Saying he wants to distance himself from negativity and unfair appraisal of players by a segment of the fanbase, Alcorn State coach Fred McNair is stepping away from his weekly radio show.
The Braves coach made the announcement Monday during the most recent episode of “The Fred McNair Show” alongside Alcorn play-by-play broadcaster Charles Edmond.
“This will be the last one,” said McNair about his commitment to the show. “This will be the last Fred McNair Show as of tonight. I hope everybody can respect the decision I am making in terms of that. This will be the last one of the season.”
McNair broke down the Braves’ 31-27 Loss to Texas Southern with Edmond and responded to a few listener questions before going into candid detail about why he no longer wanted to participate in the call-in show.
Much of the angst stemmed from comments levied at coaching decisions and player performance that were described by McNair as “embarrassing” and “disappointing.”
“As far as this coaching staff, I’m pleased with this coaching staff,” he said. “There will be no changes with this coaching staff. I want to clear the air with everybody. I think they’ve done a heck of a job. We scored 27 points and gave up 34 points, plus the punt return. There will be no changes just so everybody knows that.”
Alcorn State is 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the SWAC, having lost its last two to fall into fourth place in the conference’s West Division.
McNair stood behind starting quarterback Aaron Allen against suggestions that he should be replaced. Allen threw three interceptions in the loss to Texas Southern on Saturday. For the season, the Louisana Tech transfer has thrown eight touchdowns, six interceptions, and passed for 1,352 yards.
“If I had another guy, we’d put him in,” said McNair said about calls to play backup Markevion Quinn. “But at this time, we don’t feel like the second guy (Quinn) is not ready to play up to our standards right now. “We think at this time Allen gives us the best chance to win the ballgame.
He later challenged anyone with questions about the direction of the program under his leadership to “please identify your name and let me address you personally.”
McNair further explained commentary players have been made privy to — particularly originating from social media — could cause distractions.
“A lot of things I’m getting from social media — and I don’t even have social media — is that people talk about these young men during the course of the week makes no sense,” the coach said. “It’s embarrassing. These kids hear it, they listen to it, and sooner or later they’re going to start believing it. Listening to the people talk about the coaches, talking about changing the offensive coordinator — these kids hear all that kind of stuff.”
For those reasons, among others, McNair said the show would be no more.
“This is why I’m pulling myself away from this. I don’t want to be around negativity,” he told Edmond. “I don’t want to hear that. I want to hear anybody talk about these young men, about the way they play because they have no idea what these young men go through on a daily basis throughout the week in terms of making preparations for a football game.
McNair, in his words, was “just tired” of what be believes has been unfounded flak.
“That’s just something I’m just tired of,” he said. “It’s a shame that people talk about these kids because the people that’s talking got kids, too. That’s the disappointing thing.”
