Riding the Wave of Excitement with Coach Prime: Inspiration, Leadership, and the 'Prime Time' Effect

Can you feel the buzz of excitement that's sweeping across college football? It's all thanks to Dion Sanders, who's taken the reins as head coach at Jackson State. We kick off this episode with a toast to my baby sister's birthday and a thrilling dive into Sanders' electrifying first two historic matches. Expect an adrenaline rush as we explore the upcoming games against formidable opponents like Colorado State, Oregon, and USC. 

But there's much more to Coach Prime than just his strategic prowess. This segment shines the spotlight on his role as a mentor, instilling old school rules, fostering respect and discipline, and lighting a fire of passion that's spreading faster than wildfire across campus. They say his confidence could move mountains — we'll show you how it's motivating his athletes and the entire Jackson State community to scale new heights of success. 

We wrap things up with a deep dive into the 'prime time effect' and its transformative power. This conversation isn't just about football; it's about life lessons that mold students into resilient achievers. Through the stories of successful athletes who've turned the tide against overwhelming odds, we'll illustrate how this effect is reshaping the school and its surrounding community. So gear up for an episode that's guaranteed to inspire, motivate, and leave you on the edge of your seat.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Prime Effect in College Football
• 11:05 Coach Prime's Impact on Passion and Leadership
• 25:46 Prime Time's Powerful Effect
• 32:27 Prime Time Effect in Schools

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When they see me. They know that every day, when I'm breathing, it's for us to go farther. You know, every time I speak, I want the truth to come out. You know I'm saying every time I speak I want to shiver. You know I don't want them to be like. They know what I'm gonna say because it's polite. They know what I'm gonna say and even if I get in trouble, you know I'm saying that. Ain't that what we're supposed to do? It's. I'm not saying I'm gonna rule the world or I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job. It's to spark somebody else watching us. We might not be the ones, but let's not be selfish. And because we're not gonna change the world, let's not talk about how we should change it. I don't know how to change it, but I know, if I keep talking about how dirty it is out here, somebody gonna clean it up. And now he's been promoted his job principal.

Speaker 2: 0:55

What's going on, everyone? This is Uche in Joku Excuse me, sneaker, principal, and it is Sunday, september 10th. I want to give a quick shout out and happy birthday to my baby sister, amira. Happy birthday, happy 33, and let's get into it. So it's Sunday, and Sunday is typically across the country, you know, especially in the fall Time for football, right, and I've been out after balance with you.

Speaker 2: 1:24

I played high school. I played a little bit of high school football, a little bit of college football, division three. So you know the guy for what it's worth. So, um, I've also felt like I'm one of these people because I've actually been in trenches in some capacity For me to watch. It has to be a very, very, very compelling reason for me to sit down, watch a whole entire game. So am I getting to the Super Bowl? I might get it sometimes. Get into the college championships, or maybe there's someone who's playing that I think that, wow, I want to see this person do their thing.

Speaker 2: 1:54

But typically I'm not one to be like okay, I'm anticipating a football game, but this season I think, like many, many football fans out there, there's been definitely the buzz around Dion Sanders and what he's doing in Colorado and, strangely enough, I was in Colorado last October or so, and specifically in Boulder. I went to a read up Mexican, mexican spider in Boulder, you know, walked around the campus, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful city. I've been. I was actually there in Denver Months prior to that following the school year with the confellows yeah, we're the confellows from Columbia University and we were that. We were down here as well. Bunch of principles. So interesting to hear that he was going to Colorado because that can say, oh, I've been to that campus is beautiful and that elevation is no joke.

