Sanders took over Colorado at the end of the 2022 college football season.
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."
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.
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 heads west to Oregon on Saturday and will welcome USC to Boulder next week.
themes: Colorado Oregon

Jackson State's Tomekia Reed rips ‘60 Minutes' Deion Sanders feature: ‘Ashamed of yourselves'
Jackson State women's basketball coach Tomekia Reed fired shots at CBS' “60 Minutes” for the way the Mississippi capital was portrayed in the program's recent feature on Deion Sanders.
Sanders left Jackson State after three seasons as head coach of the football team for Colorado last year.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim presented Jackson and Boulder as stark contrasts.
"The distance between Jackson and Boulder is a thousand miles, and immeasurably further culturally," Wertheim said in the feature.
"Sanders went from a city that is 83 percent black to one that is one percent black. From a place with a water crisis to a kind of hipster college town where there's a shop devoted to kites."
During the narration, the video cut to a shot of a ramshackle house, to which Reed took exception.
"@60Minutes y'all made Jackson, MS look horrible," Reed tweeted Sunday night.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves for showing the worst house you can find in America and make it like that describes us. I'm not even sure if that abandoned house you showed is even in Jackson. #ThisisHome."
Reed has coached Jackson State since 2018 and under her leadership the Tigers have won the SWAC regular season four times and the conference tournament twice.
Wertheim did not immediately respond to an email from The Post seeking comment.
A source with knowledge of CBS told The Post that the image of the house was shot during last year's feature on Sanders, and that it was near the Jackson State football facility.
Elsewhere in the feature, Sanders disputed the characterization that he left Jackson State "quick," saying he accomplished his coaching mission when the team won the SWAC title last year, and explained what he told his players after making the decision to coach Colorado.
..... Sooner or later in life there will be opportunity that knocks at your door," Sanders recalled telling them.
"At this juncture in my life I felt like the opportunity for not only me but for my kids [defensive back Shilo Sanders and quarterback Shedeur Sanders] was tremendous."
Sanders' 3-0 start at Colorado has captivated the nation, to the point where the Buffaloes' game versus Nebraska last week drew comparable viewership at noon on Fox to the blue-blood battle between Alabama and Texas got on ESPN that night.
Colorado's next two games, against No. 19 Oregon and No. 5 USC, will undoubtedly draw lots more intrigue.

Deion Sanders drops hard truth on why he was direct with Colorado players upon entering program
Sanders said on '60 Minutes' that 'we're so busy lying we don't even recognize the truth no more in society'.
Deion Sanders has the Colorado Buffaloes 3-0 to start the season and has the entire college football world keeping a watchful eye on what he's doing in Boulder.Sanders took the Colorado job after Jackson State wrapped up the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship with hopes of turning around a Buffaloes team that won only one game during the 2022 season. Gone were the days of Kordell Stewart, Rashaan Salaam and Michael Westbrook - or so everyone thought.
“Coach Prime” came into the program and turned things on their head. He received some criticism for how he was so open with players from the old regime as he encouraged them to enter the transfer portal and look for playing time elsewhere.
In an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Sanders was pressed about whether he believed the so-called "scorched Earth policy" was good for the sport. The Pro Football Hall of Famer said it wasn't his job to lie the student-athletes on the team.
"I think truth is good for the kids. We're so busy lying we don't even recognize the truth no more in society. We want everybody to feel good. That's not the way life is," he said. "Now, it is my job to make sure I have what we need to win. That makes a lot of people feel good - winning does."
Sanders explained the way the team played in 2022 and in previous years was just as much on the players as it was on the coaches. He said he came to the "conclusion that a multitude of them couldn't help us get to where we wanted to go" and if players were affected by his words - then they weren't for this team either.
"If you went for that, if you were able to let words run you off, you ain't for us because we're an old-school staff. We coach hard. We coach tough. We're disciplined. If you're allowing verbiage to run you off because you don't feel secure with your ability - you ain't for us," he said.
Colorado topped Colorado State, 43-35, in double overtime on Saturday night.
The Buffaloes have a date with Oregon next Saturday.

Deion Sanders names the best college football coach right now, expresses admiration for Nick Saban
Sanders asked '60 Minutes' for a mirror when he talking about the best coach in college football.
Deion Sanders was not shy when he was asked who the best coach in college football is right now.The first-year Colorado head coach has so far guided the Buffaloes to a 3-0 record with their latest win coming Saturday against Colorado State in double overtime. Sanders only has a few months under his belt in the Power 5 Conference coming from Jackson State, but he is putting himself at the top.
"Let me see a mirror so I can look at him," he said during an interview on “60 Minutes” when he was asked who he thought was the best coach in the sport. "You think I'm going to sit up here and tell you somebody else? You think that's the way I operate? That somebody else got that on me?"
Sanders, who does Aflac commercials with Alabama head coach Nick Saban, expressed great admiration for the Crimson Tide leader.
"I'll tell you this, I love and I adore and I respect and every time I do a commercial with coach Saban, it's a gift. Just sitting in his presence and hearing him and throwing something else out there so I can hear his viewpoint on it because he's forgotten more things than I may ever accomplish," Sanders said of Saban.
"So, I'm a student looking up to this wonderful teacher saying, 'just throw me a crumb of what you know.'"
In turn, Saban expressed admiration for Sanders in an interview with USA Today before the start of the season. Saban said he has "as much respect for him as anyone in our profession."
"We both share information to try and help each other," Saban added. "We're both interested in trying to improve our program, how we sort of motivate players, how we inspire people to do things at a high standard and a high level all the time. So that interaction has been positive for me."