How Jackson State's rise under Deion Sanders started with another MVP

Jackson State is 11-0 and will play Southern in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. The athletics director Ashley Robinson hired both coaches in this game: Deion Sanders in 2020 and Eric Dooley in 2018. Robinson has been in charge since 2019 and has seen "Good Morning America," "6o Minutes," Fox Sports and ESPN's "College GameDay" this season.

Robinson was the athletics director at Prairie View from 2013-18. He hired Alcorn State offensive coordinator Willie Simmons as a head coach. Dooley was hired as an offensive coach at Grambling before the 2018 season. Now he's the head football coach of Southern. He was a high school point guard at Mississippi Valley State. Robinson has helped him to build a successful athletic program. It was Robinson who hired Willie. Simmons. They both played basketball at Murrah High School. The former coach played at Clemson and The Citadel.

Deion Sanders has been the head coach at Jackson State since the 2019 season. He has led the Tigers to a 26-5 record and back-to-back SWAC East titles. The team is playing in the Celebration Bowl on Saturday. Sanders won the Eddie Robinson Award in 2021 and was named SW AC Coach of the Year in '21 and '22. Robinson hired Sanders because he was the only athletics director with the clout and guts to hire him.