Texas Southern University VP/AD of Athletics Dr. Kevin Granger is pushing back against a story that says that the program has decided to part ways with Clarence McKinney.
HBCU Legends reached out to Granger after a report from HBCU Sports stated that Clarence McKinney was being let go at the end of his contract on Dec. 18. Granger refuted that report.
“The article about the school parting ways with Coach McKinney in not accurate,” Dr. Kevin Granger, Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics at Texas Southern University told HBCU Legends. “We have not made a decision, and will make a determination after the season.”
McKinney has compiled a 12-34 record since being hired following the 2018 season. He has never had a winning season, with a 5-6 record in 2022 as the peak of his time in Houston. In fact, 5-6 is the best record the program has had over the last decade, recording the same record in 2014 prior to his arrival.
McKinney arrived in Houston after multiple stints as a running backs coach for Kevin Sumlin at Arizona, Texas A&M and Houston. His team went winless in 2019, won a single game in the abbreviated SWAC spring season of 2021. He landed talented quarterback Andrew Body heading into the fall 2021 season, injecting a level of excitement into the program. The team won three games that fall, beating Southern for the first time in years. It followed it up with that five-win 2022 season in which it was in the running for the SWAC West title.
Many people expected Texas Southern to take a leap forward in the 2023 season, but an early-season injury to Body put a damper on the season and TSU has remained in the cellar of the SWAC West. Ironically, McKinney pulled off one of the most important wins of his career on Sunday, knocking off Alcorn State and altering the SWAC West race.
Only time will tell whether or not he will coach beyond Saturday’s game against UAPB.