It appeared Texas Southern was all but ready to announce the hiring of Alcorn State coach Fred McNair as its next football coach, but who will be the Tigers’ next head coach is back in limbo after the Board of Regents met Tuesday and deferred making any decision.
“We had a very brief meeting and the action taken during that meeting was that we were going to take some additional time for consideration,” TSU Board of Regents vice chair James Benham told the Defender.
What that means as far as hiring McNair is unclear. But Benham said an announcement for the board’s next meeting should be coming within the next couple of days.
There is speculation that the board was concerned with the process of how McNair was presented by athletic director Kevin Granger. Alcorn State, where McNair had coached the last seven seasons, announced earlier Tuesday the school was parting ways with its coach after not being able to agree on a new contract.
It was expected that McNair would be named Texas Southern’s new head football coach.
Benham would not elaborate on if TSU will be restarting the hiring process or continuing to work with McNair on a deal, citing state laws that prohibit state officials from discussing personnel matters.
“The board is taking additional time for consideration,” Benham said.
If TSU isn’t able to get a deal done with McNair, it could be particularly embarrassing for all parties. McNair likely negotiated with Alcorn State thinking he had the leverage of an offer from TSU.
Granger talked to a handful of candidates, but it has been clear for weeks now that he favored McNair as Clarence McKinney’s replacement.
McNair, 55, comes with some outstanding credentials and would be a huge hire for a football program that hasn’t had an NCAA-recognized winning season since 2000.
McNair spent the last seven years at Alcorn State, where he won two SWAC Championships and four SWAC East Division titles, shared the SWAC West division title this past season with Prairie View, and twice reached the Celebration Bowl. The Braves are coming off a 7-4 overall, 6-2 SWAC record this past season. McNair leaves Alcorn State with a 38-17 SWAC record and a 48-34 overall record.
McNair is the older brother of former Alcorn State great quarterback and the Houston Oilers 1995 first-round draft pick Steve “Air” McNair.
Alcorn State interim athletic director Robert Raines put out a statement ahead of TSU’s announcement, confirming that the school is parting ways after not being able to reach an agreement on a new contract. The school almost immediately promoted defensive coordinator Cedric Thomas as its new head football coach.
“I would like to thank Coach McNair for his many years of service and dedication to Alcorn State University. We worked diligently to extend Coach McNair a multi-year contract which would have placed him in the top tier of the conference with both compensation and incentives and additional incentives for assistant coaches,” Raines said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, we could not reach a mutual agreement.”
During his time at Alcorn State, the Braves won seven or more games four times in the last six seasons and never posted a record worse than 5-6 under McNair. That is welcome news to the Tigers, who haven’t had an NCAA-recognized winning season since 2000.
McKinney, whose contract wasn’t renewed, posted five non-winning seasons with his best finish coming in 2022 when the Tigers went 5-6 overall and 4-4 in the SWAC.
Granger could not be reached for comment.
