by Skip Anderson

MTSU is close to Andre Dyer’s heart. He acknowledges how the University and the people he met along the way shaped much of his life—from the discipline he learned as a student-athlete, and the skills he learned in Jones College, to the lifelong friendships he formed, and meeting his wife.

Legendary Blue Raider football coach Boots Donnelly and his coaching staff challenged Dyer in ways he’d never experienced. Management Professor Jill Austin, recently retired, taught him how businesses operate and the keys to successfully working in them. His teammates from the 1989 Ohio Valley Conference championship football squad continue to show him that love endures.

As a former MTSU standout linebacker who graduated in 1991 with a B.B.A. in Management, Dyer deeply appreciates the many ways his alma mater has helped shape his life. Today, Dyer is a successful thought leader and talent acquisition executive who has most recently held senior leadership roles with Fortune Global 500 companies Accenture and Deloitte.

A Football Foundation

Growing up in Memphis, Dyer was an all-state football player at Frayser High School and winner of his conference’s Most Valuable Defensive Player award. His intellect, speed, and physicality drew full-ride scholarship offers from six universities, including MTSU. To this day, he remains grateful that he chose to become a Blue Raider and is especially appreciative to Donnelly as his head coach.

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“It was getting close to decision time, and the MTSU coaching staff brought me back up for a second visit,” Dyer said. “No other school made me feel like they wanted me like MTSU did. It was by far one of the best decisions I’ve ever made; it was a game-changer. First, I played under Boots Donnelly, who was very tough to play under, and that helped shape me as a man, as a father, as a husband, and as a leader who is equipped to overcome adversity. This experience gave me a DNA of resiliency. I had never been challenged like that.”

Dyer said Donnelly, who has a reputation as a strict coach and an outstanding motivator, instilled several foundational lessons into him during his four years playing under him.

“First, when you get knocked down, you get back up. You get knocked down again, you get back up again. And when you simply can’t go another step further, you find you can go many more,” Dyer summarized.

In addition to the hard-nosed practices, Donnelly’s reach went beyond the gridiron.

“You were not going to miss class, and you were not going to cause issues in the community,” Dyer said. “I don’t know how, but he would always find out. You did not want to be on the end of Coach Donnelly telling you to see him after practice! Coach Donnelly created a very strict and tough environment that you had to adapt to.”

Not everybody in Dyer’s class was cut out to adapt to Donnelly’s culture. There were about 30 freshman players when Dyer started school at MTSU. After four years, there were only nine remaining.

“Coach also told us that our teammates—the men we were standing next to—would be your friends for life. And he was right. The only reason I made it four years on the team was because of the guys I played with,” Dyer said. “To this day, we still have reunions and stay in contact with one another.”

All Business

Dyer also remains loyal to MTSU for several important non-football reasons. First and foremost, he met his wife of 30-plus years, Cheryl Bridwell Dyer, on campus, where she majored in Accounting.

The Dyers now have two grown children: Jamila holds an M.B.A. from American University, and Nierra graduated from Georgia State University, where she studied art.

“They are the loves of our life,” he said. “I know this sounds so normal. But had I gone to any other school, life wouldn’t be what it is right now. I never would have met Cheryl, and we never would have made these two girls.”

MTSU’s Jones College also holds a piece of Dyer’s heart. He said his biggest influence in the classroom was his former business policy professor, the aforementioned Austin.

“Her class on business philosophy really got me started and locked me in on understanding how business strategies and product differentiation works,” Dyer said. “I saw her last year, and I told her that she changed my whole perspective.”

Dyer remains quite active at MTSU, both on the academic side and the athletics side, serving on the Executive Advisory Council of the Jennings A. Jones College of Business and as an active board member with the Blue Raider Athletic Association (BRAA).

HAD I GONE TO ANY OTHER SCHOOL, LIFE WOULDN’T BE WHAT IT IS RIGHT NOW.

“I have regular conversations with Jones College Dean Joyce Heames,” Dyer said. “She is an incredible leader. One of her greatest assets is that she can identify with the students.”  Heames “gets it,” according to Dyer, in part because she worked her own way through college.

“She had to do it blue-collar style,” Dyer said. “And she is able to bring insight based on that. A lot of our students can relate to that.”

According to Dyer, healthy leadership at the top, as evidenced by Donnelly and by Heames, sets the stage for a healthy organization.

“The quality of education at Jones College is bar none off the charts,” he said. “These students aren’t just getting a great education. They’re also getting a great experience.”

Dyer said he especially respects and appreciates the cultural advantages Jones College offers.

“There’s tremendous diversity here,” he said. “Our students represent the real world, and you can see that when you walk on campus. Jones students are problem-solvers and strong leaders. And that is what corporate America is looking for.”

Dyer has strong feelings about the value of diversity in corporate settings. His thoughts are especially poignant at a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are under attack in political circles, reverberating throughout higher education.

“First, DEI matters,” Dyers said. “It’s not just the right thing to do, but it is good for business. It wouldn’t benefit a company holistically to only have similar views from a singular group versus individuals with different experiences, backgrounds, races, genders, or demographics.

“If a company is truly serious about being innovative and achieving optimum growth, employing a workforce from different paths and experiences is a business imperative. It is mind-blowing to me to currently see how DEI is being polarized into a negative philosophy, which in fact there would be no need for this topic if there was proper representation from all walks of life and equity within organizations today.

“It is beyond insulting to assume an individual was hired only because of their race or gender and not because of their qualifications and capabilities. In the end, several studies have shown that diversity, equity, and inclusion matter to talent who is launching their job search; clients and customers on which company they will partner with or patronize; and the communities on how they will support.”

Staying Connected

Although he currently lives in the Atlanta area, Dyer makes regular trips to Murfreesboro for University matters. He often sees his former teammates and, of course, attends football games. Those visits bring back great memories.

“Those friendships I made with my teammates are very important to me,” Dyer said. “There is so much love and relationships. You have black, white, white collar, blue collar, some graduated, and some didn’t. It’s an incredible bond.

That changed me. Because of that, now in the corporate world I know what teamwork really looks like. I learned fundamental principles that changed me, and I owe MTSU for giving me a great foundation.

“What we did was serious business for four years, and that’s why we won championships. And that’s why Coach Donnelly is in the College Football Hall of Fame and his statue is outside Floyd Stadium along with many former players’ names on the wall who contributed to the success of the program.”

A Lasting Legacy

While on campus and especially when around the MTSU football locker room, Dyer loves to speak directly with students and student-athletes. He never misses an opportunity to emphasize that while athletics may have been what brought them to MTSU, it is the education they are receiving as a result of that athletic ability that is going to successfully carry them forward into their futures. He also stresses the great opportunity that is the network you build at MTSU as a key to future professional success.

So what does Dyer think of the current state of the MTSU football program? Dyer firmly believes the culture being created by new MTSU head football coach Derek Mason mimics the strong culture he himself experienced.

“I and several former players met with Coach Mason and his staff several months ago, and we were all impressed,” Dyer said. “They were incredibly detailed in their approach by leveraging analytics. We loved this approach.”

Dyer’s three biggest takeaways on Mason were as follows: He has the ability to connect with the players, which is critically important today; he has already created a culture of accountability; and he understands the importance of engaging the Murfreesboro community to help drive his product.

Whether in football or business, Dyer understands the power of teamwork, diverse backgrounds and perspectives, hard work, persistence, and, yes, even the love of teammates, coaches, family, and people. Beyond the X’s and O’s and the corporate spreadsheets, Dyer’s success seems inextricably tied to one personal trait: He never forgets to lead with his heart.