By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
As Dewayne Alexander talked to the crowd Friday morning in the Eagles' Nest in the Hooper Eblen Center during the event announcing his hiring as Tennessee Tech's newest head football coach, the veteran was among a lot of familiar faces.
There were teammates, fellow coaches, people he's known for years – all of them wishing him well as the new coach embarked on bringing another Ohio Valley Conference crown to Cookeville.
The air was electric with the news, excited at the prospect.
Alexander name-dropped his former teammate, Barry Wilmore, who is slated to receive the NCAA'S Theodore Roosevelt Award next month.
His teammate was definitely thrilled with the news.
"If I were choosing a football coach for 'MY' university, I'd want someone who first and foremost loved Tech football and loved the men for whom he'd coach," Wilmore said. "Then I'd want someone with proven character and a disciplined and ethical approach to molding men first and athletes a very close second.
"So, with those thoughts in mind and without a moment's hesitation, it would be Dewayne Alexander who I would select. I'm thrilled to have him back on the Tech team and am excited about the events to come."
University president Dr. Phil Oldham echoed the sentiment of many in attendance Friday morning.
"We're excited," he said. "We really think we got the right fit for us and we interviewed a lot of excellent coaches who were all very, very good. But we wanted a head coach that wanted to be the head coach at Tennessee Tech and there's no one that wants that more than Dewayne Alexander. I'm convinced there's no one who wants to win here more than Dewayne does and I think he can get it done."
Throughout the day, outpouring of support came through on Tech's social media.
We've seen a lot of great reactions to our hiring of Dewayne Alexander -- swipe through our Twitter Moment to see what everyone is saying! ⤵
— Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (@TTUGoldenEagles) December 22, 2017
⚡️ https://t.co/aFf2R7hw4k #WingsUp
Also in attendance were two of the coaches Alexander worked with – Watson Brown and Mike Hennigan. Both felt Alexander has the ability to build something special at Tech.
"I know Dewayne so well from coaching against him and coaching with him," Brown said. "He's a Tech guy. To me, that's totally the right hire. There were two guys who I thought really had a great chance – (former Tech quarterback and current Mercer assistant) Tre Lamb being the other one. They're Tech guys. That's what needed to be here. Dewayne really is the right hire."
Hennigan said, "Dewayne's very competitive, yet he's very knowledgeable with what he goes about with his players. I think he works well with his players as well as any coach I ever had. He's just fun to be around. If there's three people in this world I would talk to and laugh sometimes during that conversation, Dewayne would probably be one of those three.
"Dwayne is a good fit for this program. To come to Tennessee Tech, I think you have to have an idea what you're stepping into, and there are some things that he'll have to do differently than if you were at another school, and I think Dewayne's aware of that – and it's a good thing."
And there's no doubt that the family atmosphere – touched on countless time during Alexander's remarks – is definitely part of Tech's fabric.
"It's got to be," Brown said. "You're not going to win at Tennessee Tech if it's not a family. We won one in 2011 and I thought we were really close to doing it again when I retired. You do it here as a team. You're not going to do it with individuals. We had some of those all-Americans he talked about, we had an OVC Player of the Year here in Tim Benford. It's key and Dewayne understands that. Tennessee Tech wins with that atmosphere and I don't think it's possible without that."
Oldham added, "It is a family atmosphere and he knows that. He's lived it, both as a player and as an assistant coach. He's very passionate about Tech. He's a man of outstanding integrity. We're not only going to win games, but we're going to win them the right way. We're excited for us, we're excited for him and his family. It is really a great day for us here at Tennessee Tech."
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
