By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
As Shannon Fayne puts on his Tennessee Tech uniform for the last time Saturday, it will be a bittersweet moment.
He's seen the tough times, the good times, failure and progress. Along with the 20 other guys who have stuck with the program through thick and thin who will be recognized on Saturday's Senior Day, the Tennessee State game is the culmination of everything they have worked for and tried to build.
They've traveled around the country with each other, enduring long bus rides and hotel stays, as well as sweating through countless hours of practice on the Tucker Stadium turf.
As their careers come to a close Saturday – the result against the visiting Tigers still to be determined – the class ends its four-year career with a 13-31 record. But the one that means the most to them is the 2019 one. A winning season on the line and a step in the right direction.
They helped build it. They are the cornerstones.
So as their final game arrives, their heads are held up high, because they've seen it all. They've done the one thing that has been preached to them countless times over – leave the program in better shape than they found it.
And while the thought of what the day means is there, Fayne and his fellow seniors are more focused on the task at hand.
"I've thought about it," Fayne said. "I'm not trying to play into it too much. I just want to take it one game at a time, one practice at a time. We're still out there trying to give life to these young guys."
The team has grown so much over the past few years. While the Marcus Satterfield era started strong with many of these seniors getting their first action on-field with the Golden Eagles, the team went through growing pains in Satterfield's second and Dewayne Alexander's first seasons, recording identical 1-10 records.
With a 6-5 record entering Saturday's game – the most wins in a single season since winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship in 2011 with a 7-4 mark and tied for the 16th most wins in a season in Tech's 98 teams in varsity football competition – the team has truly come a long way.
And to be one of the cornerstones of that success means the world to Fayne.
"You always want to leave the place better than you found it," he said. "I've said that before and it means a lot to me to come out here and leave this place better than I found it.
"To be a leader, you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. That's what I do for myself. You give these guys someone to look to – an example – especially when you didn't have that as a freshman or a sophomore. You want to be that example for kids to look at and see what it takes to move this program to another level."
The turnaround, the level of success the team has accomplished this season – none of that is lost on the senior defensive back.
"It's very exciting, but none of that happened by surprise," Fayne said. "It didn't happen overnight. This offseason was big for us. We emphasized how we want it to work. It's paying off. All of our hard work is paying off. We're reaping the rewards."
Before the season started, back when he was representing the team along with quarterback Bailey Fisher at the OVC Football Media Day event in Nashville, back when the team was grinding on the Tucker Stadium turf for camp, Fayne knew there was something special about this team.
"I did," he said. "I saw the work we were putting in. I saw the talent that we had. I knew we were going to be good. We just had to put it all together – trust our coaching, trust each other. I knew it was going to click together."
Under Fayne's watch, Tech's defense has worked diligently to improve. While the numbers are skewed a bit by the high-powered offenses in the OVC, there is improvement there.
"We've trusted in our coaches," he said. "We're understanding the defense a lot better. We know why we're doing what we're doing and to be where we're supposed to be. We're able to make a lot of plays from that."
His young charges make Fayne feel like the future is bright for the Tech defenders.
"They're great," he said. "These guys love to learn. That's great for me, because I think how can I challenge them, how can I teach them something new each week, what can I focus on this week? I tell them to take one thing and focus on it each week in practice – whether it's stance or footwork, getting the call faster or diagnosing the formations faster – and just get better at it. It all just comes together."
All in all, this senior class has been through a lot and their experience is extraordinary. The leadership gained by what they have been through has helped shape the team in the right ways.
"We just continue to help these young guys, keep pushing them and motivating them," Fayne said. "We want to show them how to do things the right way. We have a stake in this and we want to see the team continue to succeed for years to come."
It's been a while since he made the decision to come to Tennessee Tech, but the feelings have never wavered.
"Obviously, there's a different coaching staff here now," Fayne said, "but Coach Satt, Coach (Chris) Polizzi and Coach (Dontae) Wright recruited me. Coach Wright said you're going to be OK, just take this in and enjoy this moment. Coach Polizzi was a big part of that. We talked throughout the recruiting process and he really got me excited about being here."
Through all the ups and downs, there are aspects that come to mean so much to the players. Then trying to realize what you're going to miss the most becomes a tough question, because there are so many things that put together the team.
"So many things," Fayne said. "I'm going to miss Miss Debbie (Parker, Football administrative associate), Coach A of course. I just think this relationship you have, the camaraderie we have as a team, you get that sense of this as another home away from my own. You come into our locker room and you see seniors sitting with the freshmen and so on. We're all the same. We're all brothers, and we mean that. We break it down on 'brothers' sometimes, break it down on 'family.' We all just click together."
When it comes to lessons learned, there are many. But the work ethic lesson is probably the one that stands out the most.
"You have to put the work in," he said. "Nothing is going to come easy and you can't slack. Hard work means a lot, especially when you're playing Division I football. Everybody is as talented, if not more talented, than you. You're not always going to have the best athletes, so preparation and hard work means a lot."
As his career stands to come to an end, there's still plenty more to tell of Shannon Fayne's story as it is just a chapter coming to a close. He looks ahead and he already has a vision for his future, goals in mind.
"Of course, I want to be happy," he said with a smile. "That's the big goal. A house. I really want to be an athletic director, so I want to be on my way toward being a successful athletic director In Division I."
There's one goal that the program has had on its mind for a while – trying to rebuild the Golden Eagle tradition. This team has come a long way in doing so, and for Fayne to be a part of it is priceless.
"It means so much," he said. "It truly does. Now you look around at it and it had to start somewhere. For us, this senior class, to do this after everything we've been through, it just means everything to us."
As he reflects on the season at hand, it's hard for the senior to pinpoint just one great moment in the campaign, but his response to the question was priceless, just knowing what the team has gone through.
"There's just been so many," Fayne said. "I think it's just better to say our next win is going to be my favorite moment."
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
