By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – As the Cookeville Noon Rotary club met at the Leslie Town Centre, Tennessee Tech head football coach Dewayne Alexander pitched the local Rotarians about the Golden Eagle football squad for the 2023 season and invited the assembly to head to Tucker Stadium for the games this season.
First in the presentation was the new look of the conference as the Ohio Valley Conference joined with the Big South Conference in football only to create the Big South-OVC Football Association. Joining the usual suspects of Tech, Tennessee State, UT Martin, Southeast Missouri, Eastern Illinois and second-year OVC opponent Lindenwood, the Big South brings along Bryant, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb and Robert Morris into the fray.
"It's a changing landscape across all of college football right now," Alexander said. "There's a lot of teams moving around and it's a domino effect. I played in the OVC in the '80s and we had Akron and Youngstown State, so it's not the first time people have moved in and out of the conference.
"In order to qualify for an automatic bid for the FCS Playoffs, you have to have six football-playing members in your conference. We have dropped down to five and the Big South dropped down to four. We've since added Lindenwood, but they're still ineligible for the playoffs this year as part of their transition to Division I, so that doesn't give us one of the six we need. Western Illinois isn't coming in until 2024."
There's, of course, a chance that the OVC could continue to expand, but the Big South-OVC Football Association is in place for the next few years in the meantime. It has a definite advantage though.
"To protect ourselves and give us the best chance to get the automatic qualifier, we combined to make sure we're going to get somebody in the FCS Playoffs," Alexander said. "With 10 teams, you have a chance at getting two teams. If you only have five or six teams, you're not going to get another one in."
Alexander cited the situation the OVC ran into last season with Southeast Missouri and UT Martin both running into a perfect run through the conference as the two teams did not face each other. The automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs came down to a coin flip. The Redhawks won the toss and the Skyhawks saw their season come to a close.
"It's a bad way not to get into the playoffs," Alexander noted. "They were ranked in the Top 20 in the country, went 5-0 in the conference and did not get in. There is strength in numbers, so that's the reasoning."
The sixth-year Tech head coach then gave an overview of the season schedule, starting with the season opener on August 31 at Furman, a traditionally strong program in the FCS that is expected to have another great run this season, as well as the trip to FBS opponent New Mexico the following week before the Golden Eagles open the home slate against North Alabama on Sept. 16.
The next portion of the presentation focused on the new rules changes coming into all levels of college football this season. Those new rules include the game clock not stopping on first down except for the last two minutes of a half, no more consecutive timeouts to be called to 'ice' the kicker, the addition of an eighth official on the field and the elimination of untimed downs at the end of the first and third quarters.
"The biggest thing that everyone was looking at was the length of the game," Alexander, who serves on the AFCA's rules committee, said. "What's made the game longer? Several things – instant replay, the way the game is being played with more passing, commercials and TV timeouts. You add all that up and the average length of a college football game was three hours and 16 minutes. They're trying to get it down to three hours.
"The coaches know and understand the finances, you have to sell the advertising, but when rules are adopted that can actually affect the game itself, that's a concern. We had to be real careful into what rules were being adopted to take time out of the game."
Alexander then promoted the special events scheduled around the team's scrimmages. On August 12, the football program will host a Women's Clinic, while the Spirit Squads will host a Mini Camp. On August 29, the team will host the annual Gathering of Eagles events. More details on those can be found at TTUsports.com.
On a provided handout, Alexander showed the assembly the roster for the 2023 Golden Eagle football team, noting the Golden Eagles have 14 players coming in via the transfer portal.
"There's a lot of talk out there about the transfer portal," he said. "It's crazy – it's the wild, wild west on the FBS level. Here's the reality of it on the FCS level -- the players from the Tennessees and the Alabamas of the world transferring to the FCS were more prevalent under the old system. Why? Because you would not immediately be eligible if you transferred from Tennessee to Alabama. You had to sit out a season of competition. Now you don't have to sit out a year.
"Have you ever seen the Plinko game on 'The Price is Right'? It's like that – by the time these players get down to us, they've had a lot of other places to land. So for us, we're getting more FCS transfers, more Division II transfers, JUCO transfers – there's not as many people recruiting the junior college level now and there's some fantastic players there. These guys have already experienced college, they've already played college football and that's a big advantage."
With Tennessee Tech's academic tradition, along with the COVID year of eligibility granted during the pandemic, it plays into the Golden Eagles' favor in many ways.
"We have excellent graduate programs at Tennessee Tech," Alexander said. "We have 25 different graduate programs. There are a lot of young men who had that year and so they have their undergraduate degree from the colleges they were at and still have two years of football to play. They may be at a school that doesn't have a graduate program in what they were studying.
"We got a defensive back from Colgate (Jackson Price) – he started 21 games there and they don't have a graduate program there. He comes here for grad school and that's the perfect fit for Tennessee Tech. He's a really good football player, but he also has his education in mind. That's what we're looking for. (Okachi Emmanwori) started 19 games at Wofford and Presbyterian and they have limited graduate programs. We've been talking to Ivy League kids and they have graduate programs, but they're super difficult to get in. These guys are looking for places to go and use their eligibility."
The 14 number is striking and definitely unusual.
"It's the most we've had here in a long time," Alexander said. "They're all good young men and fit in great. They're here and they're going to get their graduate degrees, which is awesome."
That's not to say the high schools are getting left out as Alexander and his staff is still heavily recruiting the prep level.
"We added 21 new high school players," he said. "We still have over 50 percent of our roster from the state of Tennessee. We signed three young men who were Mr. Footballs in the state of Tennessee, the best player in their classification. Marcellus Jackson from Knoxville Fulton, he won the state championship in football, basketball and track. Jordan Harris from Alcoa was the MVP of the state championship game, all-tournament in basketball and won the 100, 200 and long jump in the state track meet. Jordyn Potts, quarterback from Powell, was the MVP of the state championship and enrolled early and has done well."
Alexander summed up his presentation with the excitement around the program.
"We've got a great bunch of kids," he said, "we've got a great staff. This is going to be the last season in Tucker Stadium as we know it. We're going to renovate it by tearing down the west stadium and building it back. It's long overdue for our players and everyone else. It'll be awesome for our community. There's nothing that galvanizes a community like having Friday night lights and Saturday football games."
Season tickets for Tennessee Tech football are on sale now – call (931) 372-3940, visit the Hooper Eblen Center ticket office or order online at TTUsports.com.
