UNC ILB coach and co-defensive coordinator Tommy Thigpen met with the media earlier this week for a virtual Q&A session. Here is the entire transcript of what he had to say:
Q: SURRATT AND GEMMEL ARE BACK, WHO’S THE THIRD AT LB?
THIGPEN: “I only have six total that’s on scholarship. I’ve got Khadry Jackson, (Eugene) Asante as well as the two young boys that came in with (Ethan) West? and Dre?? But I don’t know anything about how they’re doing right now as the football part because we didn’t get a chance to go through spring with them. But I tell you what, I’m very encouraged with Asante as well as Khadry. Both of those guys, they do the same thing as a Surratt and a Gemmel. You know, Gemmel was super fast and super smart. And I think Khadry has that same attribute. And then Asante is just, he is so fast. I mean, we think that Chazz is a really fast player. But Eugene, he gives us a dimension that we don’t have on our football team that’s speed. So it’ll be interesting to see which one of those guys evolves.
“It would’ve been great to get them in the spring just to see who would’ve had the chance to step up. Last year we played with a lot of three linebackers with D-Ross on the (field/seal/heel?) And that kind of changed our football team when he came out. So we’re going to experiment, especially on third down with Eugene and Khadry. Because the both of those guys deserve to get some playing time this year.”
Q: NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD CHANCE TO SEE MACK GO THROUGH FULL YEAR AND RECRUITING CYCLE, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN THAT’S DIFFERENT THAN YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A PLAYER AND HAVE THERE BEEN MOMENTS THAT MADE YOU THINK ABOUT HEARING HIS PITCH FROM THE OTHER END?
THIGPEN: “Oh, good question. I tell you what, when I was at 18 and 19 years old, his message hasn’t changed. As a player and then being a coach, you never saw the side when you were a player on how he interacted with the coaches. As a player, you knew that Mack had your best interest at heart, on and off the football field. And he always had that caring touch. Cared about you, all parts of your life, cared about your parents. This is my time ever working with coach as an adult. But he’s been with me ever since I started coaching 20-something years ago.
“And then being with him and just seeing how structured and organized he is, the vision, he has a vision on exactly what he wants to get done. It’s truly, like if you got a head-coaching job, I think that the blueprint is exactly what he does from the notes – and Jeremy will tell you – everything is just really coordinated and organized. So it’s not by accident that we’re doing well in recruiting, as well as the plan on getting the new facilities, the facilities part of it, then the crowd size of it, the new marketing – that’s all Mack. Mack does a great job with that. That’s the part I didn’t see as a player, was how he interacted with the organization of the team. And it’s truly professional.
“I think ESPN, when he had the chance to work with ESPN, that gives you a chance to really, really get a chance to make you better as far as speaking. He was always a dynamic speaker and really charismatic. I think when he went to ESPN and capturing an audience, how do you hold 10-15 million people to not turn a channel, I think he’s mastered that because every time he speaks, the players, the coaches, the organization – everybody around the organization, we’re all tuned into everything he says. And it’s always different, and he’s always changing it up. So to answer your question as a player, players from 20-something years ago, they’ve always loved him. And as coaches now, you can really admire the way he leads and motivates the football team.
Q: YOU WERE RECRUITING BY MACK DURING THE 1-10 SEASONS, WAS THERE A MOMENT THAT DESPITE THE LOSING MACK IMPRESSED YOU ENOUGH TO COME?
THIGPEN: “Oh, no doubt. Remember, I wasn’t from the east coast. I was from Arkansas. So my last two years of high school were in northern Virginia. Back in those days, man, there wasn’t a 247(sports), there wasn’t a Rivals top 100, there wasn’t any of that. I knew one thing. I knew when I came out of high school, they sent me from Arkansas to go live with my dad because I needed some discipline. So I go from a 1.9 to like a 4.0 just by moving environments, ok? So when I got to northern Virginia to be with my dad, when the recruitment started, all I knew was this: I knew I wasn’t ever going to go back to Arkansas.
“The only person that actually was talking to me about life after football was Coach Brown. And all he kept selling me was, ‘Hey, you know, when you get done with football, you’ll always have a job. I’ll always make phone calls for you, 20 years after you’re done with football. You’ll have a relationship with me for the rest of your life.’ So with those coaches, when I came out of high school, coaches were telling me, ‘OK yeah, you go to the pros, you play three years, you leave,’ all they kept preaching was NFL. At that time, that was not the farthest thing from my mind. All I knew was I wanted to get a degree, I wanted to have a great job and I did not want to go back and live in the South. And he was the one guy who sold my family from the get-go (that) it wasn’t just about football, it was about life after the football element, and that’s what stuck it up.
“My dad, when he left Mack, he said, ‘I’ve never met anybody that’s like that man. And I’ve got a great feeling about him.’ He said ‘Don’t worry about the 1-10 record.’ You say if you go to school there and you change the program, people will always remember that. That was the one thing that stuck out about Coach Brown was the fact that he had promised me and my family that I would get a degree, I knew I could play football so I wasn’t worried about that. But the fact that he said ‘I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life,’ that’s what stuck in my mind. And when I talk to 18-year-olds today, I tell them the same thing. Everybody’s going to preach football to you, but there will be two or three people in your life that say they’re going to keep their word to you, especially when you’re done and your football career’s over with. And that was Coach Brown.”
