By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech Athletics will be on the hunt for a new head football coach after it was announced by Director of Athletics Mark Wilson on Tuesday that the department will make a change in leadership.
A national search will begin immediately for what will be the Golden Eagle football team's 13th head coach since the program started varsity competition in 1922.
"Dewayne Alexander is a proud Tech Football alum and we thank him for all of the hard work and dedication he has poured into this program for the past six seasons," said Wilson. "We truly appreciate the devotion and commitment he showed to our student-athletes. We certainly wish him and his family great success in their future endeavors."
Alexander ends his six-season tenure as the Golden Eagle head coach with a 20-43 record. Tech finished the 2023 campaign with a 4-7 record with a 2-4 mark in the inaugural Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Football Association race, tying for sixth with Robert Morris, Charleston Southern and Tennessee State.
"It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the head football coach at my alma mater," Alexander said. "I have served as a player, a graduate assistant coach, an assistant coach and as head coach for the past four decades. God opened the door for me to serve as the Head Football Coach at TTU on December 17, 2017. I have tried to honor that opportunity with passion, enthusiasm and the 'Golden Eagle Way' each and every day.
"I was taught early on in this profession to always leave things better than you found it. Through the hard work, enthusiasm, love and accountability of so many players, assistant coaches, loyal football alums and support staff over the past six years, I feel the foundation of the program is firm with the best yet to come. #GEP #GoldenEagleWay Galatians 6:9."
Hired in 2018, Alexander overcame a rough start with a 1-10 season to lead the team to a 6-6 record in 2019 – the team's best record since winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship in 2011 and the second-best turnaround in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
He led the program through the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented time with constant change, keeping the team on task and gained the team's first STATS FCS Top 25 ranking since the 2011 campaign.
Under his watch, the Golden Eagles excelled in the classroom, putting together high marks and record numbers on the Tech Athletic Director's Honor Roll. The team reached its highest cumulative grade point average since 1971 with 10 players scoring a perfect 4.0 in Spring 2020.
Sportsmanship and leadership were key tenets and those were proven as the team won five consecutive OVC Team Sportsmanship Awards and oversaw the careers of two Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award winners in Jamaal Thompson and Seth Carlisle. The team under Alexander's guidance also put in countless hours of service to the community, including work with the tornado cleanup in 2020 and work with Putnam County Schools and the Tennessee Tech Food Pantry.
Sam Williamson will step in as acting head coach for the Golden Eagle football team as they enter the offseason and prepare for the recruiting periods in December and February. Williamson, the longest-tenured coach currently at Tech, is in his 17th season with the staff after joining the program with head coach Watson Brown in 2007.
Tennessee Tech has partnered with Collegiate Sports Associates (CSA) to support the University's search. CSA is a nationally recognized search firm that has conducted more than 300 searches throughout collegiate athletics and more than 40 searches for head football coaches, including recent searches at similarly positioned peers such as Austin Peay, Western Carolina and Towson.
