Lane College is making a change with two games left on the 2026 schedule.
The school announced Tuesday that head coach Stanley Conner has stepped down. Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jeremy C. Patterson will serve as interim head coach for the rest of the season while continuing to run the athletic department.
All indications are the current football staff will remain in place.
The release gave no reason for the move. Lane said it will share information about the future leadership of the program after the season.
Conner leaves Jackson, Tennessee, without a win. The Dragons went 0-10 in 2025, his first season, finishing 0-8 in SIAC play and 13th in the league. This fall has gone the same direction. Lane is 0-8 after a 55-22 loss at Kentucky State on Saturday, and the Dragons have scored 44 points across eight games while allowing 290. They were shut out four times, including by FCS Alabama State in Week 2.
The closest call came on October 3, a 9-6 loss at Miles, where Conner spent the previous nine seasons as running backs coach.
That brings Conner's Lane tenure to 0-18.
"We are grateful for his service to the Dragons, we have great respect for him," Lane president Dr. Donald W. Comer said in the release.
Conner kept his statement short. "I wish them and the College continued success."
Lane hired Conner in February 2025 to replace Vyron Brown, who stepped down in November 2024 after going 17-23 over four seasons. Conner brought more than 30 years of college and high school experience. A former Jackson State player, he coached receivers at Alabama State from 1986-89, then spent most of the next two decades at Alabama A&M as running backs coach and associate head coach, with high school head coaching stints at LeFlore and Lanett in Alabama mixed in. He was the 1993 Alabama 6A Coach of the Year at LeFlore.
His first college head coaching job came at Benedict, where he went 21-27 from 2007-11, including an 8-3 season in 2009, before he was let go four games into the 2011 season. He followed that with two years at Concordia-Alabama (1-19), then joined the Miles staff in 2016, where the Golden Bears won three SIAC titles during his run.
A Lane alum, Patterson was the Dragons' defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2021-22 under Brown, and he has also coached at Mississippi Valley State (FCS) and Ouachita Baptist (D-II).
"Our focus is on our student-athletes and on finishing this season together," Patterson said.
An AD stepping onto the field for the final two games is rare at any level, but it keeps a familiar face in front of a roster that needs one.
Patterson's debut comes Saturday at Fort Valley State, followed by Homecoming against Tuskegee on October 31 in Jackson.
Lane becomes one of the first HBCU programs with an opening this cycle, and the search will officially begin once the season wraps.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.