College Football

Deion Sanders talks recruiting, returning Jackson State to glory

Updated Dec. 13, 2022 3:18 p.m. ET

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

Near the end of our conversation, I couldn't help it.

I needed to tell Deion Sanders — aka Coach Prime — how much I appreciated what I believe is one of the most consequential decisions he has made as head coach at Jackson State.

He laughed.

"I received so much about the red from the first spring," he said. "Don't you know, I didn't get one call or one question about nothing last season. Not one iota about nothing. So winning is a wonderful cure-all."

He’s right. Winning does cure most of what ails a college football program.

RJ Young talks with Deion Sanders

RJ Young is joined by Jackson State coach Deion Sanders to talk about his aspirations for the Tigers' program and about landing high-profile recruits and players through the portal.

You can watch the "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young" on YouTube or subscribe on podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts.

Fans, media and the like are willing to overlook faux pas, fashion choices and call-backs to painful history misses as long as their team is winning.

The red accent was first introduced to JSU's traditional navy and white uniforms by former coach W.C. Gorden, along with the JSU block insignia.

The red accents were meant to represent JSU’s legends — from Walter Payton to Robert Brazile — and the school’s survival through the tumult of separate-but-equal legislation and the May 15, 1970, shooting in which police opened fire on students, killing two and injuring a dozen.

In the Gorden era, JSU won 28 straight Southwestern Athletic Conference games and eight SWAC titles in 10 years. In many respects, that bar — the Mack of the SWAC — is the one Sanders is chasing.

In December, JSU lost the Celebration Bowl — and a claim to the Black College Football National Championship — to the South Carolina State Bulldogs. It was just the Tigers' second loss of the season, and it exposed a weakness of the team: the offensive line.

So during the 2022 cycle, Sanders and his staff prioritized offensive line recruiting at the transfer and high school level. They have also continued to build upon their team's strength: skill positions.

In 2021, Sanders put together the first 11-win season in JSU history en route to the SWAC Championship. He followed those triumphs with an FCS Coach of the Year Award.

He watched his son and starting quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, win the Jerry Rice Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding freshman in FCS. He also landed the No. 1 player in the state of Missouri and four-star wide receiver Kevin Coleman. Even more impressively, Sanders pulled off the recruiting win of the century, flipping the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit and former Florida State commit Travis Hunter to Thee I Love.

"Those two individuals," Sanders said, "they weren’t with the fads and the trends. It was like, ‘We're gonna go do our own thing. We're gonna provoke change, and we're going to do some amazing things.’ And it didn't take a lot of convincing. They wanted to do this."

For Hunter, attending JSU’s homecoming helped close the deal.

"He came to the homecoming, and you can't let a kid come to an HBCU homecoming if you're another school and you want to keep him," Sanders said. "If he comes to our homecoming, then it’s a wrap. It’s over. It’s done deal."

Sanders built a winner in a hurry, too, thanks in large part to his ability to navigate and recruit the transfer portal, in addition to being highly selective about whom he recruits out of high school.

"The best thing that ever happened to some people is the portal," Sanders said, "and it’s the worst thing that ever happened to some people. We are like 40-40-20: 40 percent grad transfers, 40 percent portal, 20 percent high school. So the high school kids are the ones who are suffering. They’re not getting the most looks and attention because a lot of college coaches don't have two years to develop.

"You got to win. You got to win right now."

While he has benefited from the portal, signing players from SEC schools who entered it, Sanders has also developed one of the most high-profile FCS-to-Power 5 transfers in recent memory.

The Tigers took advantage of playing four of their seven 2021 spring games on national television, going 4-3, but no one made more of it than wide receiver Daylen Baldwin.

Baldwin finished tied for the second-most catches on the team (27) and led the team in receiving yards (540) and receiving TDs (7), accounting for 36% of JSU’s production and 44% of the team’s scoring through the air.

In six games, he averaged 90 yards receiving and 20 yards per catch. Last fall, he transferred to Michigan and caught 17 passes for 256 yards and two TDs on a team that beat rival Ohio State for the first time in more than a decade, won the Big Ten Championship and earned an invitation to the College Football Playoff.

He is now preparing for the NFL Draft after graduating from UM. He credited former Michigan offensive coordinator and new Miami offensive coordinator Josh Gattis for finishing his development.

"I learned a lot from him," Baldwin told The Spun of Gattis. "I called him the other day to thank him because I’m going through NFL playbacks right now, and it’s a cakewalk because of how similar the plays are to the ones we ran at Michigan. It helps so much knowing that his system translates well to the next level."

Sanders said he expected Baldwin to enter the NFL Draft last spring.

"I'm gonna get naked with you and tell you what it really was," Sanders said. "Daylen told us after the spring that he wants to turn pro after the fall season. We said cool. So business-wise, we cut his full scholarship to a half-[scholarship] because he didn't need a full [scholarship] because he wasn't going to be there after December. He didn't understand the logic of that and got sensitive.

"So, he says, 'OK, I'm going to leave.' We said cool. Because we knew what we had coming in. And some things may not fit. You got to understand: You never heard of Daylen Baldwin until last spring. No one ever heard of him until the spring. So we helped develop him in that aspect. And we're happy and elated that instead of us going to pull from a Power 5, they pulled from us. They came to us. That shows the magnitude of the program."

In this, Sanders is showing early returns on developing players at JSU. The most recent HBCU player selected in the NFL Draft was 2020 Chicago Bears seventh-round pick Lachavious Simmons out of Tennessee State.

Linebacker James Houston might become the first Tigers player selected since wide receiver Jaymar Johnson was chosen in the sixth round in 2008. Houston accounted for 70 tackles, 16.5 sacks, seven forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception en route to being named an FCS All-American this season.

Houston began his career at Florida before transferring to JSU. So if Baldwin will be credited to Michigan, should he get drafted, Houston will be credited to JSU. Houston is the more likely of the two to earn selection, and if he does, it will be one more win for the Sanders era at JSU.

Looking ahead, the Tigers face a 2022 schedule that they seem primed to dominate. There is not a single FBS program on JSU’s slate, setting Sanders & Co. up to make a run at an undefeated season.

Sanders has been critical of scheduling pay games. Last season, JSU fell just short of upsetting Louisiana-Monroe for its first win against an FBS opponent since 1978.

"Normally you just get paid to go to get beat, right?" he said last fall. "That's really the goal, right? Somebody pays you. Your program makes more money than they normally will to go get your butt kicked. I don't believe in that."

JSU earned a $300,000 pay day for its 12-7 loss to the Warhawks. And while the Tigers are scheduled to return to Monroe in 2024 to collect $350,000, they’re likely to do so with a stronger team, particularly if Sanders keeps coaching and recruiting like he has since taking the job in August 2020.

And there’s no reason to believe he’ll slow down.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.