LORMAN — Alcorn State University President M. Christopher Brown II said Thursday that the school is down to a list of eight candidates for the position of head football coach.

Brown said of the eight, the school will bring three of them to campus to interview, and will announce publically which three made the final cut.

“I think the Alcorn football search is going to yield the kind of coach — and I think we have dropped the ball on this in the past — that everyone in southwest Mississippi will call their own.”

Alcorn is searching for a replacement for former head coach Melvin Spears, who was fired in late February after going 2-8 in 2011.