Speaker 2: 2:42

But, um, outside of that, just watching everything else have to do with Dion Sanders and Jackson State and him leaving and all that and All the commotion, all the craziness, you know, and all the talk about him. So it's been, it's been in the forefront of the news, you know, and in social media for a while now. But what's interesting is and I'm again, I'm not sitting here, I'm not gonna sit here and go over his the games, the last two games of the first two games of season, which was the last two games, and if they're transpired, here's a coach who Literally, was give, took on the worst, one of the worst, performing there's one programs and With the confidence of the bravado to believe that he'd be able to make an impact, immediate impact, in the first year and and so far, game one, which was last, those was decided before this. Before yesterday they went up against the, these runner-up To national championship TCU, and they beat them. It was dogfight but they beat them. It wasn't a very defensive game but it's very offensive and they beat them All right now people saying, well, that's not the same team that went to the championships, they're not.

Speaker 2: 3:57

People graduate all the other stuffs. Then guess what? Yesterday we're against Nebraska. They're the historical rivals and it was a rough game. It was a raw, rough game.

Speaker 2: 4:09

Throughout the game people even announces how lot to say about Colorado, whether or not they were ready, whether or not they let the TCU game get to your heads there's a lot of talk about. You know Shredor sanders was who's the young son not quite being there? You know he's a great guy, but now he's facing the truth, right, and the final score was seven thirty six, seventeen. Colorado one. And the last touchdown was was a track when they call a garbage touchdown. So it was at the end of the game. It meant nothing. So the handed Nebraska. They have butts on the self-applauding.

Speaker 2: 4:48

Yes, the game was tough, but I know that when you're in combat and you're fighting for your life, you might get stabbed up, you might get an arm blown off. I mean God, I don't want to be morbid, things could happen to you. But the question is, did you survive? And Colorado showed that under adversity they can survive and find their rhythm and put some points on that board. So it was great. So far it's been great and, for all we know, this Cinderella story can stop after game two. They should easily be able to imagine this the next opponents, which is Colorado State, which will be next Saturday, I think, at Colorado, then after that they have to go to Oregon. Then, after Oregon, they come back home to face USC, whose quarterback was last year's Heisman Trophy winner. So it's about to be crazy.

Speaker 2: 5:39

And yes, I know I'm sounding like I watch a lot of football, but listen, I do a lot of reading. I watch a lot of short clips, but I did watch the Colorado games. I watched them and I was like wow. So now I'm quite fascinated by Colorado specifically. Not even Dion Sanders himself as a coach, as a Hall of Fame NFL player, an all-star baseball player, all the things he's done in his career.

Speaker 2: 6:07

I'm fascinated by this concept of the prime effect, the prime effect. There was a commercial that ran yesterday, during which it was an investor-colorty commercial, and throughout the whole commercial they had different members of the community students, professors, whoever else on campus and they were saying things like this is a prime location, prime campus, science department, prime this, prime, that, prime that, and you know the playoff of prime. Because, again, prime time is Dion Sanders' nickname. From his playing days until this day, no one calls him Coach Sanders, they call him Coach Prime. So there's this thing that is becoming a thing, or there is a thing called the prime effect His ability to walk into a space and suffocate, suffocate out doubt, to suffocate out failure, to suffocate out anything that says that I am not able to do this or I cannot.

Speaker 2: 7:12

He did it at Jackson State. I believe I read somebody that his presence had a $40 million impact, so it's all plus in the local economy of the town of Jacksonville. When I've been talking about the college itself, I'm talking about just outside of that campus. His presence there as a football coach shifted culture. Most students wanted to go to school there. More people were coming to the town and business was making money. People were coming to see what was happening with the football team, which had a direct impact on what's happened on campus. People said it was a fluke. It's an HBCU. He's a black celebrity, a black great football player, a black man who is now in the space, and his presence there was should shift culture, should have an impact.

Speaker 2: 8:03

The question is, could he do it again at Colorado? So guess what? This man took a job for a $29 and 1 half million contract, I think over three years, or whatever number is, I'm not sure, but that was what he said. Ok, fine, let's sign the silent outline. When he signed, the university didn't even have the money to pay him. They were hoping that just by him saying I'm coming to be the head coach of the Colorado Buffalos, that it would have an impact immediately on the community. So they raised the money as soon as he was coming.

