Cedric Thomas enters his second season as the head coach of Alcorn State Football. Thomas is the 22nd head coach in program history.
 
Thomas led the football program to a 6-6 record in his first season with wins over Grambling State, Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M just to name a few. The team 2024 team finished 2nd in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division. The Braves finished with six student-athlete receiving All-SWAC postseason honors, including three first team selections.
 
A seasoned leader, Coach Thomas rejoined the Alcorn State football staff in March of 2022 as the defensive coordinator. The Cleveland, Mississippi native takes the reigns of the program after a prior stint as the defensive back coach from 2012-2015 and the defensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017.
 
During his previous eight seasons with the Braves, Alcorn won four straight SWAC Eastern Division titles, including back-to-back SWAC titles in 2014 and 2015, and participated in the inaugural Celebration Bowl.
 
Before returning to Alcorn, Thomas spent the 2021 season as the head football coach of his junior college alma mater Mississippi Delta Community College. He led the Trojans to a 5-4 season with three student athletes receiving Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference All-Conference awards.
 
Thomas spent the 2020 season as the defensive back coach at the University of Southern Mississippi after a two-year stint as the head football coach at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, his undergraduate alma mater.
 
During his two years in Pine Bluff, Thomas helped lead the Golden Lions to a four-win improvement, as UAPB tripled their win total from two wins to six wins from 2018 to 2019. He coached 14 All-SWAC honorees, including nine first-team selections.
 
Thomas served as the running backs coach at the University of Tennessee-Martin in 2002 before coming to MDCC in 2003, where he also spent the 2004 season. After a two-year term at Itawamba Community College in 2005 and 2006, he returned to MDCC for the 2007-2011 seasons.
 
The former MDCC and UAPB standout earned an Associate of Arts degree from MDCC in 1998, a bachelor’s degree in recreation in 2001 from UAPB, and a master’s degree in administration from Alcorn State University in 2015.
 
The former East Side High School graduate is married to Kelunda, and the couple has one daughter, Loegan. Thomas also has a son, Cedric Jr.

COACHING CAREER:
2002-03: UT-Martin (Running Backs)
2003-04: Mississippi Delta CC (Defensive Coordinator) 
2005-2006: Ittawamba CC (Defensive Backs)
2007-11: Mississippi Delta CC (Defensive Coordinator)
2012-2015: Alcorn State (Defensive Backs) 
2016-2017: Alcorn State (Defensive Coordinator) 
2018-2019: Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Head Coach)
2020-2021: Southern Miss. (Defensive Backs) 
2021-2022: Mississippi Delta CC (Head Coach)
2022- 2023: Alcorn State (Defensive Coordinator)
2024: Alcorn State (Head Coach)