BATON ROUGE - Many fans at Southern University were ready for a coaching change after the team's homecoming loss this past Saturday.

They got their wish on Monday when the school announced the firing of second-year head coach Terrence Graves, less than a year after he made the SWAC Championship game.

"To be very blunt, I think we are just tired of losing," Karail Andrews, a student at Southern University, said. "The last four games we lost were just terrible, quite frankly." 

Much of the Southern University community shares Andrews' sentiment, as the Jaguars have had one of their worst starts since 1971.

"We are on a losing streak right now, maybe we need to change a couple of things, possibly," Taylor Rowell, another student, said.

Until the Jags find a new head coach, Fred McNair will serve as the interim.

"We were trying to figure out the plan of action," Roman Banks, Southern Athletic Director, said. "We came to the conclusion to remove Coach Graves and bring in an interim coach because we had a coach with a dynamic resume."

Southern University is still paying the buyout of former head coach Eric Dooley. The next $153,000 installment of the $460,000 Dooley is owed is due in January. Southern will now also have to pay Graves the remaining $500,000 of his contract, split into two payments.

"Maybe he was doing everything that he could, but it was time for a change, because we are looking bad as a community right now and losing the homecoming game, I could understand why that's the final straw," Southern student Anitra Wells said. "I am not expecting a perfect team. We can take our L's every now and again, but we just come harder than the last time we came. We're not coming with already set expectations of us, I guess to lose, because I guess that's what's in the air right now."