Deion Sanders defends bolting Jackson State for Colorado: 'I finished the task'

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Deion Sanders spent three seasons at Jackson State before bolting to Colorado before the start of the 2023 season.

A coach like Sanders moving up the ladder in college football is not something new. Coaches around the sport do it all the time and not only when it comes to football. In an interview with "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Coach Prime defended moving from the FCS school to the Power 5 program.

"I didn’t leave quick," Sanders said. "I left when I was supposed to leave. We finished. Most coaches get a new job and they leave expeditiously. I finished the task."

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Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders before the start of the spring game at Folsom Filed in Boulder Colorado, April 22, 2023. (Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports)

Sanders was asked about what he told the student-athletes when he left.

"Opportunity called. Sooner than later in life there will be opportunity that knocks at your door and at this juncture in my life, I felt like the opportunity for not only me but for my kids as well was tremendous," Sanders said. 

"Not only did we take several kids from that team – three trainers, maybe 12 of the 14 staffers. So, we afforded to give people tremendous opportunity here."

Sanders took over a program that only had one win in 2022 and had not had six or more wins since the 2016 season. The team has two bowl game appearances since the 2008 season. Colorado made a bowl game with a 4-2 record during the 2020 coronavirus-impacted season.

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Colorado head coach Deion Sanders responds to questions during a news conference after the team's NCAA college football practice at the university Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, in Boulder, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

He suggested a higher calling brought him to handle the task at Colorado.

"God wouldn’t relocate me to something that was successful – that don’t make sense, do it? He had to find the most disappointing and the most difficult task," Sanders said. "And this is what it was and this is what it is and I love that."

Sanders immediately faced criticism when he entered Colorado as he brought several transfers with him.

However, he brushed off all the noise around him. 

"That’s fear. Yeah, that’s fear," he said of others who hurled criticism his way. "That’s like, ‘hey man, shoot we don’t want the engine that could get going because if that engine that could get going he’s gonna start saying I think I can, I think I can, I think I can and sooner or later he’s gonna start saying I know I can, I know I can, and then sooner or later he’s gonna start saying I did that.’"

Sanders has Colorado at 3-0 and halfway to locking in a bowl game appearance, but the schedule gets more difficult over the next two weeks.

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders answers questions at the 70th annual Colorado University Fall Sports Media Day in Boulder, Colorado, Aug. 11, 2023. (Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

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Colorado heads west to Oregon on Saturday and will welcome USC to Boulder next week.