Tyler Thigpen's Freshman Year

by Chris Thorman on Nov 10, 2008 10:00 AM CST in 2008 Campaign Comment 18 comments

I caught a snippet somewhere yesterday on a site that mentioned that Tyler Thigpen was originally brought to Coastal Carolina as a running back. So, I decided to check out the illustrious five year history of the football program at CC and see how Thigpen did during his freshman year of college.

More of an exercise in curiosity than anything, with Thigpen comfortably settling into the Chiefs starting QB role and writing his own narrative for the rest of the season, I wanted to know more about Tyler Thigpen.

The intelligent fans snicker when they hear a traditional media outlet report about Thigpen's "record setting years" at Coastal Carolina because we all know that when a football program is brand new, all stats are records. To be fair, Thigpen did break Big South Conference records but you know I'd throw those into the same boat as CC records. But, for some reason, you still get the reporter who will write about CC records in a serious tone in an article. Just laugh, click off the page and come back to AP.

Thigpen split time at both quarterback and running back with a host of others at Coastal Carolina. Judging by their 2003 stats, I'm not sure what offense CC was running.

As you can see below, Thigpen wasn't much of anything at Coastal Carolina his freshman year. We'll be poking around his college stats this week, if only to feed my insatiable thirst for all knowledge about Tyler Thigpen.

2003 Season		Passing								Rushing				Sacked
Opponent	Score	QBRat	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/A	TD	Int	Rush	Yds	Avg	TD	S	YdsL
Newberry	W 21-14	14.7	10	26	38.5	79	3	0	2	9	12	1.3	0	2	19
Morehead State	L 6-31	40.2	3	14	21.4	44	3.1	0	0	10	6	0.6	0	3	26
@Jacksonville	L 9-14	71.2	6	12	50	79	6.6	0	0	5	16	3.1	0	3	12
@North Greenville	W 49-39	Did Not Play
Gardner-Webb	L 17-38	45.4	4	13	30.8	55	4.2	0	0	5	13	2.6	1	1	5
Charleston Univ	W 47-0	61.1	2	6	33.3	45	7.5	0	0	4	24	6	0	1	2
@Savannah State	W 29-19	38.7	9	19	47.4	87	4.6	0	1	11	69	6.3	1	1	4
Virginia Military	L 10-19	34.8	9	20	45	77	3.9	0	1	17	49	2.9	0	0	0
@Davidson	W 52-27	102.1	4	8	50	36	4.5	1	0	6	49	8.2	1	1	3
@Liberty	L 21-38	134.5	7	11	63.6	105	9.5	2	0	11	60	5.5	0	1	1
@Charleston Southern	W 48-14	141.4	4	7	57.1	98	14	2	0	3	16	5.3	0	1	7
	Averages	68.41	5.8	13.6	43.71	70.5	6.09	0.5	0.4	8.1	31.4	4.18	0.3	1.4	7.9

Quiz question for you this morning: What defensive player in the Big South Conference and current Chief also won Big South accolades during his college career?

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Thigpen & The Spread

I don’t remember where but I saw a quote from Thigpen about how he is so comfortable with the spread because he ran it in College. But Thigpen actually pointed out that it was ONLY his senior year that they ran the Spread offense. So before that he played in a traditional offense under center. So he might not have as big of an adjustment as we all thought he would to playing under center again.

by tevans96 on Nov 10, 2008 10:07 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Brian Johnston

Our 7th round DE from Gardner-Webb was also a star in the Big South, if I recall.

by bas on Nov 10, 2008 10:19 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Nice

You know your Big South football.

Arrowhead Pride

by Chris Thorman on Nov 11, 2008 10:10 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Coastal Carolina fan here

Well since I live about 20 mins from Coastal Carolina, and have been here since before they even had a football program perhaps I can help in your thirst for Thigpen knowledge. :)

As pointed out, they didn’t run the Spread till his senior year. They had WR Jerome Simpson, (second round pick to Cincy this year), and a lot of other offensive weapons at the time, and it made sense to exploit them and Thigpen’s growing athletic ability.

I think perhaps the biggest reason for Tyler’s improvement in his senior year was his becoming a more mature individual. The former kicker for Coastal, Josh Hoke, writes for the Myrtle Beach Sun News now and mentioned at some point that Tyler really needed to grow up after those first couple seasons.

