Nevaeh Bray
\n<\/b>Staff Write<\/b>r\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

After Jackson State\u2019s 2022 Cricket Celebration Bowl loss against North Carolina Central, former head coach Deion \u201cPrime\u201d Sanders wasted no time clearing the air about his time at Jackson State University.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with Shannon Sharpe for his \u201cClub Shay Shay\u201d show, Sanders discussed his decision to sign on as head coach with the University of Colorado football team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His decision to switch from an HBCU to a PWI left the many in the JSU community disheartened. Because of this, the former head coach has faced negative backlash regarding his decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people are hurt, they say things out of emotion and anger,\u201d Coach Prime said during the interview. \u201cI listen because when a person says stuff, that\u2019s how they really feel.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the interview Sanders disclosed information about a conversation he had with the Athletic Director Ashley Robinson when he first took the job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Sanders, after initially taking the job as JSU\u2019s head football coach in 2021, Robinson asked him to stay at least two years. In three years, Sanders led the Tigers through a 27-5 record.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders said in the interview with Sharpe that he was not surprised by the negative backlash he received from the public. He said ultimately, he would have received the same criticism regardless of how much time he chose to spend with the program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn’t have been enough,\u201d Sanders stated. \u201c[The fans] fell in love and I fell in love.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Sharpe relayed that Sander\u2019s commitment to Jackson State might be questioned by acknowledging that he sold Jackson State fans a dream and dropped out earlier than he was expected to stay.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dream references Sander\u2019s earlier comments that HBCU players deserved just as much attention to their talents, HBCU\u2019s needed better facilities and more resources, and over all, the playing field needs to be leveled for HBCUs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Flimeka Williams, a JSU alum and staunch supporter of the football team was very disappointed by Sanders\u2019 decision to leave and the comments he has made since his departure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt the interview was full of propaganda and an attempt to make JSU look less desirable than Colorado,\u201d said Williams. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like he needs to belittle us to make his decision go over better with the fans. Just leave.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shane Hooks, a senior journalism and media studies major and Jackson State football player from Miami, Fla., does not believe Coach Prime was wrong in his decision to leave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave them (JSU) more than what was asked of him,\u201d Hooks said, \u201cDeion had to do what was best for his family and that may not make sense to a lot of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kennedy Shaw, a psychology major from Memphis, Tenn., believes there was more that Prime could have done to uplift the athletic department as a whole while he was here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDeion did a disservice not only to Jackson State, but the entire HBCU community when he made the decision to leave to go to a PWI,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cHe also took star players he recruited for Jackson State instead of encouraging them to stay and grow at a historically black college.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marcus Hereford, a Jackson State Alum and current coach for the women\u2019s volleyball team had neutral thoughts on the departure of Coach Prime. The Jackson native believes that there was a lot of attention that was brought to our University thanks to Prime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that with Deion being at our school, we had many issues brought to light. At the same time, there is only so much a coach can do outside of the job he owes his team,\u201d Hereford said. \u201cI hope we can continue to grow as a university and not get stuck.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Jackson State fans have resolved that the Prime era is over and are anticipating the next college football season with new Head Coach T.C. Taylor<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nevaeh Bray Staff Writer\u00a0 After Jackson State\u2019s 2022 Cricket Celebration Bowl loss against North Carolina Central, former head coach Deion \u201cPrime\u201d Sanders wasted no time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_plus_post_options":"{}","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11546,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544\/revisions\/11546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}