Joel Klatt Thinks He Knows Where Deion Sanders Will Coach Next

Coach Prime may be content at Jackson State, but he could quickly find himself on the wish-list of SEC program.

Deion Sanders has quickly become one of the most sought after coaches in college football as programs have already begun to move on from their current program leaders in 2022. The Jackson State coach has established himself as a strong recruiter at the HBCU school and has a 19–5 record on the field, resulting in his name being brought up in conjunction with some of the most high-profile jobs in the sport. 

For Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt, Coach Prime’s logical next stop in the coaching profession is at Auburn.

“When I look at Auburn, the only way to get where they expect to be is to win some recruiting battles. And think of some of the coaches they have gotta compete with to win some of those recruiting battles. It’s going to very difficult,” Klatt said on The Next Round Monday. “To me, that’s the first and foremost criteria for your next coach at Auburn.

“Can you go into any living room in America and win recruiting battles and to me, that’s Deion Sanders. So that’s why I think Deion’s gonna be the next coach at Auburn.”

Klatt followed up by saying he has no inside information on the subject and that he was just speculating about a future partnership between Auburn and Sanders. However, the idea of Coach Prime making way for the SEC isn’t exactly far-fetched. 

The relationship between Auburn and current football coach Bryan Harsin is reportedly on rocky footing. This past week, Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports suggested that Harsin would be fired if the Tigers didn’t beat Missouri. 

Auburn held onto beat its SEC opponent and improve to 3–1 on the year, but the win didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the direction of the team.

Despite only being in his second season at Auburn, Harsin has had a difficult time trying to build momentum within the program. The athletic department even investigated Harsin last year, but ultimately chose to keep him for the 2022 year.

Before the season, Harsin described the investigation as “uncomfortable” and “unfounded.”

Meanwhile, Sanders has Jackson State firing on all cylinders through the first four games this season. The FCS school has raced out to a 4–0 start and seems well-positioned for another run at the Celebration Bowl under the leadership of Coach Prime.

More Extra Mustard:

HBCU Legends: Jackson State Climbs into Top-10 of FCS Coaches, Stats Perform Polls

For more HBCU coverage, go to HBCU Legends. 


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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.