McNeese State on Tuesday announced it would not renew the contract of head football coach Lance Guidry.

The Cowboys hired Guidry for the 2016 season, hoping he would keep the program atop the Southland after they had sealed the 2015 championship with a win at Lamar under Matt Viator, now Louisiana-Monroe’s head coach. Guidry’s teams went 21-12 the last three years, but they’ve never returned to the NCAA Division I playoffs under his watch.

The Cowboys started this season 5-1 (losing only to Brigham Young) and was ranked sixth in the STATS FCS Top 25 poll, but things took a turn for the worse beginning with a 45-17 loss at eventual Southland champion Incarnate Word. The Cowboys were still in the championship hunt following a two-point homecoming win over Central Arkansas, but went on to lose three straight (at Southeastern Louisiana and Northwestern State and at home against Lamar).

“I thank Coach Guidry for his service to the university and wish him well in his future endeavors,” McNeese athletic director Bruce Hemphill said.

Guidry was a defensive back at McNeese from 1990-93 and a graduate assistant there the next season. Once an interim head coach at Miami University of Ohio, he was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator from 2013-15.