Tyler Thigpen - College Career

College Career

In February 2002, he elected to go to Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, and majored in sports management.

Thigpen was the first quarterback in Coastal Carolina history, and wore the jersey number 16. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football program began in 2003. The team competes in the Big South Conference of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

Thigpen and the rest of the Chanticleers' first recruiting class redshirted their freshman year (2002). In 2003 he started nine of ten games for the team and was third on the team's roster in rushing. After the Chanticleers' inaugural season in which the team finished with a 6–5 record, Thigpen led the team to a 10–1 record in 2004. In 2004, Thigpen started the opening 8 games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against Gardner-Webb. In 2005, Thigpen started all 11 games for the Chanticleers and earned the Big South Conference Offensive Player of the Week Award after rushing for 111 yards and 3 touchdowns and throwing for 157 yards in a victory over the Virginia Military Institute.

In 2006, Thigpen became the first Chanticleer to be chosen a consensus All-American. He registered a career-high 119 rushing yards at Gardner-Webb, including a 76-yard bootleg. He was named Big South Conference Player of the Year in 2006, when he completed 217-of-339 passes for 3,296 yards and 29 touchdowns, and carried 113 times for 656 yards and five touchdowns. Thigpen had a 30–8 record in four seasons (41 games and 39 starts). From 2003 to 2006, the Chanticleers had a 34–11 record in Thigpen's four seasons with the team, winning three Big South Conference championships.

He played alongside wide receiver Jerome Simpson and running back Mike Tolbert, both current NFL players, to help lead the young Chanticleers program to major victories against No. 1 James Madison in 2005, and No. 3 Furman in 2006. He led the Chanticleers to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs and a Big South Conference championship. Thigpen holds the single-season and career passing records in every major statistical category at Coastal Carolina.