Tommy Thigpen loving life as an Auburn assistant football coach

Last Friday was an off day for Tommy Thigpen in the sense that he wasn’t in a film room or out on a football field, preparing for practice. But the Auburn assistant coach still had a packed schedule even though the Tigers were not playing that weekend.

On this day, the Potomac High School graduate grabbed an early-morning flight on a private plane to check in with some recruiting prospects in North Carolina, one of the territories Thigpen is responsible for covering.

He touched down in Raleigh first before heading over to Charlotte to catch a high school football game. Then he was back in the air again and headed home in preparation for an 8 a.m. coaches meeting the following day.

After more than 10 years as a Division I college football coach, Thigpen knows the demands of the job inside and out. The long hours and the constant travelling are part of the package.

And yet, as he thought about his career two years ago while serving as an assistant at North Carolina, Thigpen realized he was looking for something else.

He was already in a comfortable spot. North Carolina was where Thigpen starred as an all-ACC linebacker back in the 1990s and where he served as a graduate assistant when he began his trek up the coaching ladder in 1998.

But Thigpen wanted more. So he called University of Texas head coach Mack Brown, who coached Thigpen at North Carolina and has served as his mentor ever since, and asked him about what direction he should take.

One thing led to another and then Auburn entered the conversation.

Gene Chizik had been hired on Dec. 13, 2008 as the Tigers’ new head coach after Tommy Tuberville stepped down following a 5-7 season. Chizik was assembling his staff and Thigpen became a candidate.

There was mutual interest as the two sides made inquiries about each other. From Thigpen’s standpoint, the move made sense. His conversations with people like Brown and other coaching friends only confirmed that as they all told him the same thing: if he wanted a different culture for football, Auburn was the place for him.

Thigpen was offered the job as a defensive backs coach and accepted without hesitation, becoming Chizik’s final hire on Feb. 15, 2009.

“It’s been fantastic,” Thigpen said. “There’s not a better atmosphere. It’s been my best coaching experience. The culture is great.”

It doesn’t get much bigger than this week when in-state rivals Auburn and Alabama face each other Friday in the 75^th Iron Bowl. While this is usually a big matchup anyway, the game has taken on added significance this season.

For the first time since 1994, Auburn and Alabama enter the Iron Bowl ranked in the top 10. The Tigers are 11-0 and ranked No. 2, while the Crimson Tide is 9-2 and ranked No. 9.

“The tradition, the culture, it’s the talk of the town,” Thigpen said.

Off the field, Auburn has been drawing attention as well with quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Cam Newton under scrutiny following revelations that his father allegedly sought $180,000 from Mississippi State boosters to sign with that school.

But Thigpen said the controversy has not been a distraction for the team or affected their preparations. The main topic of discussion for the Tigers has been continuing their drive toward a national championship.

“We just tell the kids to not read the newspapers or the Internet and stay off ESPN,”  Thigpen said. “We just tell them don’t read the propaganda.”

Thigpen, whose family has since left Prince William County, still stays in touch with former teammates who live in the area. He also checks in with Bill Brown, his head coach at Potomac, whenever Thigpen is in town. Thigpen recruits in the Washington D.C. area.

A Parade All-American at Potomac, Thigpen started all four years at linebacker for the Tar Heels before becoming a fifth-round draft pick by the New York Giants in 1993. He played for both the Giants and the Barcelona Dragons of the now defunct NFL Europe.

After his playing career was over, Thigpen decided to get into coaching.

Thigpen has worked under a number of big-time head coaches, including Florida’s Urban Meyer at Bowling Green, NFL assistant Ron Turner at Illinois and former University of Miami and Cleveland Browns head coach Butch Davis at North Carolina.

But Mack Brown remains Thigpen’s main influence.

“He’s the reason I got into coaching,” Thigpen said. “He has a magnetic personality. He’s just a guy I’ve always looked up to. If you have any questions, you can call him any time of the day.”

Recruiting has changed a great deal since Thigpen’s days as a player when once a week phone calls were the main source of communication between a school and a recruit. Now with social media outlets out there like Facebook and Twitter along with the Internet, the process of drawing a recruit’s interest is more varied.

But no matter the forum, Thigpen still knows the key to a recruit’s heart.

“It’s mainly because of the great relationship you have with the kids,” said Thigpen, who was named one of the nation’s top 25 recruiters by Rivals.com in 2007 and 2009 for his work at North Carolina.

For the moment, though, recruiting is taking a backseat. The focus this week is on Alabama and all that’s at stake. His schedule will follow the same routine, up at 5 a.m. for a workout before heading to work where he’ll be at until close to midnight until going to bed and starting all over the next day.

It’s time consuming to be sure, but in this place and in this atmosphere, there’s no other place Thigpen would rather be.

“I’m loving it,” Thigpen said.

Sports editor David Fawcett can be reached at 703-530-3911