Tech football adds five new assistants, shifts roles
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – When offensive coordinator Tre Lamb was tabbed to be the new coach at Gardner-Webb just before Christmas, it at first looked like it may have been an unhappy holiday for Tennessee Tech head coach Dewayne Alexander as he spent Christmas break pulling together new members of the coaching staff. Instead, it was a present as he brought in five new coaches with well over a lifetime’s worth of coaching experience. Alexander announced the additions of Bert Browne, Chris Grimes, Jeff Herron, Gerald Howse and David Johnson, while also shifting Doug Malone over to the offensive coordinator position and adding the associate head coach title to Sam Williamson.
By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – When offensive coordinator Tre Lamb was tabbed to be the new coach at Gardner-Webb just before Christmas, it at first looked like it may have been an unhappy holiday for Tennessee Tech head coach Dewayne Alexander as he spent Christmas break pulling together new members of the coaching staff.
Instead, it was a present as he brought in five new coaches with well over a lifetime's worth of coaching experience.
Alexander announced the additions of Bert Browne, Chris Grimes, Jeff Herron, Gerald Howse and David Johnson, while also shifting Doug Malone over to the offensive coordinator position and adding the associate head coach title to Sam Williamson.
"There is a lot of experience in this group," Alexander said. "I'm excited about what we've done to add and improve our staff. We still have a great group of coaches coming back and our guys have responded to the changes very well. We've gotten off to a good start, getting them in the weight room and agility work. All of the new coaches have met their players and begin working, get to know them, or at least have the initial meetings with them.
"We're trying to wrap up this signing class on Feb. 5 and, from there, roll up our sleeves and have everyone here on board and get going working on offense and defense and making preparations for spring practice in March."
While it was tough to see Lamb leave, along with Taylor Hennigan, Dominique Davenport, Kelsey Pope and Jake Thornton, Alexander completely understood the situation.
"It was an awesome opportunity for Tre," he said. "For the same reason I hired him here as a 28-year-old offensive coordinator, he's getting his first head coaching opportunity. I'm very happy for Tre as it's a great opportunity for him. I told him he couldn't turn this down.
"Any time you have change, it's always an opportunity. You can look at it as 'Woe is me. What are we going to do?' or look at it as an opportunity to really evaluate what we have here and make improvements if we can."
With Lamb's departure, moving Malone over to the OC spot was a natural choice.
"Doug is a very experienced offensive coordinator," Alexander said. "He has a great background and knowledge. Myself, I've been in those shoes before, and one of the biggest things Doug provides is continuity on offense. He's got a great offensive mind and I am confident we will thrive with Doug running the offense."
The offensive coordinator position isn't a new one for Malone as he previously held the same role with the Golden Eagles and as he returns to the quarterbacks coach role, his resume at Tech is already impressive.
"Under his watch, we've had some of the most successful seasons we've had here offensively," Alexander said. "Robert Craft played for him, Grant Swallows played for him, Lee Sweeney was a freshman when he coached -- the quarterbacks Doug has coached have been tremendous and they all think the world of him.
"I wanted him to spend time focusing on that by moving some of the associate head coaching duties to Sam Williamson and who better to do that? He knows everybody here on campus, especially the things to help me out from day to day as well as Chip Pugh with the administrative things – those 'other duties as assigned' by the head coach."
It's not the only shift Alexander has made as the team also split up the recruiting coordinator position, focusing on each side of the ball.
"Fred Marshall is going to handle the defensive side of the ball, and Bert Browne is going to handle the offensive side of the ball when it comes to recruiting," Alexander said. "Of course, the whole staff plays a role in that, but you need someone to keep it organized and see what your needs are on each side.
Browne, who still holds one of the top passing seasons in Golden Eagle history, will come in overseeing Tech's wide receivers.
"Bert has background in high school and college," Alexander said. "He was the offensive coordinator at West Georgia and at Holmes Junior College in Mississippi. He coached wide receivers for Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky. He played quarterback here and is a Tech guy who loves Tennessee Tech. He was the first quarterback here to throw for over 2,000 yards in a season.
"Bert also brings in an excellent recruiting background. He has strong ties in a lot of areas, well known not only in the state of Tennessee, but also in Georgia and the Mississippi junior colleges. That's going to be a huge help there."
Browne, most recently, was the head coach at Stewarts Creek High School and also held head coaching posts as Madison Central High in Richmond, Ky., Perry Central High in Hazard, Ky., and Coffee County High in Manchester.
Grimes, another Tech alum, spent the last four years at Gardner-Webb, including as the defensive coordinator the last two seasons. It will be his third stint coaching at Tech following a GA post in the 2008 campaign, as well as a defensive assistant spot from 2010 to 2014.
"He's back with us," Alexander said. "Chris had an outstanding playing career. He was on the coaching staff when we won the 2011 OVC championship. I had actually hired Chris as a graduate assistant at Cumberland and Watson Brown turned around and hired him away from me two weeks later. I ended up on the staff with Chris for a year.
"He has strong ties to the state of Tennessee, but he's also gone and grown as a coach. He's been to East Tennessee with Coach Billy Taylor, who used to be here. He went to Gardner-Webb and was elevated there from a position coach to the defensive coordinator for Coach Carroll McCray, whom I have a ton of respect for. He thinks the world of Chris."
