Walking the walk

In early December 2022, Trevor Andrews ’98 took a walk.

He was staying at the Marriott at the University of Dayton on South Patterson Boulevard across River Park Drive from the GE Aviation EPISCenter, just down Patterson from Curran Place, home to the University of Dayton Research Institute. When he was a student at UD, the Marriott didn’t bear UD’s name, GE didn’t have a presence on campus and UDRI shared Kettering Labs with the School of Engineering.

Alone that December night, he headed eastward. He passed St. Mary’s, St. Joseph Hall and the chapel. As he walked, he saw the decorations for Christmas on Campus. He continued eastward past Kettering Labs.

“I went on my freshman year walk up to Stuart Hall,” Andrews said.

The next day he successfully interviewed to become head football coach of the University of Dayton Flyers.

“I had a chance to come back,” he said. “It was a feeling like being a freshman again.”

He added, “You make lasting friendships here. Your heart is always here.”

As an undergraduate, he briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a broadcaster, but early on switched to education. “My father and mother, a grandfather, grandmothers, brother and sister have all been educators,” he said.

He is the son of a coach; his brother now coaches at the same school his father did.

“A good coach can be a good teacher and vice versa.”

“A good coach can be a good teacher and vice versa,” he said. At UD he took classes from UD coaching legends Mike Kelly and Don Donoher ’54. Being from Indiana, he knew before coming to UD of Donoher’s work with Bobby Knight leading the 1984 Steve Alford/Michael Jordan Olympic basketball team to a gold medal.

“I hung on Donoher’s every word,” he said.

And as a player he also learned for years from Kelly. He was a defensive back on three Pioneer Football League championship teams that had Kelly as head coach and Rick Chamberlin ’80 (Kelly’s successor and Andrews’ predecessor) as defensive coordinator.

“They and Dave Whilding ’85” — offensive coordinator with Kelly and during Chamberlin’s early years — “are reasons I became a coach,” he said. He noted that now Dayton’s two previous coaches “give me space to do my job but are still just a phone call away.”

Andrews’ 25 years of coaching experience includes coaching linebackers at Western Michigan for the last four years. Before that he was at William & Mary for 18, including six as associate head coach. His UD office has a photo from those years, commemorating a win over Virginia. (Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819; he was a William & Mary grad; it’s a rivalry older than college football.)

Soon after Dayton hired Andrews in December he formed his coaching staff and met with them to finalize recruiting by a Feb. 1 deadline. For three straight days they looked at film and checked out prospects.

“At about 2 p.m. on the third day,” he said, “I thought, ‘I haven’t even shown them campus; all they’ve seen is the Frericks Center.’”

So he told them, “Put everything down. We are going for a walk.”

And he added, “The first person we pass will smile and say hello to you.”

They had walked only as far as the St. Joseph courtyard when a young woman passed, smiled and said, “Hello, guys.”

After the walk, Greg Whalen, offensive coordinator said, “I get it now. I know why you love this place.” 

Photo courtesy of Erik Schelkun / Elsestar Images.