Thomas Sperbeck (born October 21, 1994) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

wide receiver. He played college football for the

Boise State Broncos The Boise State Broncos are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Boise State University, located in Boise, Idaho. The Broncos compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Moun ...

. He is the all-time leader in receiving yards in Boise State history.

Early life

Thomas grew up in Carmichael,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and attended Jesuit High School in the Sacramento area. At Jesuit, he led the team in passing, rushing, tackles and scoring and therefore was named on the MaxPreps All-Sac-Joaquin Section First Team, Sacramento Bee All-Metro First Team on offense, and was Sac-Joaquin Section Delta River All-Purpose Player of the Year. He completed 57/156 passes for 1,049 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also rushed for 932 yards and 9 touchdowns. On defense, Thomas had 69 tackles (40 solo). Sperbeck was considered a two-star pick by

Scout.com Scout Media is an integrated sports publishing company that produces Internet content covering hundreds of professional and college teams across America. The company was founded in 2001 and was acquired by Fox Sports in 2005. In 2013, Fox Sports ...

. He was ranked 115th in his position. Thomas ran a

40-yard dash The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering . It is primarily run to evaluate the speed and acceleration of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL Draft but also for collegiate recruiting. A player's recorded time can have a he ...

time of 4.44.

College career

2013

Sperbeck began his freshman year redshirting the first three games. His redshirt was removed and appeared in eight of the final nine games for the season, missing a contest due to a sprained ankle, and catching 5 passes for 40 yards, including a season-high two receptions in a game vs

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

, as well as a 17-yard reception against

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl on December 24. The former high school quarterback attempted a pass against

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

but under threw his receiver which resulted in an

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

2014

In the 2014 season Thomas appeared in 14 games and started 8, he led the team with 877 receiving yards, was second on the team with 51 catches and tied for third with 3 receiving touchdowns. Thomas made his first collegiate start at Nevada, catching three passes for 51 yards. He also threw his first career touchdown pass that season, to

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Grant Hedrick for the game-winning

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

against

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

. Sperbeck scored his first-career touchdown catch in win over

on October 24. Thomas Sperbeck ended the season with a high-note, catching 12 passes for 199 yards and being named the Offensive MVP of the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

in a 38-30 win over Arizona.

2015

In 2015, Thomas set Boise State's single-season record for receiving yards against

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

on November 20, passing Titus Young's 2010 record of 1,215 receiving yards, on his way to 1,412 yards receiving. He ended the season with 88 receptions for 1,412 yards, averaging 16.0 a catch. Thomas Sperbeck ended his career-best season with a 55-7 rout of

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

in the

Poinsettia Bowl The Poinsettia Bowl was a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played in San Diego, California, United States from 2005 to 2016. The game was originally played from 1952 to 1955 between military service ...

. He had six catches for 78 yards in the game. Additionally, he had a juggling
one-handed catch
against

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

which won him the

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Catch of the Year contest.

College statistics

Professional career

Sperbeck signed with the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

on May 1, 2017. He was waived/injured on July 30, 2017 and placed on injured reserve. On August 3, 2017, the Buccaneers waived Sperbeck from injured reserve. On May 17, 2018, Sperbeck re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was waived/injured by the team on May 23, 2018 and was placed on injured reserve.

Personal life

Thomas is the son of former

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

quarterback and former coach

Marshall Sperbeck Thomas Marshall Sperbeck III (born May 19, 1960) is an American college football coach and former player. Sperbeck was the head football coach at California State University, Sacramento from 2007 to April 2014, resigning in the midst of an NCAA i ...

References

External links

Boise State Broncos bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sperbeck, Thomas 1994 births Living people Boise State Broncos football players People from Carmichael, California Players of American football from California Sportspeople from Sacramento County, California American football wide receivers Tampa Bay Buccaneers players