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Saturday marked the return of one of the most successful coaches in Nicholls State’s football history.
Former Colonels coach Jay Thomas, who spent six years as coach of the team from 2004-09, returned Saturday to the site of his first head coaching position – as the head of a different program.
Thomas led Nicholls to a Southland Conference championship in 2005 and guided the team to 27 victories in his tenure, including 21 in his first four seasons.
No less than three times during Thomas’ tenure, Nicholls’ season was interrupted due to hurricanes, including 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Despite the obstacles, Nicholls finished that season 6-4 and reached the Division 1-AA playoffs.
In December of 2012, Thomas was hired as head coach at Northwestern State after spending the past three seasons as an assistant with the Demons (2010-11) and Missouri Southern (2012), a Division II school in Joplin, Mo.
Thomas said he still has fond memories of Nicholls from his time as Colonels coach.
“It’s great to see everybody, it really is,” said Thomas. “It’s like a reunion, you know. Everyone was so good to us and to me that it’s great to see them. We had so many great memories here (like) winning the conference championship. I remember the celebration out here in the middle of the field. It was good to get back.”
Having familiarity with the Southland Conference from his years at Nicholls was an added bonus for Thomas in taking the head coaching position with the Demons.
“Hopefully it will pay off for us down the road,” Thomas said. “Our thing is we’ve just got to continue to get our team better week to week and take them one game at a time, just like the old coaching cliché goes. But hopefully just having the knowledge of all the different schools and programs in this conference will pay off for us.”
Thomas’ only regret Saturday was that his new team didn’t play better.
Northwestern State (3-3 overall, 0-1 conference) fell behind early in the first half on its way to a 33-21 loss as Nicholls improved to 4-2 overall and won its conference opener.
By most all accounts, it was the Colonels’ most complete victory of the season as two of the Demons’ scores came in the fourth quarter with the game comfortably out of reach.
The Colonels out-gained the Demons in total offense, 404-269, and had an overwhelming advantage in time of possession, holding on to the ball for almost 42 minutes of the game to Northwestern State’s 18:02.
Quarterback Tuskani Figaro threw for two long touchdown passes – one of 30 yards to Demon Bolt and another of 55 yards to Erik Buchanan – in the second quarter, and tailback Markus Washington rushed for a career-high three touchdowns.
By halftime, Nicholls had built a 27-0 lead.
“We didn’t come out until the second half,” Thomas said. “In the second half, we came out and played much better. In the first half, it just seemed like we were sleepwalking a little bit.”
Having coached on both sides of the Nicholls-Northwestern State rivalry, Thomas said he knows first-hand how much players from both teams get up for the game.
The winner of the game is presented each year with a wooden trophy named simply, the “NSU Trophy.”
“The Nicholls guys certainly (were motivated) and we’ve got to find a way to get our guys better prepared and more motivated to play this game,” Thomas said.
The Demons’ coach, who turns 53 on Friday, also said that he tried to downplay Saturday’s game as having any extra incentive for either side.
“I didn’t want it to be about me, I wanted it to be about the team,” he said. “Obviously I didn’t get that message across and that falls on me, but we’ll get better from here. There’s not many of those kids on that (Nicholls) team that I know.”
Nicholls coach Charlie Stubbs, who succeeded Thomas in 2010, said that while he doesn’t know Thomas particularly well, he respects the former Colonels coach and the Colonels’ tradition, which Thomas was a big part of.
“I know he’s done a good job and their team is a good team. They really are,” Stubbs said. “I respect him and I know he’ll do very well in this conference. I really think this conference has a lot of teams that can beat each other. The big thing is who can stay healthiest.”
Stubbs also downplayed Thomas’ return as any motivation from either team and said that it never came up in game-week preparation for Northwestern State.
“I don’t know how they think so I don’t mention that,” Stubbs said. “I just coach, so there wasn’t anything. I never even said a word about it. We were playing Northwestern and we needed to win. We hadn’t won a conference game in two years, so I didn’t talk about that. They followed the plan pretty well and secured a victory. That’s all I focused on.”
Saturday’s victory was indeed quite a feat for Nicholls.
Not only did the school snap a 14-game conference losing streak dating back to 2011, it also notched its first victory in a conference opener since beating Northwestern State, 58-0, in 2007.
“These guys are pretty grounded in knowing that we can be better, but it is pretty good,” Stubbs said. “Losing breeds losing, so winning also breeds winning. We’ve won a lot of games this year and I really believe that we’re learning how to win. We’ve still got a ways to go to make it the way I want it to be, but we are working hard and it’s good to see some success.”
Nicholls will look to start 2-0 in conference play next week when it travels to Stephen F. Austin.
Nicholls State quarterback Tuskani Figaro rolls out on a bootleg during a game this season. Figaro’s offensive output spoiled former Nicholls coach Jay Thomas’ reunion in Thibodaux. The Colonels rolled Northwestern 33-21 behind a dominant first half of play. With the win, Nicholls is now 4-2 on the season.
