The Making of a Coaching Legacy: Ryan Thompson (NCAA 12)

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Ryan Thompson: Legacy in the Making

It wasn’t till the past decade that college sports have began to dominant the mass media. With ESPN creating a whole network devoted to college sports (ESPNU) and schools and conferences creating network stations devoted to their sports, the media has been enveloped with teenagers with athletic abilities that have not been present in previous years. With all of this attention, schools have become the focus point of scandals, screw-ups, outbursts, and dishonesty that would have not been prevalent in recent decades. Since all of that has been implemented in to college life, universities make it imperative that the thing they need most in each sport is a trustworthy coach.

The coaching position has became the focal point now-a-days in college athletics. A coach wins two, three, or four championships then he/she gets a contract extension and a hefty raise. A coach has a couple losing season (at some schools only one horrible season will do the trick) and he can go ahead and put his/her house on the market because they won’t be there long. This is especially prevalent at D-1 football schools. Some coaches are there less than the 4 years it takes one of the student athletes to graduate. So it has become imperative that coaches know what they are doing and for them to take their job seriously, or he might as well start coaching at the high school level and become a PE teacher (which there is nothing wrong with).
From Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden, Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, and Woody Hayes to Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Mack Brown, and Bob Stoops; all of these guys became legacies at their school and dominated the game of college football. From the ground to the air, from brickwall defense to trickier and amazing special teams, these guys will forever be known in college football as the greatest to ever coach young athletes. This is where our story begins. A tale of a coach who is destined for greatness but may fail he makes the wrong choices. His name is Ryan Thompson and we will be following his story from beginning to end, no matter how **** or tragic the tale may be.

Background on our character: He is a 24 year old graduate from Winthrop University with a degree in Accounting. With his degree in accounting, it raises some eyebrows as to why he wants to coach. He has always been a sports fanatic, always trying new sports and continually playing football and baseball year round. So after graduating from Winthrop, he decided to take his degree and put it aside and try coaching for awhile. Many would think he would try DII or DIII schools to help build his confidence, but instead he decided to go straight for DI in the FBS division. He has always enjoyed the defense of football but his true desire is offense. He feels like his playbook, based off Wake Forest’s spread playbook and combined with some other formations, is the key to success for whatever team he decides to coach.

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Coaching Positions

2011- Offensive Coordinator - Winthrop University (Winthrop Crusaders)

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Trophies and Championships

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Most Memorable Players

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Season Recaps

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Winthrop Hires HC, OC -
Begins An Era In Football With New Mascot

Associated Press - Rock Hill

After being approved of funding a football program, Winthrop University Athletic Director Tom Hickman has hired Andrew Wilson as head coach of the newly named Crusaders. Wilson is beginning his head coaching career at Winthrop, coming from a high-profile high school in Florida. Wilson assigned to his staff Ryan Thompson, someone who has not coached in any aspect of the game. Thompson will be the new offensive coordinator and will bring a spread offense to the team. This spread offense will include formations from the shotgun and also the pistol formation, along with a basic I-Form set.

The Crusaders, who were re-named as per the agreement for funding of the football team, will begin their football status in the newly re-formed Big East. Details of the new Big East will be released later this week when everything is finalized. As for now, it seems that there are going to be two divisions consisting of 6 teams each.

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Big East Announces New Members, Forms Divisions

Associated Press -

The Big East is still alive. After months of speculation about the conferences ability to keep afloat, Big East officials have ushered in new members and a re-designed look of the conference. The new members of the Big East include: Boise State, Houston, SMU, and UCF with the addition of 3 newly developed football programs in UNC Charlotte, Fort Mill University, and Winthrop University. These new additions have created a 14 team league and the development of a championship game for the conference. League officials have stated that there will not be a designated place of assignment for the championship game. It will, however, go to the team with the best overall record. If both teams have the same record then the designation of the championship site will be decided by the teams standing in the BCS.

Since there are 14 teams in the Big East, the formation of two divisions has already been planned out and put in to action. The two divisions will be named North and South, with the condition that the names may be changed in the future due to geographical standards. This is how the two divisions will look:

North

Cincinnati
Fort Mill
Rutgers
UConn
UNC Charlotte
West Virginia
Winthrop

South

Air Force
Boise State
Houston
Louisville
SMU
UCF
USF

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The Winthrop Chronicle

Athletic Department Releases School's First Football Schedule


Yesterday the school released the universities first ever football schedule. It consists of 6 home games and 6 away games. The home games will consist of Memphis, Bowling Green, Boise State, Cincinnati, Rutgers and Fort Mill. The away games will consist of Western Kentucky, Akron, West Virginia, UNCC, Air Force, and UConn. Homecoming will be against Rutgers following a trip right up the road to UNCC. Winthrop only has one year contracts with Memphis, Bowling Green, Western Kentucky, and Akron, so the opponents for out of conference games will vary in the following seasons. Winthrop has C+ average rating based on local magazines and should prove to be a very manageable schedule. Listed below is the full schedule:

@ Western Kentucky
vs. Memphis
vs. Bowling Green
@ Akron
vs. Boise State*
@ West Virginia*
vs. Cincinnati*
@ UNC Charlotte* (Rivalry Game)
vs. Rutgers* (Homecoming)
@ Air Force*
@ UCONN*
vs. Fort Mill* (Rivalry Game)