New Alcorn coach promises win over JSU

Speaking with the fervor of a Southern Baptist preacher, Ernest Jones set the bar high today when he was introduced as the new Alcorn State football coach.

First, the energetic Jones opened a case and produced the ring he won as part of Alcorn’s Southwestern Athletic Conference championship team in 1993, and said: “I won’t quit until I get another one of these.”

And then, speaking to a crowd of some 75 Alcorn boosters at downtown Jackson hotel conference room, Jones promised a “program-defining moment, when we beat Jackson State University on a beautiful November day at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.”

Jones was hired to replace Johnny Thomas, who was fired in November, two days after the Braves lost 31-19 to JSU to complete a 2-8 season. Thomas posted a 48-61 record in 10 seasons as the Alcorn coach.

Jones is a 1995 graduate of Alcorn. He played wide receiver for the Braves in 1993-94, when quarterback Steve McNair helped make Alcorn one of the most exciting Division I-AA teams in the country.

Jones played sparingly. “I wasn’t very good,” he said. “But I’m back.”

Jones has spent the last seven years as an assistant coach at five different programs, most recently the University of Cincinnati, where he is the running backs coach.

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