The Coaching Legacy of Mark "Thor" Thornton

[thelionheart3456]

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This is a coaching legacy in which I(Coach Thor) will start out as an OC for the Rice Owls his alma mater and attempt to become the top coach in college football history.

System: PS3
Rosters: Unsure
Difficulty:Heisman
Recruiting:Heisman

[thelionheart3456]

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The Thor File

Personal
Birthdate: August 12, 1984
Hometown: Houston, Texas
High School: Sam Houston High School, 2003
College: Rice, 2007

Coaching Career
2011:OC @ Rice

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Dynasty Overview

National Champions
2011:

Heisman Winner
2011:

Conference Champion
2011:

Conference Realignments
2011:

Rose Bowl
2011:

Orange Bowl
2011:

Fiesta Bowl
2011:

Sugar Bowl
2011:
Realignment

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1999 Freshman Year of High School
When you are a freshman high school football player in the state of Texas most of the time you're still playing junior-high football. For some of the better players they will play on the JV high school team, but if you're a true stud you will be playing varsity ball. Mark Thornton checked in at 6 foot and 200 pounds who ran a 4.4 40 time. As a 15 year old man-child he was called up by legendary Sam Houston High School coach Bo Peterson. As a freshman running back Mark became the schools single season rushing leader in the final game of the season beating the old mark by 7 yards which was previously held by his cousin Jimmy only 5 years earlier but wasn’t able to accomplish the feat until his senior season. Mark became somewhat of a school legend after this and going into his sophomore year much was expected of Thornton.

2000 Sophomore Year of High School
Mark Thornton picked up right where he left off as he piled up the rushing yards throughout the season. During the first 3 games of the season the newly nicknamed Mark “Thor” Thornton because of a newspaper article had already racked up close to a thousand yards. The only reason this pace was slowed down was because teams started to put 9 players in the box so the Mustangs decided to start passing the ball more and had a more balanced attack. Thor was still able to dominate games albeit he didn’t have to do it himself with the help of his teammates. Best friend QB Mike McClellan and WR Tommy Harrison. By the end of the season his play caught attention throughout the state as he helped to lead the Sam Houston High School Mustangs to their 3^rd State Championship in school history. He was able to eclipse the single season school record that he had set the previous year by almost 800 yards.

2001 Junior Year of High School
The best high school player in the state of Texas is almost by default the top player in the country or at least up for consideration for that title. “Thor” came into his junior year as the top player in his class in the state and was thought to perhaps be the top player overall in Texas. As the year began letters started pouring in from all over the country the University of Texas, USC, Florida, Miami, Ohio State and many others contacted Thor and promised scholarships to him. The first game of the season Mark rushed for 250 in the first half by this time he was 6’2 and weighed in at 225 and ran a 4.35 40. The second game saw Mark only rush for 200 yards but he only needed 10 carries to get to this mark and the Mustangs had already blown out their opponent. The third game of the season was against cross-town rival Dallas Metro High School. The previous year Mark had rushed for almost 400 yards against Dallas Metro and had earned his nickname Thor. On the first play from scrimmage Mark had gained 30 yards before being tackled by three Metro players. Two plays later Thor was handed the ball and saw a wall of Metro defenders to his right so he planted his foot switched directions and as he started his cut he was hit from the opposite side and went down immediately. The whole stadium hushed as soon as they saw what had transpired and Thor had to be taken off on a stretcher and was not able to return to the game. Metro went on to beat the Mustangs 21-7 and many agreed had Thor been playing Sam Houston would have no doubt won the game. Mark worked as hard as he could to rehab his knee and get back to play as the Mustangs lost the next week’s game as well. He decided that he would have to play this game in order to ensure that the Mustangs would get back on track for this season and have a shot at repeating as state champs. Thor ran out onto the field and was greeted by a standing ovation he was handed the ball on the first play of the game and had a rush for 10 yards and all the fans were relieved the next play was a pass play and he stayed in for blocking purposes. On the next play Thor was handed the ball and made a cut and went down with a dramatic yell. After being transported to the hospital via ambulance an MRI revealed that Mark had torn both his ACL and MCL and he was out for the remainder of the season.