Speaker 2: 8:52

All of a sudden, $20 plus million appeared out of alumni donations. Think about this I signed you silent for a job and they said we're going to pay you this, but we don't have the money. But we know as soon as you sign your name to the paper, the money will come because of who you are and what you bring to the table. That is not normal at all. That's not normal. This is like what's happened. They're saying right now that this year alone, the prime effect will probably net over $100 million to the university. Just the prime effect. We're not talking about ball games. We're not talking about anything else other than just his presence within the space, which means he's going to draw people in, more students, more people who want to work with the university, just because the head coach of the football team is Dion Promptime Sanders.

Speaker 2: 9:59

I have a couple of notes here. I just want to make sure I don't miss anything in this, because what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to make a connection between the prime effect and what could happen if school leaders I don't know if I can say all school leaders, but I wonder what would happen if talented, confident, visionary school leaders applied some of the things that Dion has applied in his career as an athlete, as a coach, as a commentator. This man has been consistent throughout his whole career. So think about this the tangible that he's brought everywhere he's gone, and specifically Colorado. His brought charisma, his ability to talk to people, to make you believe in what he says is going to happen.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Passion. Go to social media, any video of Coach Prime doing this thing with his athletes, being interviewed, like I'm telling you you feel like you want, like you're trying to go back to school, like I'm trying to jump in the time machine and go to my younger self and afford my younger self to today so I can go to University of Colorado and try to walk on that team or, if not, just be the mascot or be in the audience, you know, or be in the bleachers, I don't know. Okay, so that passion he draws out is so infectious that you can't help but want to believe, if you don't already believe. And he has a particular, unique approach to coaching. Think about this he moves as a mentor. He talks about his players, him being their mentor, their role model, the example by which they should live by.

Speaker 2: 12:08

He sets very, very clear old school rules with these boys. You would think him with the gold chain, the gold whistle and the swag and everything else and you'll play my theme song and he starts dancing and everything else. But behind that, pay attention to longer format videos. And this is what he's saying Get home on time, go to sleep, get some rest. Don't go out there wanting out. This is what I expect of you.

Speaker 2: 12:35

Okay, tomorrow we're gonna be in our suits and we're gonna be in our suits for this game. We're gonna arrive in our suits. Hear the ties that you can wear, hear the colors. You're not sagging your pants around me, all these things that are super old school that you would think somebody was so much like him would not be about. Not be about Okay, but the thing is this he's a mentor. He says I will live up and move the way I say that you should move so you can see it can be done right, he's a guiding light. He's a guiding light when things are at its darkest, darkest. He's not one to power and make excuses. And what was me? No, he says guys, we're gonna keep moving forward, we coming and guess what happens? You know, I saw it yesterday.

Speaker 2: 13:33

His son got sacked seven times. I was like damn, it's funny, because people were watching the game and thinking what's he doing? He keeps on getting sacked. But I was thinking to myself, man, the blows this man's body is going through. Listen, have you ever been hit on a football field? Okay, high school.

Speaker 2: 13:55

The first time I got my bell run was in high school. By the way I got to college, it was different. We were grown men. We were grown men much faster, much stronger. In high school I was benched in 225. Two plates easy. I got to college, I was hitting 315. That's a different kind of strength and that happened literally within a year, like 18 months. I just got that much stronger because I was older, I gave some weight, some base in my voice and it was just different.

