Six Years Later Alcorn State’s Baseball Coach Dismissed

August will mark six years since Alcorn State University Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Derek Horne made the decision to hire Brett Richardson as the Braves head baseball coach. The decision at that time was to place the baseball program in a position to compete for championships. So, after Horne’s evaluation, it came down to whether Alcorn State could do better than the previous coach, Barret Ray.

Is Alcorn State a better program today?

In Richardson’s six years, the Braves never posted a winning record.  In 233 ball games, Alcorn won just 67.

According to the athletic department, Richardson failed to promote and maintain a winning atmosphere in the baseball locker room and showed shortcomings on the field.

Alcorn’s offense ranked among the SWACs least productive during his tenure, and it failed to develop a pitching staff strong enough to compete at a high level in the conference.

Coming out of the 2019 season, Coach Richardson received a vote of confidence from the athletic department with hope to get the baseball program back to its previous level of success. But the athletic department has since realized there is much work left to be done to return the program to a championship level.

While the university should be optimistic about building a successful baseball program, from what Black College Nines was informed, Richardson was not a communicative person within the athletic department. His contract expired at the end of the 2020-2021 school year and a losing record was a factor in his dismissal.

From a recruiting standpoint, Alcorn is still dealing with the same disadvantages former head coach Barret Ray faced while leading the team from 2010-2016.

In Coach Ray’s six seasons Alcorn State finishing with a record of 115-218. So, now six years later, is Alcorn State baseball a better program? The program, right now, is arguably not better.

The baseball team has new problems with the transfer portal. They are not able to compete with other conference opponents for the same recruits.

But a new head coach can focus on the future moving forward. Over the next few weeks, the administration will turn its attention and will look into the many areas on how Alcorn State baseball can get back to where everyone expects it to be.

The athletic program yearns for a successful head coach. In my opinion, they should break tradition and hire from outside of the MEAC and SWAC coaching ranks seeking a program builder like Southern University’s 2017 hiring of former coach Kerrick Jackson who had previously last been an assistant coach at the University of Missouri in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference (SEC).

The athletic department is currently looking for a candidate. An official statement on the coaching change has not been made yet by Alcorn State athletics.