2002 Senior Year of High School
Mark had worked as hard as he could to get back into playing shape however he wasn’t ready until game 6 of the regular season to actually get into the game. By this point the Mustangs were 3-3 and most of Thor’s scholarship offers were off the table and the national attention was gone. He came back and was able to play but had lost a few steps and was just a shadow of the former great player that he was prior to the injury. The only scholarship offer that remained was hometown Rice who wished to get some excitement for the program. Thor decided that he would take up Rice on the offer instead of trying to make it as a walk on at the bigger schools that wanted him as a preferred walk-on. Mark finished the year and felt that he would be able to make an impact at Rice his freshman year and then maybe if he showed that he could still be a dominant player he could transfer to a bigger school with a scholarship offer.

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College Years
2003 Freshman Year
Coming into a small college as a former national prospect is not something that you see everyday but this is exactly what occurred to Mark "Thor" Thornton. Thor came in as the 4th running back on the depth chart mainly due to the severe injury that he suffered his junior year of high school that caused him to lose many scholarship offers.
After summer camp it was easy to see that Mark was the most talented back on the roster, the only problem was that he had trouble keeping consistent play because his knee was only good for so long. He refused to wear a knee brace however because he didn't want anyone to know that his knee was still bothering him.
The first game of the season Thor was back to return a kickoff and took off he had gained 20 yards as he changed directions and was subsequently hit on both sides of his body. His knee buckled and he went down, this play re-injured his knee and he was out for the remainder of the season.

2004 Sophomore Year
Thor once again decided that he would try to make a comeback he did as much rehab as he could but his knee continued to give him problems. A national newspaper printed Thor's story of a once 5 star football player that had fallen off of the map because of injuries suffered while in high school. Thor was quoted, "You know I mean obviously I wish I had never been injured but that's in the past now. I'm just trying to do the best job I can now and I'm gunna try to come back and help us win some games here at Rice."
Well Thor never made it back onto the field this year he continued to play on the practice squad a little bit but the coaches didn't feel that he was able to help them in games. Mark got more and more frustrated as the season went on, the only thing that helped him settle down was when he was helping the coaches break down film during the season.

2005 Junior Year
The season started off great for Mark he had finally rehabbed his knee completely and was back to 100%. He was even named the starter for the first game of the season. On 14 rushes Thor had gained 82 yards which is a good stat line when coming back from injury. Rice fans started to get excited as they thought that with their reborn stud running back they could make a real run this season even though they had lost the first game in a blowout. The next game was against the hated Texas Longhorns which was a very special game for Thor since the Longhorns had offered him a scholarship in high school and withdrew it after his injury. Mark wanted revenge bad and he came out playing as hard as he could however once again the injury was there to bite him. On just the fifth play for the Rice offense Thor re-aggravated his knee and was taken out of the game he tried to make a return but once again he was hurt and after the game team doctors advised Mark to give up football or else risk not being able to walk again. He was heartbroken but after talking to his parents he decided it was best if he gave up the game. Ken Hatfield the head coach at the time asked Mark to remain with the team and help the coaching staff break down film and help game-plan as he did the previous year when he suffered his injury. Thor found that game-planning was one of the things that he had not previously been able to do in the game of football but it became something that he really loved to do and became his new passion.

2006 Senior Year
Following a 1-10 season Rice head coach Ken Hatfield resigned after the disappointing season and Todd Graham was brought in to replace him. Graham extended Mark the same invitation that Hatfield had and even made him an assistant running back coach. He helped to get Quinton Smith to register a 1000 yard 10 TD season for the Owls. Following the season that saw Rice go 7-6 and to the Holiday Bowl which they lost Todd Graham left for greener pastures at Tulsa and Thornton decided that his time was done at Rice for the present and after graduating with a degree in accounting went back to coach at his high school alma mater Sam Houston High School in Dallas.

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High School Coaching

2007 OC @ Sam Houston
Mark Thornton returned to his high school and installed an offense that was run heavy but also mixed in some spread so that the Mustangs would be able to play to the weaknesses of their opponents whether it be overpowering, outrunning, or throwing over the opponent. This proved to be the exact thing that Sam Houston needed as they went undefeated in the regular season setting school records for offensive production, however they fell in the state semi-finals.

