Alcorn State president Dr. M. Christopher Brown said Tuesday the school will not name its new football coach this week and defended the school’s lengthy search process.

Brown cited scheduling conflicts with the school’s athletic director, Patrick Simon, on why there would be no hire this week.

“I would say it’s 1,000-percent true, we won’t make a hire this week,” Brown said. “My athletic director (Simon) is out of town and is going to Baton Rouge for the SWAC Baseball Tournament and I have a meeting (today) with the state College Board.”

Brown said he was taken aback by a television report

from WLBT out of Jackson, which said Monday the school would hire Northern Colorado offensive coordinator Michael Armour.

“There has been so much rumor and misstatements and the report on WLBT was totally false,” Brown said. “I know I have spoken with three prominent alumni and have told them there is no news to report. I’ve yet to get in the same room with my athletic director. Still, I think next week will be an optimum time to get it done. We definitely want to have a coach by the end of the month.”

Armour is one of four candidates who interviewed for the position in Lorman on April 23. The others are current director of football operations Todd McDaniel, former Southern Miss and Memphis defensive coordinator Jay Hopson and former Kentucky State coach Fredrick Farrier. On April 26, Hopson withdrew his name from consideration, but in an interview the next day, Brown had hoped to keep him in the mix.

Brown said while the process has gone on longer than anticipated, he was happy with the school’s thoroughness.

“We could have hired some one quickly and just sent him to the gym,” Brown said. “The great thing about this search is we’ve been able to go more in depth with the prospective coach and the program. Each of the candidates presented us with a budget. This included what their recruiting factors would be, what they would need in assistant coaches’ pay and infrastructure improvements. It’s been a very different type of search than what they’ve done in the past.”