Glenn Thomas: Who is Arizona State’s new offensive coordinator?

Arizona State named Glenn Thomas as the Sun Devils’ new quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator on Monday.

But who exactly is taking over the play-calling duties after former OC Zak Hill resigned on Friday due to his role in the NCAA’s investigation of ASU regarding recruiting violations?

NFL ties

Well, for starters, he fits Arizona State’s mold of hiring coaches who have NFL experience.

Thomas spent seven years in the league with the Atlanta Falcons as an offensive assistant (2008-11) and quarterbacks coach (2012-14) under then-head coach Mike Smith. Newly-hired ASU offensive assistant and advisor Brian Billick, who is very close with Smith, played a big part in the hire of Thomas, according to Arizona Sports‘ John Gambadoro.

Matt Ryan spent the first seven years of his career with Thomas, including being directly coached by Thomas when the Falcons went 13-3 and lost in the NFC title game in 2012.

Ryan made three Pro Bowls in his first seven seasons in the NFL — two of which came when Thomas was his QB coach (2012, 2014) — and four playoff appearances, the first of which was the Arizona Cardinals’ 30-24 Wild Card victory en route to a run to Super Bowl XLIII.

Return to college

Thomas returned to the college ranks to be Temple’s quarterbacks coach in 2015 and also took over OC duties in 2016. His signal caller back then was P.J. Walker, who has started two games for the Carolina Panthers in the last two seasons.

In the duo’s two years together, Walker averaged 3,133.5 yards, 20.5 touchdowns, 10.5 interceptions and a 57.5% completion percentage per season en route to back-to-back AAC championships under then-head coach Matt Rhule.

Baylor

Thomas followed Rhule over to Baylor where he was the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator from 2017-19.

In his first year, QB Charlie Brewer received Big-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year honors. Two seasons later, Brewer finished as an honorable mention for the Big-12 All-Conference Team as Baylor went 11-3 and lost to Oklahoma in the conference title game.

In Brewer’s 2018 and 2019 seasons in which he started 13 and 14 games, respectively, he averaged 229 passing yards, 1.5 touchdown passes, 0.6 interceptions and a 63.5% completion percentage per game. He also ran at a rate of 26.7 yards on 10.3 carries (2.6 per attempt) for 0.7 rushing scorers per contest.

UNLV

However, Thomas’ last stop as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator of UNLV was less than ideal.

The Rebels went 2-16 in his two years, with one of those wins coming over Hawaii, who was then coached by former Arizona State head coach Todd Graham.

UNLV has averaged 17.3 and 20.75 points per game in each of the last two seasons, respectively. Thomas’ 2020 offense also moved the ball at a rate of 482.2 yards per contest (227.2 passing, 255 rushing), while 2021 saw a slight dip at 409.4 yards per game (237.8 passing, 171.7 rushing) despite scoring over a field goal more per outing.

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