Speaker 2: 14:30

So now here he is. This is this man, this young man is. I think he's like 21, 22. So these are young men going at it there and he got, he got sacked, he got hit and he kept on getting up, kept on moving forward, and his father kept on pouring into him. He kept on pouring into the whole entire team. They're guiding light. This is where we're going. Don't, don't, don't let that that, that that moment of distraction, that that moment of apparent failure, stop you from failing forward or moving forward. Guiding light. They knew it, kids knew it. At any given time, they can look to their coach and know he was going to keep pointing in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 15:10

Okay, and, of course, just being a figure of inspiration, and not just to to these athletes, to the whole entire damn university at this point in time, to the whole entire country. I can tell you right now there are kids, right now who is sitting in high school, freshman sophomores Still got a year or two or three before graduating who may be three, four, five star prospects, who all want to go play for Coach Prime. They don't care about Notre Dame, they don't care about Alabama, they don't care about Florida State, they don't care about the? U, they don't care about the Ohio State, they don't care about nothing, none of that. All they care about is I want to go play for Coach Prime. Think about that. When I was a kid, I was thinking about university names USC, ucla, the Bruins, no, because I had a rocking teacher that said prime time.

Speaker 2: 16:14

Now I say all this to say what if these same thought processes and phyloxins were brought into the school setting? What if, as a school leader, you walked in there and you set a clear vision, an inspirational vision, an intentional mission for your school community? There's one thing people say about Dion Sanders, coach Prime. They say he's arrogant, he's boastful, he's cocky. I don't think. I don't see that he says something very, very true. He said people have a problem with seeing a confident black man. Key word confident Confidence. Too many of our school leaders move into spaces and we move in fear. They're nervous, energy. I don't want to lose my job, I don't want to get in trouble. Okay, first of all, if you say you don't want to get in trouble, usually what are you doing that we get you in trouble? You should not be doing anything illegal, anything that's counter to the rules and policies of your school district or your school community. But however how you move, listen, this is one thing I learned in the military, one thing I learned in corporate America, one thing I've learned just in life.

Speaker 2: 17:52

In general, birds of a feather flock together, birds of a feather flock together, and whenever you see birds in the air flying in your flocking geese, whatever, there's always that one bird ahead of every other bird. There's always that one geese that fly in that triangle formation. There's always that one goose or geese or whatever flooding ahead. Same to any kind of birds, okay, at least any bird that flies in formation. And when there are some birds out there, they fly all kinds of crazy. I'm not talking about bats I'm talking about, like when you see birds who are flocking together. There's always some kind of formation, so there's always a bird in the front.

Speaker 2: 18:31

As a school leader, you are that bird, you are that leader, and the way you move, the way everybody's going to move, you move in fear, everybody moves in fear, you move in a state of arrogance and it's all about you. And you got to make sure you have your Milan Oblanax or your red bottoms or whatever it is you are into, and you got to be just so flying, so dope, because the title I am the principal or I am the system principal. But is that something people can gather around? Is that something people can commit to? Is that setting, a state of being A point of leadership, that guiding light that says no, this is where we're going, and not only that.

Speaker 2: 19:28

I believe so much. I will walk ahead of everyone else. As a matter of fact, I want anybody to walk behind me. So when the shot starts coming, I will protect everyone, because we have a very clear mission of where we're going as a school community, with our parents, with our students and everybody who's involved. That is what I see the prime effect as when you are able to impact, not just on paper. Where people start to believe, when the owner of the corner store says to you wow, I see what you're doing. When people in the community start to ask how can we get involved. When parents start saying, listen, I'm at home, what's the dad going to do? Can I come in and help? I want to make sure that we succeed.

Speaker 2: 20:25

These are the things that result from having a prime effect in your school community. This is why Dion Sanders is able to have a potentially $100 million impact on the community of Buffalo. I'm just a buffalo. The Buffalo community is their mascot, the community of Boulder and I'm an altitude, probably even this whole entire state. Let's be honest here Tax revenue from these football games when people show up. We know that every Sunday when there's a home game maybe even when there is a home game all the people go to the bars and restaurants and the TVs come out there and people who are ordering food and everything else to watch the game. I can only imagine how much tax revenue he's even impacting the whole entire state with. Think about that. One man, a black man, a confident black man right? These are the things I think can make a bigger impact in our school community if we still have that kind of mentality.

