Deion Sanders has JSU cruising to another SWAC title. Does this mean Prime Time is ready for Power 5?

JACKSONVILLE — Deion Sanders was late, as divas will be at times.

Then he made it impossible to be mad at him.

Divas also do that.

It was pushing 9 p.m. on Saturday and in the Jaguars' main meeting room in the bowels of TIAA Bank Field. Jackson State’s football coach arrived for his post-game news conference 50 minutes after Bethune-Cookman coach Terry Sims had finished. Since Sanders’ JSU Tigers had beaten the Wildcats 48-8, one wonders how long a postgame locker room session needed to be.

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Sanders then limped into the meeting room, a reminder of the life-threatening blood clots he had in his leg last winter. He had his big toe and second toe on his left foot amputated and mentioned, “it’s hard to stand for more than three hours.”

Rather than talk about another stellar performance at quarterback by his son Shedeur Sanders (36 of 48, 272 yards, five touchdowns), a balanced attack that also included 224 yards rushing, a defense that logged seven sacks and the defense and special teams combining to tie the NCAA record for three safeties in one game, Sanders launched into heartfelt praise of Sims’ Wildcats, who have been displaced for the last three weeks by Hurricane Ian.

“They put up a heck of a fight,” Sanders said. “It’s unbelievable what they’ve been doing. I’m praying for them. My hat’s off for them.”

See. How do you complain about being held just a few minutes late when an entire team has gone a month since seeing home?

Sanders also made it clear that even some aspects of a 40-point victory weren’t entirely to his liking. His son threw two interceptions (giving him four for the season). The Tigers failed to come up with a turnover.

But they’re 6-0 overall, 4-0 in the SWAC and remain one of college football’s feel-good stories.

Sanders praises fan support

Sanders initially pushed back at the idea of playing in Jacksonville. He wanted the quainter surroundings of Daytona Stadium, with the crowd and band noise more concentrated.

However, it’s the third game this season his team has played in an NFL stadium and JSU has won on those big stages by 52, 13 and 40 points.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to play in Jacksonville,” he said. “I was concerned about the emptiness. But the fan support was phenomenal. I’m pleased and happy.”

A reminder of the only college football game he played in Jacksonville, a bravura performance at the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in the old municipal stadium on Dec. 30, 1985, when he was a Florida State freshman, brought a smile to his face.

Sanders made plays on defense and special teams to help the Seminoles to a 34-23 victory that was the first of a streak of 11 consecutive bowl victories.

In a sign of things to come for a college career that included the Jim Thorpe Award, consensus All-American honors and three more bowl victories, Sanders intercepted a pass and returned it 28 yards to set up a touchdown, broke up five passes, had five unassisted tackles and returned three punts for 25 yards, with on 11-yard return called back because of a penalty.

Who wouldn't want to return to the scene of that game? FSU quarterback Chip Ferguson was the MVP but it should have been Sanders.

However, that’s not what Sanders remembered about the game. What he recalled was FSU’s curmudgeonly equipment manager Jimmy Callaway, who barked and yelled and blew an annoying whistle in the locker room when he wanted players to hurry up and finishing showering and dressing.

Sanders loved Callaway. And he said after that Gator Bowl game, he chided Callaway for handing the team what they thought were cheap socks Callaway had gotten a deal on.

They didn’t hold up well on a wet and muddy field and Sanders reminded Callaway of that.

Callaway, who would go berserk if he thought a player was boosting a single towel from his locker room, told the players they could keep the socks, as if they were the best bowl gifts they would ever get.

“That was a fun memory,” Sanders said. “I usually have Jimmy on my shoulder.”

Sanders went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career with six teams and a Major League baseball career with four teams, one of the most extraordinary achievements in the history of pro sports.

He’s not living a quiet retired life.

Sanders turns yet another chapter

He likes being called “Coach Prime.” Go figure.

Sanders also has a gold whistle. Who's shocked about that?

And like his playing career in two sports, Sanders isn’t doing anything without flash, dash and just a small dose of controversy to stir up the pot.

Sanders coached at three high schools before selling his vision to Jackson State. The vision is almost blinding right now. The Tigers’ victory on Saturday gave him a 21-6 overall record, and he’s won all 12 SWAC games he’s coached.

Sanders is halfway to a second conference title and appearance in the Celebration Bowl. And recruits love what he’s selling.

Coach Prime shook up college football when he snatched five-star defensive back Travis Hunter from his alma matter, then landed four-star wide receiver Kevin Coleman.

Hunter has been injured this season and Coleman is still finding his way. But Shedeur Sanders is only 2 yards shy of 2,000 yards, with 22 TD passes, he has a vast array of skill-position players, and the Tigers’ defensive front is likely the best among HBCUs or even in all of the Football Championship Subdivision.

Of course, when Prime Time is involved, there’s sure to be some sparks flying.

When Alabama State coach Eddie Robinson Jr. ripped Sanders last week for walking through his team's pregame warmups (igniting a post-game dustup and the theme of the week, “Who is SWAC?”), Sanders apologized for his team arriving late and forcing him to do what he said was a pregame tradition — walking the perimeter of the field — after ASU had already begun its warmups in one end zone.

And Sanders more or less said he deserved a pass, taking credit for ASU recording its highest attendance of the season.

He could probably claim a piece of Saturday’s 22,373. If the game had stayed in Daytona Beach, as Sanders wanted, the most they could have fit into Daytona Stadium is 9,700. The Wildcats averaged 5,325 at home last season.

