Jackson State Players Sound Off On Deion Sanders Decision To Leave HBCU After Fan Backlash

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Deion Sanders has been on the job at Colorado for less than a week, but he’s already shaking up the college football world.

Sanders took the Colorado head coaching job last Saturday, leaving FCS program Jackson State after three seasons at the helm. But the move didn’t come without controversy. The gregarious Buffaloes’ head coach has come under scrutiny for a number of reasons.

Sanders allegedly pulled the scholarship of at least one former Colorado commit. He’s already told current Colorado players to enter the transfer portal, noting that he’s bringing baggage with him (and it’s Louis).

But perhaps the biggest issue among some has nothing to do with Colorado at all. Sanders has dealt with significant criticism for leaving the nation’s top Historically Black College or University (HBCU) after previously talking about elevating those programs.

Others, including HBCU grad Shannon Sharpe, are defending him.

So are Sanders’ former players at Jackson State.

Jackson State Players Say It’s Unfair To Criticize Deion Sanders For Leaving HBCU

Zion Olojede of Complex Sports spoke with a number of Coach Prime’s former players at Jackson State, asking them how they felt about him leaving.

The players unanimously backed their former coach.

I don’t understand why people don’t see the positive,” senior wide receiver Isaiah Bolden says. “Coach Prime came out of his pocket to built a great HBCU locker room… He did what he said he was going to do. He put HBCUs on the map in my opinion.” – via Complex

Defensive end Jason Mercier says that most of the team knew that Sanders would likely take a big job at some point.

The way I looked at it was this has been going on forever. I just felt like this was big deal to Black folk but to PWIs, these changes have been going on forever. Like myself, I came to JSU from a coaching change. I already knew what it was already. All I know is when I heard he did get the job, I was happy for him. That’s big.

While linebacker Jurriente Davis says the criticism isn’t unfair and overblown.

Social media gon’ be social media at the end of the day. People gon’ bash you. I look at it like this, if you don’t got nobody talking about you, you ain’t doing something right. It’s a lot of people like Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith, they all talking about it. I just know it’s pros and cons to everything. We knew as the team the world was gonna blow up. I know the culture is shocked right now especially Jackson State culture. Some people look at it like a hit to the face but some people look at it like a good thing. Even being here from January, he’s changed the culture a lot. A lot of people might look over that as far as the locker room. He used his whole salary to put that money into the locker room. Coach Prime didn’t use Jackson State, he had to elevate. If Coach Prime left 10 years from now, people would probably still bash him.

At the end of the day, Sanders is leaving whether people like it or not. But it’s clear that those players he left behind don’t harbor any ill will toward the coach.