Speaker 2: 21:31

A couple of other words that I wrote down here. When you move like that, when you move like that with that mentality of this will be done and you have a clear plan, not just lip service. You have a clear plan. A couple of things that I got to say that people are not paying attention to as much. People keep thinking it's just Dion Sanders.

Speaker 2: 21:56

When he went to Colorado he told them I'm being my Louis luggage. What he meant was he's being his athletes. He had some prime time athletes. Who's being with them? He brought his two sons. He brought Travis Hunter, who arguably is probably the best thing in football since Dion.

Speaker 2: 22:17

Yesterday I watched him play every down. Travis Hunter played every down. He didn't have a break until the end, when they knew it was over the last four minutes. Four last five minutes. Then they pulled him off for a set of game. He played every down on offense and defense. When the offense was on the field, he was on the field. When the defense was on the field, he was on the field and he had an impact Catches, tackles, tackling big boys. So these are kind of athletes he brought with him. But then what he did too, he cleared out the whole entire roster, had 80 new athletes. He brought in Guys who had never played before together. This is what makes Colorado very interesting. In six months he put together a team, a ragtag bunch of guys who all came together to do something that is hardly unlikely. It takes a lot of teams a year or two to gel to find their footing. They do this in months. So he comes in and all we're talking about is him and his athletes.

Speaker 2: 23:26

We're not really talking about the coaching staff as much. I forget his name. His offensive coordinator, I believe, was the head coach at Kent State. People say he's a dynamic coach. He just didn't have the tools there. So he steps down from being a head coach to being an assistant, to actually to be an assistant, to be the offensive coordinator. For prime he should be a head coach and then he brings on a lot of other guys who could easily be coordinators. In some cases, head coaches themselves put together a strong team of specialists, people who know what they're doing, but, even more so, people believe in the vision. Now, as a school leader, that is exactly what we should be doing.

Speaker 2: 24:19

A lot of you guys know I took on a school May 1st of last spring and this is a school where people told me are you nuts? This is crazy. Like you know, this is a highly difficult school that you've taken on. But check this out. In my vision, I thought to myself. I looked at the data. I believe I know what the school community is capable of, what these kids are capable of, but I need the talent now. And what did I do? I went out there and had my own prime effect. I reached out to some people that I knew that were amazing educators. I said to them hey, here I am, you know, I'm at a University of Colorado type school and I think we could be champions. And I had teachers, master teachers, incredible aspiring leaders who could go on to take on leadership, much higher leadership roles at other schools. That chose to come here Because I set the tone for a vision that I believe could have much bigger impact than going to a school that's already about to stop. The same thing going to Mesa-Lingville.

Speaker 2: 25:46

The prime time effect encourages creativity, innovation and fearlessness. I'm going to say it again the prime time effect encourages creativity Because you're in a space where you've got to think outside the box. How am I going to move this forward? What am I going to do here to make sure that what I see is what's going to happen? Innovation, again, thinking outside the box. What are we going to do? What are we going to do is different. How are we going to set the word of blaze by the work that we're going to do in this space? How are we going to be the model for everyone else? Because when you innovate, you're saying that this innovation should now be replicated.

Speaker 2: 26:33

And then fearlessness. I can only imagine you know it's funny his son, sridhar Sanders, says that his dad doing every game day it's a ball of nerves. His anxiety kicks up Like don't talk to him, he's in his head. And I get that, because when you move like that and you're saying, listen, I'm glad to go to war to change the status of a community, to change the lives of these young men, you got to be fearless. But being fearless doesn't mean you're stupid. You also know that the world is on your shoulders. You've made guarantees and you've made promises. So when you move with fearlessness and that bravado, people assume it's just arrogance. It's not arrogance. I have to believe what I'm doing because there are people who are depending on me to be right. There are people who have committed their lives to my promises, to my assertions. So now I got to go in there and be ready to go to war, not for myself, not for my ego, but for them, because I've said I would Winning.