Grimes will oversee the nickels, as well as split efforts as an assistant special teams coordinator with Howse.
Herron comes back to Cookeville as a highly decorated head coach with a 312-54 record, winning five state championships and the only Georgia prep coach to win state championships with three different schools.
"I kid, but he might have had to rent a small U-Haul trailer to bring all of his trophies," Alexander said. "The unique thing about Jeff was he was a GA here at Tech back in the early '80s for Coach Don Wade's last season and carried over into Gary Darnell's first year here. He met his wife, who is from Livingston, while he was a GA, so they have family here. They're moving back to Livingston, which I think is awesome.
"Jeff left here and started working with a guy named Jimmy Dorsey, who was an all-conference offensive lineman here at Tech. Jimmy gave him his first job as an assistant coach and, from there, Jeff just took off. He has won state championships at three different schools in Georgia, and he's the second-winningest coach in the state of Georgia as he's won over 300 games."
"Jeff's going to be a tremendous recruiter for us in the state of Georgia," Alexander said. "There's a ton of name recognition and respect there for Jeff. We've known each other for a long time, going back 20-plus years."
Most recently, Herron was the head coach at T.L. Hanna High School in South Carolina, going 25-2 over two seasons. The year before that, he took Grayson (Ga.) to the AAAAAAA championship with a 14-1 record, including two games nationally televised on ESPN.
Howse, most recently with Northwestern State, oversaw a rushing attack that ran for 2,700 yards and two touchdowns over two seasons, breaking 14 school records in the process.
"Gerald played right here in Middle Tennessee at Siegel High School," Alexander said. "He was an outstanding player there and was an outstanding player at Northeast Oklahoma and was a team captain there. He then went to Georgia State and was a team captain, so that lets you know the type of character he has.
"He's coached FCS football at Northwestern State as the running backs coach. He's a young coach of character, but he's also played the position at a high level, both junior college and collegiately. He's a great recruiter and we're glad to have him back this way with his Murfreesboro ties."
Howse will coach the running backs and share the special teams coordinator duties with Grimes.
"Gerald's going to handle a couple of phases of the offensive return game, while Chris is going to handle punt team, punt block team and things like that," Alexander said.
One of the most intriguing additions to the coaching staff is offensive line coach and running game coordinator Dave Johnson. Most recently the offensive coordinator and O-line coach at Colorado State, Johnson's resume touts 35 years of coaching experience, including the Football Bowl Subdivision with stops at Ohio, UMass, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Georgia and Marshall.
"We were very fortunate to get someone with Dave's background," Alexander said. "He has a tremendous playing background at West Virginia, then coached at Georgia and has coached 19 bowl games. It's a wealth of experience.
"He's a very good teacher. I look for the same thing when hiring assistant coaches as when I was an assistant principal hiring teachers – we want people who have knowledge of the subject matter because you can't teach what you don't know. Dave has a strong background in football. You look at the fit on the staff, character, how does it fit in the Tennessee Tech community, the Cookeville community, the philosophy of what we believe in here as far as the culture in the locker room. To me, it's all of those things.
"He has spent some time and coached in the southeast part of the country, so he wanted to get back down to this area. He has family that's about to move down here – his son is moving here in June along with his grandkids and he has other family that's close to here within a three- or four-hour drive. For him and his wife, Lynn, it was a great opportunity to get back into a part of the country they were familiar with."
With the stops he's made and the roles he's held, Johnson is a great addition to the Tech staff.
"He's been a run game coordinator, he's been an offensive line coach, he's been a tight ends coach," Alexander said. "He was the offensive coordinator and run game coordinator at Colorado State for the last couple of seasons. He was the O-line coach at Ohio under Frank Solich for five years. He was with Mark Richt at Georgia for eight years. We're very fortunate to add him.
"Dave and Jeff both reached out to me and said, 'Hey, I heard you guys might have an opening,' and I said, 'Really? You're interested? That's awesome." Add in Chris and Bert and we have a lot of guys with Purple and Gold ties here, guys who played here."
In his career, Johnson has coached in 19 bowl games -- the 2017 Bahamas Bowl, 2016 Dollar General Bowl, 2015 Camellia Bowl, 2012 Belk Bowl, 2011 Auto Zone Liberty Bowl, 2010 Champs Sports Bowl, 2009 Konica Gator Bowl, 2008 Meineke Car Care Bowl, 2008 Allstate Sugar Bowl, 2006 Chick-fil-A Bowl, 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl, 2005 Outback Bowl, 2004 Capital One Bowl, 2003 Nokia Sugar Bowl, 2001 Music City Bowl and the 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 Motor City Bowls.
With his help, Johnson has helped lead teams to nine conference championships, including titles in the Big East, the Mid-American and Southeastern Conferences. He mentored 12 NFL players, five All-Americans and 32 all-conference selections.
With the staff in place, there's a good reason why Alexander is ready to get started working on the 2020 campaign.
"We've got some really good positional coaches – and that's what you're looking for – and we were able to add very good recruiters and quality men that will proudly represent Tennessee Tech and the city of Cookeville and our campus community very well," Alexander said. "It's the same philosophy as when we add players – good, young men that want to be here and get a quality education. Do all those things and our program will continue to grow. We're starting to see that and we've got everybody on board and on the same page."
