The facts are as follows: 1) Deion Sanders is the head coach of Jackson State’s football program; 2) Jackson State is an FCS program, which is NOT the top level of college football - the FBS is what everyone knows as ‘college football’; and, 3) Deion just flipped the nation’s top college football recruit (CB Travis Hunter) from his alma mater, Florida State (historically, a perennial powerhouse of college football), to Jackson State.
So how did Deion do it?
While some questioned how Deion Sanders could possibly pull off a coup of this magnitude by ‘flipping’ a kid who could go to any football program in the country to a tier-2 program, those who really know Deion Sanders were not the least bit surprised.
RELATABILITY: Relatability is all about credibility. Kids want credibility - they want to hear from people that have been to the highest levels of the [name your profession]…and succeeded. Deion Sanders’ is in the NFL Hall of Fame, has multiple Super Bowl rings, is arguably the best two-sport athlete of all-time, and ‘Prime Time’ (a persona he developed at FSU) made him a master marketer…of himself.
RELIABILITY: For all of the ‘flash’, everyone who has ever worked with Deion Sanders talks about his reliability. Whether it is guys like Rich Eisen who worked with him at ESPN or Shannon Sharpe who both worked and played with Deion in the NFL, they all have the same message - when it comes time to work, Deion is no ‘act’.
HONESTY: When interviewed about this coup he pulled off that shocked the college football world, Deion did not talk about grand promises he made this kid and found it ridiculous that one would think he would use such cliche tactics. Deion talked about how he talks to every recruit about opportunity, the merits of hard work, earning your keep, and becoming a polished adult. He does not make promises nor does he make guarantees.
PASSION: You can call Deion Sanders many things…and PASSIONATE would be right up there with anything else. Kids sense it and kids love it. Kids know what ‘going through the motion’ looks like and they know when somebody is trying to build something they truly love. There is no question in my mind that Deion’s ability to instill his passion in these kids has been a key ingredient in selling them on his program.
It’s amazing that such baseline principles such as RELATABILITY, RELIABILITY, HONESTY, and PASSION would resonate so well with a generation that nobody seems to understand, is being given every perk one can think up, and who is walking into the NIL professional environment that is now college football. But they do.
And the broader implications are (?)
For all the recruiters out there selling such stupid sayings as “work hard, play hard”, “life-changing experience”, “our brand will create your brand”, [insert next cliche], there is something so fundamental and effective about selling reality and a vision of ‘building something’ bigger to kids - and that comes from people who have been there and done that; it comes from people who consistently evoke genuine passion about what they do and why they do it; and, it comes from people who are honest that success is an earned choice…not a granted right. After all these years, it begs the question: Why is Deion still winning? He has an innate ability to make a kid feel that what he is selling not only bigger than any one person but most importantly, that it is…the truth.
Recruiting is not about perks and those that believe it is are just throwing good money after bad - if you win over a kid with ‘perks’, what happens when reality hits and the perks end? [hint: disappointment, resentment, and a lot of ‘next best thing two-week notices’].
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*Fast fact: Deion Sanders is widely known for his play on the gridiron, but his baseball career is largely overlooked. In postseason play (aka…when it really matters in the marathon known as MLB), Sanders had a career .348 batting average and a .400 OBP with the Atlanta Braves. Frank Thomas, who was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame, has a career postseason batting average of just .224 with only 10 more ABs.
Deion was never as big of a side-show as the ‘Prime Time’ mantra would have you believe - it succeeded in its purpose of creating a ‘larger-than-life’ distraction predicated on real substance. Guys like Deion Sanders and Dennis Rodman are in their respective Hall of Fames (both on the first ballot) for a reason - they were incredibly good athletes and team players who fulfilled their potential and ultimately became winners. Did they have their quirks and faults resulting from the sideshows they seemed to embrace? Absolutely. But in the end, they ARE winners.