Alabama State Fires Head Coach Reggie Barlow

With the college football season quickly drawing to a close, the decision whether or not to retain a team’s head coach is beginning to circulate in athletic departments around the country.  By now a large enough body of work has been presented for athletic directors to make an informed decision on the status and success of their team’s current coaching staff.

For Alabama State, sustaining a certain level of success is as much a priority to them as any other Division-I team. The board of trustees voted earlier this week to fire head coach Reggie Barlow, after concluding he was no longer the man for the job.

Barlow led the Hornets to a 7-5 record, but a midseason, four-game losing streak seems to have doomed his stint with his alma mater.

Barlow, a former NFL wide receiver, had a career record of 45-42 while guiding Alabama State to four straight winning seasons. This unprecedented wining streak was the first since 1967-1970 and had the Hornets moving in the right direction. Still, certain members of the trustees were not pleased with the team’s loss to rival Alabama A&M amid the four game losing skid. During Barlow’s tenure, the Hornets tied for the conference lead three of the four seasons before capping his stint with a win against Stillman.

The former Jacksonville Jaguar had an extremely successful professional career leaving the franchise with the most kick return yardage in the history of the organization.

A replacement for Barlow already appears in the works and could be decided prior to the team’s bowl game. This would provide the new coaching staff time to build chemistry with the players prior to the start of spring practices while also being able to implement certain strategies that could be used in the future.

*Photo credits to Associated Press

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