Q: SURRATT AND GEMMEL ARE BACK, WHO’S THE THIRD AT LB?
THIGPEN: “I only have six total that’s on scholarship. I’ve got Khadry Jackson, (Eugene) Asante as well as the two young boys that came in with (Ethan) West? and Dre?? But I don’t know anything about how they’re doing right now as the football part because we didn’t get a chance to go through spring with them. But I tell you what, I’m very encouraged with Asante as well as Khadry. Both of those guys, they do the same thing as a Surratt and a Gemmel. You know, Gemmel was super fast and super smart. And I think Khadry has that same attribute. And then Asante is just, he is so fast. I mean, we think that Chazz is a really fast player. But Eugene, he gives us a dimension that we don’t have on our football team that’s speed. So it’ll be interesting to see which one of those guys evolves.
“It would’ve been great to get them in the spring just to see who would’ve had the chance to step up. Last year we played with a lot of three linebackers with D-Ross on the (field/seal/heel?) And that kind of changed our football team when he came out. So we’re going to experiment, especially on third down with Eugene and Khadry. Because the both of those guys deserve to get some playing time this year.”
Q: NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD CHANCE TO SEE MACK GO THROUGH FULL YEAR AND RECRUITING CYCLE, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN THAT’S DIFFERENT THAN YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A PLAYER AND HAVE THERE BEEN MOMENTS THAT MADE YOU THINK ABOUT HEARING HIS PITCH FROM THE OTHER END?
THIGPEN: “Oh, good question. I tell you what, when I was at 18 and 19 years old, his message hasn’t changed. As a player and then being a coach, you never saw the side when you were a player on how he interacted with the coaches. As a player, you knew that Mack had your best interest at heart, on and off the football field. And he always had that caring touch. Cared about you, all parts of your life, cared about your parents. This is my time ever working with coach as an adult. But he’s been with me ever since I started coaching 20-something years ago.
“And then being with him and just seeing how structured and organized he is, the vision, he has a vision on exactly what he wants to get done. It’s truly, like if you got a head-coaching job, I think that the blueprint is exactly what he does from the notes – and Jeremy will tell you – everything is just really coordinated and organized. So it’s not by accident that we’re doing well in recruiting, as well as the plan on getting the new facilities, the facilities part of it, then the crowd size of it, the new marketing – that’s all Mack. Mack does a great job with that. That’s the part I didn’t see as a player, was how he interacted with the organization of the team. And it’s truly professional.
“I think ESPN, when he had the chance to work with ESPN, that gives you a chance to really, really get a chance to make you better as far as speaking. He was always a dynamic speaker and really charismatic. I think when he went to ESPN and capturing an audience, how do you hold 10-15 million people to not turn a channel, I think he’s mastered that because every time he speaks, the players, the coaches, the organization – everybody around the organization, we’re all tuned into everything he says. And it’s always different, and he’s always changing it up. So to answer your question as a player, players from 20-something years ago, they’ve always loved him. And as coaches now, you can really admire the way he leads and motivates the football team.
Q: YOU WERE RECRUITING BY MACK DURING THE 1-10 SEASONS, WAS THERE A MOMENT THAT DESPITE THE LOSING MACK IMPRESSED YOU ENOUGH TO COME?
THIGPEN: “Oh, no doubt. Remember, I wasn’t from the east coast. I was from Arkansas. So my last two years of high school were in northern Virginia. Back in those days, man, there wasn’t a 247(sports), there wasn’t a Rivals top 100, there wasn’t any of that. I knew one thing. I knew when I came out of high school, they sent me from Arkansas to go live with my dad because I needed some discipline. So I go from a 1.9 to like a 4.0 just by moving environments, ok? So when I got to northern Virginia to be with my dad, when the recruitment started, all I knew was this: I knew I wasn’t ever going to go back to Arkansas.
“The only person that actually was talking to me about life after football was Coach Brown. And all he kept selling me was, ‘Hey, you know, when you get done with football, you’ll always have a job. I’ll always make phone calls for you, 20 years after you’re done with football. You’ll have a relationship with me for the rest of your life.’ So with those coaches, when I came out of high school, coaches were telling me, ‘OK yeah, you go to the pros, you play three years, you leave,’ all they kept preaching was NFL. At that time, that was not the farthest thing from my mind. All I knew was I wanted to get a degree, I wanted to have a great job and I did not want to go back and live in the South. And he was the one guy who sold my family from the get-go (that) it wasn’t just about football, it was about life after the football element, and that’s what stuck it up.
“My dad, when he left Mack, he said, ‘I’ve never met anybody that’s like that man. And I’ve got a great feeling about him.’ He said ‘Don’t worry about the 1-10 record.’ You say if you go to school there and you change the program, people will always remember that. That was the one thing that stuck out about Coach Brown was the fact that he had promised me and my family that I would get a degree, I knew I could play football so I wasn’t worried about that. But the fact that he said ‘I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life,’ that’s what stuck in my mind. And when I talk to 18-year-olds today, I tell them the same thing. Everybody’s going to preach football to you, but there will be two or three people in your life that say they’re going to keep their word to you, especially when you’re done and your football career’s over with. And that was Coach Brown.”