Speaker 2: 28:06

Culture is something that we see in sports. We want to win. You judge by your wins, and that's when you become a dynasty. When you win, win, win, win, you're a dynasty. So when you start thinking about Alabama. You start talking about the LSU, you start talking about the USCs are back in the day, they're Notre Dame, all these schools that are legendary for winning, because it's about winning right.

Speaker 2: 28:33

One of the things I want to say before I close out is that, for some weird reason, when it comes to our school communities, we don't want to talk about winning, like, oh my God, we can't talk about winning.

Speaker 2: 28:45

That's not a good trait to teach kids and I think that is the most lousiest like nonsense concept ever. I've told my students this as soon as I was able to coin this a couple of years back. It's been my mainstay. I do not want you to go into the world and just survive. I want you to go into the world and conquer. I'm not even talking about winning, I'm talking about conquering. Winning in every aspect of your own life, your work life, your relationships, your love life, your spirituality, all the things they're important to you should be conquering them, and unfortunately, we don't put that into kids. We tell kids that they have to. You know, just be good people, yes, be an amazing human being, but win and go beyond winning, conquer, and we need to teach our kids how to do this Often. Our kids go. They leave school and go into the real world and they don't know how to survive.

Speaker 2: 29:56

No no, I'm sorry. All they do is survive, and when they're at their lowest, they just sit there. But no one ever told them how to scrap, how to fight back, how to claw, how to burn a man like oil, how not to give up even when things are dark. Instead, we just pat them in the back and say it's okay, you know, not everybody's meant to, that is not true. That is not true. Everybody's not meant to, because enough people don't believe that they can. It is important that we teach our kids how to win. Win well, win good, without destroying other people, but win. And if you don't win, walk off that field, walk off that, whatever that race was. Knowing man, I hit my personal best today. It's funny.

Speaker 2: 31:01

I watched the World Track and Field Championships and I saw this one woman. I think she ran in the 100 meter race. I think she came in like fourth place. She was so ecstatic I know it might have been the European Championships, but she was so ecstatic, she was crying. She was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. And if you're just watching you might think is she crazy? She didn't get gold, she didn't get silver, she didn't get bronze. She came in fourth place, but she broke her personal best time. I've seen to myself huh, she got that much faster, which means now she knows what she's capable of, and sometimes you just got to get faster and faster and faster. You might never win, but guess what? You will end up being one of the best at what you do. She came in fourth place and guess what? She runs faster than me, she runs faster than you and she had every reason to be excited about that moment. She conquered, she blew out her personal record and now she's still fighting and clawing for a better time and better time and eventually her best times will put her in third, second, maybe even first place, you never know.

Speaker 2: 32:27

All right, y'all. This is much longer than I expected. It's 40 minutes and I know nobody's going to watch no 32 minutes. I know nobody's going to watch the video this long, but I was thinking about this yesterday.

Speaker 2: 32:40

And why are we not applying the prime effect into what we do as school leaders? Because I believe if we do this, and we do it fidelity, and we do it confidence and fearlessness, we can shift school communities, we can impact neighborhoods. I mean, I believe a school can economically impact the neighborhood. I believe that a school can bring wealth into a neighborhood rather than a school existing, that, if it does its job, that the kids may one day do well. No, I want the community to do well. I want my school to be a cornerstone, a shining gem in the community. I want businesses coming in and saying how can we support your school if we see what you're doing and knowing that by supporting the school, we're supporting the community, we're bringing resources into the community?

Speaker 2: 33:38

Yo, this is Uche Njoku. Thank you so much for your time this time. Wherever you are, whether it's morning, night, evening, whatever time it is, I appreciate you. If you watch this in your school leader or spine leader, think about this how can you apply the prime time effect into the work that you do? Ah, y'all be well.