Bio

Brent Thompson, OLL Class of 1994, was named The Citadel’s 25th head football coach on January 19, 2016.

Brent served as the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks/B-Backs coach for the past two seasons. His physical rushing attack produced 27 individual 100-yard rushing games in that time, including a single-season program-record 14 in 2015, which ranks as the most in any two-year stretch in school history.

In 2015, The Citadel earned a co-Southern Conference championship behind a school-record-tying six SoCon wins and finished 9-4 overall after advancing to the second round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs for only the second time in school history. The Bulldogs, who finished the season with a conference-best +117 scoring margin that included a +100 margin in SoCon play, earned the program’s first road playoff win with a 41-38 victory at Coastal Carolina in the first round of the playoffs.

As a team, the Bulldogs broke school records for all-purpose yards, total offense yards and rushing yards. The Citadel led the Southern Conference and ranked second in FCS with an average of 346.9 rushing yards per game, an average of 17.21 yards per completion and allowing 0.62 sacks per game. The Bulldogs also led the SoCon with 5.70 yards per rush and 41 rushing touchdowns.

In his first year at The Citadel, Brent was instrumental in the development of Aaron Miller as the senior ranked second in the Southern Conference with 1,080 rushing yards, the highest total by a Bulldog since 1998, and finished the regular season 31st in the nation and second among quarterbacks. The B-back combination of Tyler Renew and Isiaha Smith rushed for 1,352 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Brent went to Charleston after coordinating the offense at Lenoir-Rhyne from 2010-13. Operating out of the triple option offense, his attack was tops in rushing in Division II in 2013, averaging 370.9 yards per game, and set the NCAA record for all divisions in rushing yards in a season with 5,563.

In 2012 Lenoir-Rhyne compiled 4,515 yards on the ground and finished second in the nation in rushing at 376.2 per game. The Bears also had their highest output of total offense in a season (430.6 ypg) since 1994 and averaged 35.2 points per game.

In 2011 Brent guided Lenoir-Rhyne to nearly 400 yards of offense per game (397.0 ypg) while the squad averaged 33.6 points per outing. The Bears also ranked third in the nation in rushing (287.1 ypg), and quarterback Major Herron was named to the all-league first team.

Brent headed up a Bear attack in 2010 that averaged more than 400 yards of total offense for the first time in 18 years and led Division II in rushing at 319.5 yards per game.

Brent went to Lenoir-Rhyne after serving as an assistant coach at Bucknell for seven seasons (2003-09). In 2009, he served as the Bison’s offensive coordinator in addition to his duties as recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach. He started his career at the Lewisburg, Pa., school as the wide receivers coach in 2003.

As quarterbacks and fullbacks coach in 2004, he mentored quarterback Daris Wilson to first-team All-Patriot League honors.

Prior to Bucknell, Brent coached two seasons (2001-02) at Northeastern where he oversaw the running backs and was the team’s video coordinator. In 2002, he helped lead the Huskies to the Atlantic 10 championship.

Brent coached All-American L.J. McKanas, who broke the school’s career rushing record and was second in the nation in that category in 2001.

A 1998 graduate of Norwich with a degree in peace, war and diplomacy, Brent was a two-year letterman as a defensive back on the football squad. He began his coaching career at Dickinson in the fall of 1998 as a graduate assistant and worked with the outside linebackers before serving as the wide receivers coach at Stony Brook in 2000.

A native of Poughkeepsie, Brent is married to the former Tiffany Lebengood. The couple has two-year-old twin daughters Harper and Emma.