Sanders has said often he’s trying to “elevate the SWAC.”

The bodies in the stadiums are proving that every time his Tigers take the field, home, away or neutral.

Fans come running when Sanders, Tigers hit town

At Tennessee State on Sept. 10, 51,351 people came to Nissan Stadium in Nashville to watch the Tigers win 16-3 — more than all seven home games for TSU combined in the last two seasons.

When 28,332 turned out at Alabama State in Montgomery last week to watch JSU win 26-12, it was nearly triple the average home crowd for the Hornets in the last two seasons.

Jackson State’s 59-3 drubbing of Florida A&M in the Orange Blossom Classic to open the season at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium was watched by 39,907. The Miami Hurricanes have barely beat that number in four home games this season and were so embarrassed by the attendance at last week’s game against North Carolina that the school has refused to post it.

The average attendance at true JSU home games in 2019 was 33,761. Last year, with Sanders leading the Tigers to an 11-2 record, it was 42,293.

The national media is flocking to Jackson to interview Sanders and tell the story of JSU’s turnaround and of course, the flamboyant way in which he’s done it. Sports Illustrated. USA Today. Every major sports website.

On Sunday night, Sanders and JSU hit the mother lode of Prime Time media: 60 Minutes is airing a feature on the football program.

ABC’s Good Morning America will be there on Monday morning, a doubleheader of coast-to-coast exposure that is incalculable.

“It’s a blessing,” Sanders said of the attention. “We’re doing a tremendous amount of showcasing our kids and who we are as a school and as an institution. Those major platforms will bring eyeballs from people who would not normally click into a SWAC game.”

Sanders rumors heat up

Before Florida State hired Mike Norvell, Sanders was briefly in the conversation but his coaching experience was limited at that point, including the failed Prime Academy in Dallas, which turned into a financial nightmare and is sure to be brought up in any interview with a Power 5 athletic director and president.

However, now that Sanders has more than proven himself at Jackson State, his name is front and center for every opening or potential opening, such as Auburn, Arizona State, Nebraska and Georgia Tech. The list will get bigger as other seats get hotter.

But there is still the pull of JSU. Sanders’ sons Shedeur — who has signed an NIL deal with Tom Brady’s clothing company — and Shiloh, a safety, are sophomores but would certainly follow his father where he landed.

His eldest Deion Jr. heads JSU’s social media engagement. His youngest daughter Shelomi is a freshman on the Tigers’ women’s basketball team.

Sanders said last year he is donating half his salary to upgrade JSU facilities and the Jackson city council, reeling from the water crisis earlier this summer, is still trying to get the state legislature to help finance a new stadium with the express purpose of keeping Sanders in tow.

So the issue remains about whether Sanders wants to be the possible king of HBCU football or set his sights higher. And for anyone who has doubts about whether there is substance behind the Prime, consider what Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek told Dennis Dodd of cbssports.com after giving Sanders two interviews before hiring Sam Pittman.

“What impressed me about Deion the most and made me go back the second time was he was prepared,” Yurachek told Dodd. “There was an attention to detail. He knew things about our team, knew things about potential recruits and guys we were recruiting at the time. He had a game plan for moving forward.”

That sounds similar to what former Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews used to tell people: that Sanders was the most prepared player on his defense for games, and never wasted a rep in practice.

Indeed, Andrews said he and Sanders had a private understanding. Andrews would blast Sanders for some invisible mistakes, maybe because he had a foot inches out of position, so the rest of the team wouldn’t feel he was playing favorites by not yelling at him with the same volume and frequency.

In actuality, there was hardly ever a reason for Andrews to have to correct him. but Sanders got it.

His players also get it and it’s not just assignments and the playbook. Woe betides the Tiger who throws a ball of tape or a crumpled water cup on the sideline and not in a trash can. Players swear their coach has eyes in the back of his head.

Consider also that JSU has the fewest turnovers in the SWAC this season and has reduced penalties at a substantial rate: last year the Tigers were second with the most flags in conference games. This year, they’ve committed the fifth-fewest among the 12 teams and had only four against the Wildcats.

Sanders is a media savant

There has never been a shortage of college coaches who dominate and control every aspect of their programs, but Sanders may have a much better grasp of the media — social or traditional — than any college coach in history.

No college player in history understood the bright lights at such a young age, a knack he carried through a Pro Football Hall of Fame career and is now using to give Jackson State perhaps the most exposure of any HBCU football team in history.

One Twitter post that made the rounds this week was telling.

Sanders was doing a radio interview with JSU’s play-by-play announcer Rob Jay and he thought Jay was being a bit too formal with the introduction.

“Can you come in the way you normally sound?” Sanders asked Jay.

“I just want to be clear and concise,” Jay said.

“You mean professional?” Sanders asked.

“Yes,” Jay said.

“So being you is not professional?” Sanders asked.

When Jay looked a bit perplexed, Sanders took the microphone from him and proceeded to school Jay a bit moresson.

"Just try your best to be you," Sanders said.

Sanders will never stop being Prime Time and he dares anyone to say it’s not professional.

No one will ever have to tell him, “You be you.” Aside from Muhammad Ali, what athlete in the last 50 was so comfortable being such an oversized personality?

The question is, when will an SEC, ACC or Big 12 athletic director decide one day that Being Deion is the best fit for their program?

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Prime Time in Power 5? Deion Sanders is making it tough to overlook him