Tommy Thigpen (born March 17, 1971) is an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach and former player. He is currently the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at University of North Carolina, a position he assumed in January 2018. Prior to that, he spent 14 years as an assistant coach in the collegiate ranks, including a stint at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

where he was part of the 2010 National Championship team. Thigpen played as a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

and thereafter was drafted by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He also played for the

Barcelona Dragons Two American football franchises have been referred to as the Barcelona Dragons: * Barcelona Dragons (NFL Europe), active in NFL Europe between 1991 and 2003; * Barcelona Dragons (ELF) The Barcelona Dragons are an American football team based in ...

of the

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

(WLAF).

Playing career

Thigpen was born and raised in

El Dorado, Arkansas El Dorado, founded by Matthew Rainey, is a city in, and the county seat of, Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 18,884. El Dorado is headquarters of the Ark ...

. He played prep school football at Potomac High School in

Dumfries, Virginia Dumfries, officially the Town of Dumfries, is a town in Prince William County, Virginia. The population was 4,961 at the 2010 United States Census. Geography Dumfries is located at (38.567853, −77.324591). According to the United States ...

, where he was honored as a Parade All-American and Virginia Defensive Player of the Year. Thigpen was recruited to play

at the

for head coach

Mack Brown William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, whe ...

. Thigpen was a three-time All-

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

linebacker for the Tar Heels. He was co-captain of the 1992 team that went 9–3 and were

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially re ...

champions. Upon graduation, Thigpen played professionally for the

and

. He was drafted in the fifth round by the Giants in the 1993 NFL Draft.

Coaching career

Thigpen began his coaching career as a UNC

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research respons ...

in 1998–1999 under

Carl Torbush Carl William Torbush Jr. (born October 11, 1951) is former American football and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Louisiana Tech University in 1987, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1997 to 2000, and Ea ...

. He received his first full-time position the following season coaching linebackers at

Tennessee State Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

. In 2001–2002, he was hired by new head coach

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

as the cornerbacks coach and special team's coordinator at

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

where he helped coach one of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

's top defenses, leading the MAC in turnover margin in 2002. BGSU also finished second in the MAC in pass efficiency defense, while Thigpen's special teams also were impressive, blocking seven punts and one field goal. When Meyer went to Utah in 2003, Thigpen was hired by Ron Turner as the cornerbacks coach at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. He spent the following season as the linebackers coach for the

Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

and was one of two assistants to keep their job when Turner was fired. Although new coach

Ron Zook Ronald Andrew Zook (; born April 28, 1954) is an American football coach and former player who currently serves as the Defensive Coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL. He was the head football coach at the University of Florida from ...

asked him to stay on the staff, Thigpen decided to take the same position at his alma-mater, North Carolina, for the 2005 season. In his first four seasons coaching at

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

he tutored UNC's leading tacklers, including Durell Mapp who came to Carolina as a walk-on and finished with the second most tackles in the ACC and signed as an undrafted free agent with the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

. Thigpen was selected by the Atlantic Coast Conference to attend the 2008 Minority Coaches Forum. On February 15, 2009,

Gene Chizik Eugene C. Chizik Jr. (born December 28, 1961) is an American football coach who is currently the Assistant Head Coach for Defense at North Carolina. A veteran of the coaching ranks, Chizik previously was UNC's defensive coordinator for the 2015 ...

announced Thigpen had been hired as the safeties coach at

. He will split responsibilities coaching the Tigers secondary with Phillip Lolley who was promoted to cornerbacks coach. After three season coaching the safeties, Thigpen took over as linebackers coach for the 2012 season. After Chizik was fired by Auburn following the 2012 season and Thigpen was not retained by new coach

Gus Malzahn Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach at the University of Central Florida (UCF Knights football, UCF). He was the head football coach at Auburn University from 2013 t ...

(who had previously worked alongside Thigpen under Chizik), he was hired to coach linebackers at the University of Tennessee for new head coach

Butch Jones Lyle Allen "Butch" Jones Jr. (born January 17, 1968) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Arkansas State University. Jones previously served as a special assistant to the head coach and offensive analyst at the Univ ...

. Thigpen was a coach for Auburn when they won the

2011 BCS National Championship Game The 2011 Tostitos BCS National Championship Game was a college football bowl game to determine the national champion of the 2010 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) season. The finale of the 2010–2011 Bowl Championship Series was p ...

. Thigpen was named one of the nation's top 25 recruiters in 2007 and 2009 by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

and in 2011 by 247Sports.com,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and Rivals.com. He was awarded the 2011

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 ...

/ FOXSports.com SEC Conference Recruiter of the Year. In 2014, he was named Rivals.com National Recruiter of the Year for his work on the University of Tennessee class of 2014. He returned to Chapel Hill in 2018, when he was hired by head coach

Larry Fedora Herbert Lawrence Fedora (born September 10, 1962) is an American football coach and former player who is the former coach and general manager for the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League (USFL). He previously served as head c ...

to coach the linebackers. When Fedora was fired following the conclusion of the 2018 season, Thigpen was retained and elevated to co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach by the returning Mack Brown, whom he had played under from 1989–1992. Thigpen's recruiting acumen and connection to Brown and the program were key reasons why he was retained by Brown after the coaching change.

Personal life

Thigpen graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from the

in 1993. He is married to the former Jacinda Webb and the couple have two daughters.

References

External links

North Carolina profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thigpen, Tommy 1971 births Living people American football linebackers Auburn Tigers football coaches Barcelona Dragons (NFL Europe) players Bowling Green Falcons football coaches Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches New York Giants players North Carolina Tar Heels football coaches North Carolina Tar Heels football players Tennessee State Tigers football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football coaches University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni People from El Dorado, Arkansas Sportspeople from Prince William County, Virginia African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople