Alabama A&M is firing football coach Connell Maynor after seven seasons

Alabama A&M fired football coach Connell Maynor on Monday after seven seasons.

Athletic director Paul A. Bryant announced the decision in a statement. The Bulldogs posted a 6-6 record this season, including 4-4 ​​in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and won three straight games before losing to Florida A&M at the end of the season.

Maynor finished 40-32 at Alabama A&M, including a SWAC record of 28-21.

Maynor led Alabama A&M to its first SWAC championship in 15 years in the shortened 2021 season that took place in the spring. The Bulldogs went 5-0 and defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 40-33 to capture the program’s second SWAC football title.

Maynor is a former Arena Football League player who played quarterback for Winston-Salem State and North Carolina A&T.

The program experienced tragedy when 20-year-old linebacker Medrick Burnett Jr. died last week from an injury he suffered on Oct. 26 in the annual Magic City Classic against in-state rival Alabama State.

Burnett Jr. was playing his freshman season as a linebacker at Alabama A&M University when he suffered a head injury, the Jefferson County coroner said.

The athletic department announced Burnett’s death Wednesday morning and sent out a retraction later in the day. The second statement said the first news of Burnett’s death came “from an immediate family member on Tuesday evening.”

The redshirt freshman from Lakewood, Calif., joined the Alabama A&M team over the summer after beginning his college career at Grambling State, according to the athletics department.