Todd Graham’s coaching staff gets a shake-up
On the first day of spring practice for the ASU football team, head coach Todd Graham announced a couple of internal changes to his coaching staff.
Chris Thomsen, who joined the Sun Devils on Jan. 11, 2013, will move from coaching the running backs to a position he is more familiar with.
“I am pleased to announce the move of Chris Thomsen from running backs coach to offensive line coach,” Graham said. “Chris is one of the top offensive line coaches in the nation and that is his specialty. I am very happy to have Chris back at ASU and in charge of our offensive front.
“Chris is an outstanding recruiter as well.”
As Texas Tech’s offensive line coach last season and the Red Raiders’ interim head coach after Tommy Tuberville’s departure to the University of Cincinnati, Thomsen led TTU to a 34-31 victory over Minnesota in the 2012 Meineke Car Care Bowl in December.
Prior to landing in Lubbock, Thomsen spent seven years as head coach of the Abilene Christian Wildcats, where he helped build the Division II program from the ground up.
The coach turned a program that posted a 4-6 record in 2005 into a perennial contender in the Lone Star Conference with a 47-15 record over the following six seasons. Under Thomsen, the Wildcats had six straight appearances in the NCAA Division II playoffs from 2006-2011 and ACU’s first conference title in 31 years, which came in 2008.
In the second of the moves by Graham, his son, Bo will take over the spot Thomsen vacated as running backs coach.
Graham spent his first year at ASU as the On-Campus Recruiting Coordinator.
“Bo is a young, up-and-coming coach who has been around the great game of football his entire life,” Graham said. “He coached a career 3,000-yard rusher at Tulsa and he connects very well with today’s players. He is an excellent recruiter and we will take advantage of that by having him on the road in recruiting.”
