Dean College's new Football Head Coach in January 2022. {Cover Photo Via Dean Bulldogs.com}
Over the past month, the Dean College Bulldogs football team has been training and getting ready for the 2022 season. As the season starts on Friday with their game against Fitchburg State University, Dean College alum and former Bulldogs student-athlete, Andre Murphy makes his debut as head coach.
I had the opportunity to meet Coach Murphy and interview him. From the start of the interview, I could sense his passion, excitement, and commitment to helping the Bulldogs be their best on and off the field. Coach Murphy credits Dean College with not only giving him the opportunity to play football but also providing him with the foundation that helped him as he continued his education.
When asked what it means being back at Dean as the head coach of the Bulldogs, Coach Murphy said “It means everything. I owe a lot to Dean. I came here with a purpose and my purpose honestly at that time was football. The things I realized quickly being here at Dean is that it was bigger than football. I learned things about myself socially and academically. The people here challenged me. When the opportunity came for me to come back and be the head coach and oversee the program, obviously we plan on being really good at football, but to me it is extremely important and I tell my guys, my job is to make sure you’re socially developed and academically developed."
Coach Murphy hopes his players will be able to look back at their Dean College experience the way he does. Murphy has remained active in alumni circles, and it is there that he learned about the open head coaching position for the Football team.
Coach Murphy sees Dean’s football program as having great potential. He believes his players can set new records in Division III and lay the foundation of what the program can be. When asked what he hopes to accomplish as coach of the Bulldogs, he said “the first thing I want to do is make it where the players who join our program are better for being in the program. I want Dean College to make them better people, better men, better football players. I want them to have something they can be proud of. I want to bring Dean to the national stage athletically and I want people all over the country to know about Dean College. This is the platform I have to work with, so I am doing everything in my power to get us there.”
When asked what he learned from his experience as defensive backs coach at Columbia University and how he thinks that experience will help him coaching the Dean Bulldogs, Coach Murphy responded, “I was fortunate to work under Coach Al Bagnoli (head coach of the Columbia Lions Football Team) and I had a direct front row seat of how a successful program is run for the last five years and I am extremely grateful for that.” Coach Murphy went on to share how he was able to work with players who were serious about school and football and formed a brotherhood and that is something he looks forward to having here at Dean.
Besides winning, the primary goal Coach Murphy has tasked his coaching staff team with during training camp was “Love each other. Continue to bond our team. This is probably one of the tightest teams I’ve been around. Make it genuine.” He went on to say he emphasizes to his coaches, “we need to do everything in our power to make sure our men are better men for being part of this program. Our coaches are doing a phenomenal job with this. The tighter we get as a group, the better we will be as a program”.
When asked what improvements or changes he wants to make to the Bulldogs’ offense and defense, Coach Murphy said “Improvements from a defensive perspective, I tell the guys to play like your hair is on fire and they’ve done a great job. Pursuit to the ball, I think can solve a lot of problems on defense. The communications aspect of it is the simple task of understanding what you have to do and then tackling, we have to be a really good tackling team. Our guys have shown the ability to do that. That’s something we’ve really addressed this camp. Offensively, just utilizing all the weapons. We have a lot of guys who are extremely talented. So, from an offensive perspective, I want to get the ball in those playmakers' hands and make sure we are not one-dimensional.” Coach went on to compliment how his team works together. He also shared that he talks about special teams a lot and said “we want to be really good on special teams and execute because it’s part of the game and I’ve seen games won and lost because of special teams. We’ve made a big emphasis on special teams.”
Coach Murphy has a lot of confidence in his coaching staff. Murphy and the offensive coordinator, Tom Keane, know each other from Florida Atlantic University, and they started on the same day. As the Bulldogs start this new season, there is no looking back at the previous year's record. Coach Murphy often tells the team to “focus on the task at hand. Trust the process. Focus on what’s in front of us. Win today. We have to focus and do everything in our power to get better today. We will worry about the records after we play the game, but we want to focus on what’s in front at that moment.”
As the interview was ending, I asked Coach Murphy to share some things he would like for the Dean family and our readers to know about him. He said “I am extremely honored to be here and be in this seat. I am extremely grateful to have been a part of this family prior to becoming head coach and I love it here. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure our guys are guys that our school are extremely proud of. I am a hard worker, and I am looking forward to getting this thing going.
It was great meeting Coach Murphy and hearing what he had to say about the Bulldogs football program. I am looking forward to seeing what the Bulldogs will do on the field this season.
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