enough to convince myself that Sanders staying at the FCS level would’ve been better for the sport than being in the national spotlight week after week while reviving a former national championship program.
Undoubtedly, what Deion did in Jackson, Mississippi will go down as one of the greatest coaching jobs at any level in any sport ever. The Magnolia State’s capital city’s flagship university was underserved and undersupported before Sanders changed the trajectory of not only the school but the city as well; speaking out on Jackson’s lack of access to clean water during a legitimate humanitarian crisis. Sanders made a tangible difference, a positive one, at Jackson State. On and off the field.
But there was always a ceiling at the FCS level in terms of interest and accessibility. And plenty of critics would’ve criticized Coach Prime for “not taking the challenge” of a Power Five, or even Group of Five, coaching job. Perhaps Salomon would’ve been one of them.
Being in the biggest spotlight the sport has to offer west of the Mississippi River has allowed Sanders to raise the NIL bar for his players, getting Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter unthinkable payouts as amateurs. It has also allowed the sport to achieve NFL-type ratings in 2023, with the Colorado-Oregon game amassing over 10 million viewers.
None of that would’ve been remotely possible at Jackson State, even if those talking about Coach Prime and Co. now claim they paid the same attention to the Tigers in 2021 and 2022 that they are now paying to the Buffs.
Enough of this madness.