Stephen A. Smith Thinks Deion Sanders Should Have Been Hired By Alabama, Texas A&M, Or Florida State

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Deion Sanders led Colorado to a 4-8 record in his first season as the Buffaloes' head coach a year ago, but according to Stephen A. Smith, Alabama, Texas A&M, or Florida State should have hired Sanders during the offseason.

For those who may have forgotten or simply don't live anywhere close to reality like Smith, three of those four teams had pretty special seasons a year ago.

Alabama lost to Michigan in the Rose Bowl before Nick Saban elected to retire, and the Crimson Tide hired Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer to take his place. All DeBoer managed to do last season was lead the Huskies to the national title game and leave the program after winning 25 games in two seasons. Mike Norvell led Florida State to an undefeated season a year ago, but the Seminoles didn't make the College Football Playoff, which according to Smith, opened the door up for Sanders to take over in Tallahassee.

Texas A&M was a disaster in 2023 before parting ways with Jimbo Fisher and hiring Mike Elko, who now has the Aggies atop the SEC standings in his first season in College Station.

Deion Sanders and Colorado are currently 4-1 on the season after beating UCF

Deion Sanders should have gotten the Alabama, Florida State, or Texas A&M job, according to Stephen A. Smith. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

Those facts don't matter, not in Smith's world, because according to him, Deion Sanders should have been hired by any of the three programs.

"Florida State, I don’t care about last year, I understand they were undefeated, and then you know what … after their quarterback got hurt, they didn’t get picked for the college football playoff, and they were salty about it," Smith said during Monday's edition of ‘First Take.’ "They didn’t show up and got obliterated by Georgia in a bowl game. But they looked awful this year. They should have hired Prime Time at Florida State, his alma mater. They should have hired him at Texas A&M, you know, the SEC, they should have hired him."

"And I ain’t gonna lie to you, even though I didn’t say anything about it at the time, because the man was a two-time Pac-12 coach of the year and won a national championship, couple of national championships in the NAIA, and had Washington in the national championship game last year, damn it. The way Alabama’s looking, I think they should have hired him at Alabama."

Florida State is the biggest laughing stock of the 2024 college football season, sitting at 1-7 on the year, but Smith suggesting Sanders should have been hired during the offseason after the Noles went undefeated is laughable.

Alabama hiring Sanders over a proven winner like DeBoer or A&M passing on Elko, who was the team's defensive coordinator previously, would have been questionable, at best.

Sanders has done a great job at Colorado this season, leading the Buffaloes to a 6-2 mark at this point, but to suggest he'd have Alabama, A&M, or even Florida State in better spots than they're in with their current coaches is absurd.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.