Alcorn State fires Spears, hires AD

VICKSBURG, Mississippi — Alcorn State University President M. Christopher Brown announced the firing of head football coach Melvin Spears and the hiring of two new athletic employees Friday afternoon.

Patric David Simon will serve as athletic director for Alcorn, and Todd McDaniel will be the coordinator of football operations, Brown said. The announcements came at Alcorn’s National Alumni Association mid-winter conference at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Spears, who had been on administrative leave for more than two months, was 2-8 this past season, including a 51-7 loss to rival Jackson State University. Attendance steadily declined for the Braves in 2011, with just 500 attending Alcorn’s final home game against Prairie View A&M Nov. 12, according to school reports.

Brown said at the end of 2011, interim athletic director Malvin Williams recommender to Brown that Spears be terminated. Spears elected to have a grievance hearing with a panel of his peers in January, Brown said. “They deliberated and wrote a recommendation to me as president, and their recommendation was to terminate him, which I accepted,” Brown said.

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McDaniel continuing to direct Alcorn State football

Alcorn State, Mississippi - Alcorn State is continuing to rely on assistant football coach Todd McDaniel to provide stability in a trouble offseason.

Head coach Melvin Spears Jr. was placed on administrative leave on Dec. 15 and since then the Braves have been led by McDaniels, their defensive line coach.

Over two months later, the Southwestern Athletic Conference school announced Friday it had fired Spears and added the title of coordinator of football operations to McDaniel, with the expectation that he will continue to lead the program through upcoming spring practices.

Alcorn State president M. Christopher Brown praised McDaniel's handling of the program in the offseason. He added McDaniel will later recommend a timetable for hiring a new head coach.

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