Background
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Thurmond grew up in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Thurmond grew up in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.
Thurmond was a quarterback on the Charles Page High School football team and graduated in 1971.
Thurmond then earned a bachelor"s degree in education from the University of Tulsa in 1975. From 1975 to 1976, Thurmond was defensive backs coach at McAlester High School in McAlester, Oklahoma. He returned to his alma mater Charles Page High School to be defensive backs coach from 1977 to 1979.
In 1980, Thurmond was defensive coordinator at Claremore High School in Claremore, Oklahoma before returning to Page to be head coach from 1981 to 1982.
Moving to the college ranks, from 1983 to 1991, Thurmond coached cornerbacks and defensive backs at Tulsa. During this period, Tulsa had four different head coaches: John Cooper (1983–1984), Don Morton (1985–1986), George Henshaw (1987), and David Rader (1988–1991).
Thurmond then became the defensive backs coach at East Carolina from 1992 to 1993, Tulsa in 1994, Texas Christian University in 1995, Oklahoma from 1996 to 1997, and again at Texas Christian University form 1998 to 2000. Thurmond then followed Franchione to Texas Agricultural and Mechanical in 2003 and was cornerbacks coach there until 2005.
From 2006 to 2007, Thurmond was cornerbacks coach and recruiting coordinator at Houston under Art Briles.
After Briles resigned to accept the head coaching job at Baylor, Thurmond served as Houston interim head coach for the 2007 Texas Bowl. Houston lost to Texas Christian University. From 2008 to 2010, Thurmond was defensive backs coach at Kentucky, under Rich Brooks from 2008 to 2009 then Joker Phillips in 2010. In 2011, Thurmond joined David Bailiff"s staff at Rice to be cornerbacks coach.
Thurmond added defensive coordinator to his duties in 2012.
Tulsa appeared in the 1989 Independence Bowl and won the 1991 Freedom Bowl. In Thurmond"s second stint at Texas Christian University, Texas Christian University won the 1998 Sun Bowl and 1999 Mobile Alabama Bowl and lost the 2000 Mobile Alabama Bowl. Thurmond was cornerbacks coach at Alabama from 2001 to 2002 under Dennis Franchione. Alabama won the 2001 Independence Bowl. Thurmond"s tenure at Kentucky included a win in the 2009 Liberty Bowl following the 2008 season. Rice won the 2012 Armed Forces Bowl in Thurmond"s first season as defensive coordinator.
