Thirteen months ago, Tennessee Tech was 2-5 and, so it seemed, headed for its fifth consecutive losing season. The new coach, a Yankee from New England named Bobby Wilder, clearly was going to need more time.
Instead, the Golden Eagles closed with five consecutive victories for their first winning season and conference co-championship since 2011. This fall, Tech won its first 10 games, extending the winning streak to a program-record 15 in a row, and moved up to No. 5 in last week’s Stats Perform poll.
That run ended last week at Kentucky, a Bowl Subdivision team and SEC member. But Saturday, with a win over UT Martin, the Golden Eagles can clinch their first outright conference championship since 1972.
Wilder coached his share of games with high implications in 11 seasons at Old Dominion. And here he is again.
“Securing a first-round bye is paramount to having an opportunity to win a national championship,” Wilder said earlier this week.
Wait … an opportunity to win a national championship? That’s the mindset Wilder, who coached ODU to a 46-14 record in the program’s first five seasons of existence, is working to instill in Cookeville.
“We want to start doing things at Tennessee Tech they’ve never seen before,” Wilder continued. “A consistent top-10 program that consistently competes for national championships.
“With the support we have here with the president, the AD, the community, I see this as a very real possibility that Tennessee Tech can compete for national championships for years to come. … There’s a new standard of how we do things at Tennessee Tech.”
Tennessee Tech head coach Bobby Wilder stands on the field after losing to Kentucky during an NCCA college football game in Lexington, Ky., Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Tanner Pearson)
In the most euphemistic of terms, Tennessee Tech’s 103-year football history has been modest. From 1955-60, the Golden Eagles had six consecutive winning seasons. From 1961-2003, they never had more than two in a row.
From 2012-23, Tech’s record was 43-88 (.328). Dewayne Alexander had coached the last half of those seasons and was dismissed.
At the time, Wilder had been four years removed from his coaching days at ODU. But less than two weeks after Washington’s firing, Wilder was hired as his replacement.
At Tennessee Tech, he wouldn’t literally be rebuilding a program. But the fact that he had done it before was a major plus.
“Coach Wilder is an enthusiastic winner who will build us a championship Golden Eagle football program,” Tech president Phil Oldham said at the introductory press conference.
Seven games into Wilder’s first season as the program’s 13th head coach, Tennessee Tech had two wins. But starting with a 28-23 win over Charleston Southern, the atmosphere began to change. The Golden Eagles finished 7-5, its first winning season in 12 seasons.
“That was the beginning of changing the culture in Tennessee Tech football,” Wilder said. “It certainly gave us a lot of positive momentum and energy, and belief from the players and coaching staff in the systems we had implemented.
“And that our aim high philosophy could work here. We worked our tails off in the offseason. We brought in the No. 3-ranked recruiting class in the nation (SI.com), and that’s led to a good amount of success for this season.”
That recruiting class included some 20 Division I transfers, including quarterback Kekoa Visperas (Eastern Washington) and running backs Quintell Quinn (Texas Southern) and Q’Daryius Jennings (Murray State).
Tech was the preseason favorite in the OVC-Big South and picked No. 21 in the preseason polls. Those expectations were first met and then exceeded.
The Golden Eagles (10-1) are ranked No. 6, having dropped a spot after the Kentucky loss last week. A win Saturday would automatically qualify Tech for its second FCS playoff appearance ever.
Few could have seen this happening so quickly, maybe including Wilder himself. The program didn’t have all that much to offer, and Wilder wasn’t immediately sold when Tech reached out.
“I wasn’t going to take it,” he said. “Then I met President Oldham and saw his vision. He asked me, how did you do it when you were at Old Dominion? Can we do it here? What do you need to do it?’
“I’ve been doing this for 34 years, and he’s the first president I’ve ever worked for who sees the entire chess board. Without his leadership and support, we wouldn’t be sitting here at 17-6 in our first 23 games. It’s that commitment from him that has allowed us to change the culture and have what you need to compete for a national championship.”
That includes a two-phase renovation of Tucker Stadium, Tech’s home since 1966. The first is rebuilding the west side stands, which is underway. Next will be a football operations center adjacent to the stadium. The total price tag is expected to be approximately $75 million.
“There’s a definite commitment in this community and on this campus to winning a national championship,” Wilder said, using those two words yet again.
Wilder was born, raised, educated and employed in Maine. Aside from two seasons as a graduate assistant at Boston College, that’s where he spent the first 42 years of his life. Then it was Hampton Roads and now Cookeville, which is nestled in the Upper Cumberland region.
The adjustment period, if it even existed, was brief.
“I’ve got 12 family members within an hour of Cookeville,” he said. “They come to all the games and we get to spend holidays with each other. My parents actually are down here from Maine staying with me.
“It’s a wonderful state, good people, absolutely gorgeous, the weather has four seasons. It’s a great place to live, and I definitely call this home now.”
