Jackson State athletic director Vivian Fuller plans to meet with football coach Rick Comegy soon and hopes to decide the coach’s future with the school “before the holidays,” she said Monday.

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Comegy is in the last year of his contract with JSU, a deal that ends Dec. 31. The sixth-year coach just completed his best season with the Tigers - a 9-2 run that will likely end with the program’s first top-25 FCS ranking since 1999.

Fuller said Monday she has “no opinion” on whether the coach should be retained, but will have a decision after the two meet. The meeting has not yet been scheduled, she said.

“We’ll sit down and iron it out,” Fuller said. “It’s either going to be yay or nay.”

Fuller, the first-year AD, hopes to have “closure on this as quick as possible.” Comegy, 59, has not returned multiple messages left for him by The Clarion-Ledger over the last week.

Several JSU icons have shown support for Comegy, including the program’s winningest coach, W.C. Gorden, and ex-AD Bob Braddy. Braddy did not give Comegy an extension following last season’s 8-3 year mostly because of the team’s academic struggles, he told The Clarion-Ledger earlier in the year.

Jackson State is banned from this season’s Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game and probably next year’s, too, for low Academic Progress Rate scores. The school revealed earlier this month that the football team’s academic scores have improved.

Comegy is 41-26 in his six years.

JSU has finished tied for the SWAC East lead the last two seasons, and Comegy won the SWAC championship in 2007 and played again in the title game in 2008.

Quick hits
The Tigers, if eligible for the SWAC title game, would not have earned the SWAC East spot in the championship game. JSU would have lost a three-team tiebreaker with Alabama State and Alabama A&M. JSU lost a two-team tiebreaker last year with Alabama State. … JSU moved up a spot to No. 3 in the Sheridan Broadcasting Network poll, but still has no first-place votes. The final poll will be released once No. 1 Winston-Salem State (12-0) completes its run in the Division II playoffs.

By Ross Dellenger, Clarion Ledger
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20111129/SPORTS030101/111290323/Comegy-status-still-up-air