The Texas Southern Board of Regents has a virtual meeting scheduled for Friday morning at 8 a.m. for the purpose of hiring a new head football coach.
But don’t get too excited because we have been here before – a few times.
TSU has been attempting to hire a coach for more than a month now and has not been able to do so because the Board of Regents has not been able to come to a consensus on the candidate athletic director Kevin Granger presented last month. All indications are Granger had offered the Tigers’ job to former Alcorn State football coach Fred McNair.
The problem has been that the Board of Regents has been divided between hiring McNair and former Houston Texans receiver Andre Johnson. But according to a source, Johnson took himself out of the running for the job Thursday afternoon, leaving McNair as the likely top candidate for the job.
McNair has been left in limbo after essentially turning down a contract last month to remain at Alcorn State where he had elevated the Braves back to the top of SWAC programs. The school sent out a memo announcing it was moving on from McNair after the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
The Defender was the first to report McNair wasn’t hired on Dec. 18, despite heavy anticipation, because the Board deferred making the decision after they couldn’t agree on McNair.
Unable to come to a consensus on McNair or Johnson, the Board of Regents in the last couple of weeks re-opened the interview process that Granger had completed. A source confirmed to the Defender that TSU alumnus and 13-year NFL veteran Brett Maxie had another interview last week. Former Super Bowl MVP and Pittsburgh Steelers great Hines Ward’s name has also been thrown into the mix.
Candidates were told that a meeting would be held last Friday to discuss hiring a new football coach, but that meeting was postponed to today’s session.
The belief is that McNair and Johnson were still very much in the mix going into Thursday, but that McNair had more votes on his side than Johnson did.. Maxie, who has college and professional coaching experience and is currently the defensive backs coach with the USFL’s Houston Roughnecks, could also be a possibility.
The only thing that is known right now is whoever is hired as the new coach will be presented with a five-year, $313,000 contract that has been on the docket since the process to replace Clarence McKinney began early last month.
Whenever this search process ends, there is no doubt TSU comes out looking bad for how messy and embarrassing this hiring attempt has been. Board of Regents at most universities usually rubber stamp the candidate the athletic director presents, presuming there are no known red flags.
McNair doesn’t appear to have any red flags, and by Alcorn State’s admission, there was a desire to extend his expiring contract before the two sides were unable to come to an agreement. The strong belief is that McNair didn’t reach a deal with Alcorn State because he and Granger had reached a deal on him to TSU.
The uncertainty has definitely set the football program back because an important NCAA transfer portal has been missed and a critical recruiting time is ending without any leadership in place.