I’m very happy to see that the Chanticleers have about 6 players on active NFL rosters right now-Thigpen and Simpson. Geathers is a DE for Cincy, Teal is a backup CB and special teamer for Carolina, Tolbert is the starting (?) fullback for the Chargers, and Brandon Frye was with Houston and recently signed elsewhere I think. Pretty neat given the team has been in existence for six years now.

by Kallor on Nov 10, 2008 10:29 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Thanks!

and welcome!

Keep the info on Thig-Newton coming

To you and others -

Speaking of Tolbert, what happened to SD’s other FB? Didn’t they draft the guy from LSU pretty high this last draft?

by PVChiefsfan on Nov 10, 2008 10:54 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Jacob Hester

Not quite sure. He’s played well from what I’ve heard.

by Joel Thorman on Nov 10, 2008 11:34 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Can someone explain to me

….the mascot- a blue hawk with its nutsack under it’s beak?

is that a teal rooster -cause lord knows there are plenty of those.

Did the Jayhawk breed with maybe this mascot:

Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.

by THE_TRUTH on Nov 10, 2008 11:20 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

LMAO

by Ilamuku on Nov 10, 2008 5:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

no idea

no idea what happened to the other FB. They just like Tolbert’s blocking ability and attitude from what I’ve read of him.

by Kallor on Nov 10, 2008 11:20 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

They trade up to get Jacob Hester

and used a 3rd round pick – that’s high for a fullback

Hester is still listed as active on their roster…hmmmmmm

by PVChiefsfan on Nov 10, 2008 11:33 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL The_Truth

Here is the story behind what a chanticleer is and why it’s the Coastal mascot.

http://www.coastal.edu/about/chanticleer.html

by Kallor on Nov 10, 2008 11:26 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Just trying to lighten things up a bit :)

Thanks for the link. I actually used wikipedia but that was clearer.

“For crowing there was not his equal in all the land. His voice was merrier than the merry organ that plays in church, and his crowing from his resting place was more trustworthy than a clock. His comb was redder than fine coral and turreted like a castle wall, his bill was black and shone like a jet, and his legs and toes were like azure. His nails were whiter than the lily and his feathers were like burnished gold.” With all of his splendor and great looks, Chanticleer is also greatly feared and mightily respected by all.

Feared? With a voice of a merry organ and nails whiter than a lily? -It wasn’t imported from SF was it?

All kidding aside tho my mascot is a friggin Kangaroo…so I have no room to judge. Kangaroos are tough with their doe eyes. Maybe they should make the Roo look like its foaming at the mouth to toughen it up….at least the Chanticleer has a mean expression.

Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.

by THE_TRUTH on Nov 10, 2008 11:40 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Not gonna lie, I like it.

Sure, it’s a glorified chicken, but shoot… nasty logo and nastier color scheme. W00t.

-cw

"If there’s a god he’s laughing at us and our football team." - Ben Folds

by webby37 on Nov 10, 2008 2:36 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Those stats...

are damn ridiculous. How did they win . . . Ever?

A QB rating of 14.2? Seriously?

I don’t know where Thigpen is pulling his game from but I’m beginning to feel like I’m a few good games away from having to eat my words from after the Atlanta game. And I’m cool with that!

by JHWK on Nov 10, 2008 12:32 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Look at his progression throughout his college career

and you will see. His senior year is pretty damn good.

Indecision is the key to flexibility

by cmpotter on Nov 10, 2008 1:44 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

"A QB rating of 14.2? Seriously?"

Didn’t he have a twenty -something in the ATL game?

by PVChiefsfan on Nov 10, 2008 2:00 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Are those QB ratings on the college scale or the NFL scale? Cuz aren’t they like drastically different?

-cw

"If there’s a god he’s laughing at us and our football team." - Ben Folds

by webby37 on Nov 10, 2008 2:38 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

That's a mean looking chicken.

that Tyler Thigpen was originally brought to Coastal Carolina as a running back.

If I remember it right, I think he was being recruited by other universities to play RB. It was only Coastal Carolina that gave him a shot at QB, and recuited him as such.
Tyler was amazed that he was given a shot at QB, since in his highschool the head coach had asked him to contribute as a running back in their (was it wishbone?) offense.

by aPacificChief on Nov 10, 2008 2:42 PM CST reply actions 0 recs