2008 OC @ Sam Houston
Following the successes of last year the Mustangs under Thor's guidance on offense put up state records for offensive production and scored no fewer than 50 points in a game the team went undefeated this year and were able to attain the school's fourth state championship and first since the Mark's playing days.

2009 HC @ Sam Houston
Following the retirement of legendary Mustang coach Bo Peterson, the obvious successor to take over the helm was Mark Thornton and this is exactly what occurred. Mark knew that in order to get into the coaching ranks in college he would again have to lead his team to putting up big numbers and once again he was able to do so. He led his team to a one loss season and brought home another state championship.

2010 HC @ Sam Houston
There were rumors abound that Coach Thor was being contacted by JUCO colleges in the state of Texas to join coaching staffs as anything from running back coach to offensive coordinator though he assured his players he was going to be back for another season and during this season it was a very special one for the Mustangs they only allowed 14 points all season and averaged 70 points a game one of the most dominating performances in high school football history. The thing that was more amazing was that Thor didn't even try to run up the score he took his starters out of more than half of the games by halftime. The state championship game was won by a 50 point margin and the Mustangs knew that they had been coached by Coach Thor for the last time.

January 14 2011
Dallas Texas

A phone rings at Mark Thornton's apartment.

Thor: Hello?

Rice Head Coach David Bailiff: Hello, Thor, I mean Mark this is Coach Baliff over here at Rice. We've been watching what you've been doing over at Sam Houston and I was wondering how you would like to join my coaching staff here as our new offensive coordinator?

Thor: Man, I wasn't really expecting this but it's great when can I start?

Bailiff: (laughs) Right away. We want you to implement your own offense and you will have control over every facet of the offense including recruiting.

Thor: Alright, thanks coach sounds good.

[thelionheart3456]

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Hey guys I'm still working on getting this set up just right before the game drops so if you have any suggestions please say so and I'll implement them as best as I can I'm working on a season preview that I'm looking to put up here at some point tonight. Also I will be doing CAR so the form is here

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2011 Rice Owls Preview

Rice is back to being Rice after having a 10 win season in 2008 many fans hoped that this might prove to be an awakening of the football program. However after losing all time Rice great Chase Clement and his number one target Jarett Dillard the school has fallen back into it's old ways. Losing. Rice has gone just 6-18 over the last two seasons and has been out of bowl contention by the first week of November. Head Coach David Bailiff and his staff know they have work to do or else they risk falling even further behind in the college football arms race.

There is hope though the offense showed that they can put points on the board at the end of last season averaging more than 40 points per game in their last four games. This was due in large part due to QB Taylor McHargue's return from injury and star half-back Sam McGuffie's emergence as a star. The Owls even brought in new offensive coordinator Mark "Thor" Thornton to help Rice put up some big numbers offensively. The defense will once again be tested as they were one of the worst in the country last year. There is good news on that end to though as DE Scott Solomon is back after missing the entire 2010 season.

The Schedule: Rice will have a very rough start, but their late season schedule will definitely be a lot easier. To start off September they will play against lop-sided rival Texas and then face Purdue. Following a week off they will have to play Baylor and their offense led by Robert Griffin III. Conference USA play kicks off against a talented Southern Miss. team. The Owls could very well start the season off without a win in their first four games, the good news is that they won't have to play UCF or East Carolina in this year's regular season. After Southern Miss. they will be matched up against Memphis and Marshall which could prove favorable. They then have two tough weeks against Tulsa and Case Keenum led Houston. Rice will then need to go on a win streak in November to have any chance at keeping bowl dreams alive with winnable games against UTEP, Tulane and at SMU with a game at Northwestern thrown in there. So we're looking at best at a record of 6-6 though 4-8 is more likely.

The season will be considered a success if: Rice is able to surpass last fall's record of 4-8 which could be very tough to do considering the schedule they will be playing. If they can score an upset or two it's very likely they'll be able to meet expectations.

Key game: October 8 vs. Memphis. The Owls will most likely start the season off with an 0-4 mark which makes the game against lowly Memphis a good game to put one in the win column. If they lose this game look for no better than a 3 win season.