The Florida State Seminoles are looking for a new football coach after firing Willie Taggert last week. Moving from the sidelines to the broadcast booth is pretty common in the college football realm, but FSU may reportedly be looking for Deion Sanders to go the other direction.
According to Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo, Sanders, who is their colleague at the NFL Network, is a candidate to become the next head coach at Florida State. Sanders is a legend amongst FSU fans. He played football and baseball and ran track at the school in the 1980s, so it isn’t hard to see why he would be interested in going to Tallahassee.
Why Florida State would be interested in Deion Sanders is a little harder to understand though. Sanders was a two time All American and won the Jim Thorpe award in college before a thirteen year NFL career that included 9 All Pro selections and 2 Super Bowl titles. As a coach though, Sanders has virtually no experience. He has never been a head coach and has never coached at the college or NFL levels. His entire coaching resume is three seasons as offensive coordinator at a private school in Texas.
It seems unlikely that Sanders will end up with the job, but that didn’t stop his NFL Network colleagues on NFL Total Access from speculating about his future success before Thursday Night Football.
Florida State has just begun its coaching search, so we are likely a ways away from a decision, but Deion’s name being thrown around is an interesting twist. If nothing else, it could keep the eyes of some casual college football fans on how this unfolds.
Plenty of former coaches have gone back to the sidelines after spending time in the media. Mack Brown did it just last year, leaving ESPN to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels. Going straight from the booth to coaching a major program with no previous college coaching experience would make Sanders something of a pioneer though.
