Nicholas Thayer joined the Bison football coaching staff in January of 2024. Thayer serves as the Defensive Coordinator, Recruiting Coordinator, and the Defensive Backs Coach.
In Thayer’s first season, the Bison held opponents to 42 points and 401.7 points per game, but forced 14 turnovers including three in each of the Bison’s games against Washington & Jefferson and Thiel. Against the Tomcats, Thayer’s defense limited the opposition to a season-best 250 yards and also had two of the team’s six interceptions on the year. Returning for the Bison defense is an All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference honorable mention in Amarion Williams as well as a handful of other members of the Bison’s interior and secondary.
Thayer comes from Division III Anna Maria College where he performed duties as the DC for the Amcats. During his four season tenure at Anna Maria (2019-2023), Thayer filled roles as the Associate Head Coach and Academic Coordinator while being the DC. Thayer won an Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) title in 2021. Last season, the Amcats had the #1 overall defense in the conference and a DIII top 25 passing defense in both yards per game and interceptions.
Thayer specializes in the secondary with a decade of experience coaching linebackers and the defensive backfield. His coaching career began as a graduate assistant from 2014-2016 at Anderson University (Indiana) where he was a jack of all trades coaching four different position groups in four semesters: linebackers, defensive backs, defensive line, offensive line. Thayer’s first post-graduate coaching gig came with Maine Maritime Academy where he coached inside linebackers for a season before moving “out” to outside linebackers- and Oregon- to coach at Willamette University from 2017-2019.
Thayer played collegiate ball at Endicott University. He graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Sport Management. Thayer earned his MBA during his graduate assistantship at Anderson University
