Deion Sanders Hits Colorado Kicker With Emotional Four-Word Message

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders took to social media on Friday ahead of the team's Week 8 matchup against the Arizona Wildcats.

Sanders posted a picture of himself hugging Buffaloes kicker Alejandro Mata. The photo was taken at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo. Mata was kneeling with a Mexican flag on his back, and Sanders embraced the veteran kicker.

"I love my Mata!" Sanders posted while tagging Mata.

Mata has been playing under Sanders for three years. He started his career at Jackson State and followed Sanders and the coaching staff out west to Colorado when the NFL legend moved on.

Mata played four seasons at Buford High School before committing to play for Jackson State. During his time at Buford, Mata won the kicking job as a junior and helped the team win two state championships.

He was then a starter at Jackson State as a true freshman, ending the season as a 91.7% field goal kicker.

When asked about his relationship with Sanders and why he chose to follow the Buffaloes coach to Colorado, he mentioned that he views Sanders as a "father figure."

"I like to refer to him as a dad," Mata said . "I think I see him as a father figure. I probably shouldn’t, but I think I do. He’s a cool man and I look up to him. My dad looks up to him."

Mata was originally born in Honduras. His family reportedly moved to Mexico when he was two years old. After living in Mexico for eight years, Mata and his family moved to Georgia, where he started his journey on the gridiron.

He mentioned that it was a difficult transition, moving from Mexico to Georgia, where he had to fight through the language barrier.

“I was the only Mexican in my school at the time,” Mata told buffzone.com in 2023 . “It started off rough, I’m not gonna lie. There was a little bit of a language barrier. I knew the basic stuff about English but I couldn’t maintain a full conversation, and my accent really didn’t help either.”

Despite the struggles, Mata turned his time at Buford into a scholarship to play for Sanders, one of the biggest names in college football.

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