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Alex Scarborough, ESPN Staff Writer
Nick Saban has taken notice of the success Deion Sanders has had at Colorado this season.
Saban said that although he hasn’t seen all of Colorado’s games this season, he did catch last week’s double-overtime victory over Colorado State.
Sanders, a Hall of Fame cornerback in the NFL, has led Colorado to a 3-0 start, including a season-opening victory over national champion runner-up TCU.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Deion Sanders,” Saban said Wednesday. “First, he’s a great person and he’s done a great job of marketing the program to create a lot of national interest.
“But I see their team playing well on the field. They play with discipline, they do a good job of executing, they’ve been able to score points, playing decent on defense. So all those things, to me, are indicators that he’s a really good coach.”
In fact, Saban said he’s always thought Sanders was a good coach.
Sanders went 27-6 in three seasons at Jackson State — his first college coaching experience — including back-to-back Southwestern Athletic Conference championships in the FCS.
Before that, Sanders coached in high school as the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas. He also was part of the coaching staff for the annual Under Armour All-America Game.
“He’s always been successful whether it was Jackson State, high school or now in Colorado,” Saban said. “His teams have always been well coached.”
The Buffaloes were 1-11 last year before Sanders took over last offseason and rebuilt their roster, bringing in 86 new scholarship players, including high school signings and transfers.
During a recent interview with “60 Minutes,” Sanders heaped praise on Saban; the two coaches often appear side-by-side on Aflac commercials.
“I love and I adore and I respect and every time I do a commercial with Coach Saban — it’s a gift,” Sanders said. “Just sitting in his presence and hearing him and throwing something else out there so I can hear his viewpoint on it, because he’s forgotten more things than I may ever accomplish.
“So I’m a student looking up to this wonderful teacher saying, ‘Just throw me a crumb of what you know.'”
Sanders and No. 19 Colorado visit No. 10 Oregon on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, while Saban and No. 13 Alabama host No. 15 Ole Miss at the same time.