A familiar face to Gamecock fans, Max Thurmond returns to the sidelines at Jax State in 2025 for his third stint with the Red and White.
Most recently, Thurmond served as the senior offensive analyst at Tennessee for the last three seasons.
A former Gamecock himself, Thurmond started his coaching career at his alma mater as a graduate assistant under Jack Crowe and later served as an assistant from 2001-2012.
He began his coaching career on defense, where he spent seven years with the outside linebackers and two years coaching cornerbacks, and helped establish the Gamecocks as one of the most dominating defenses in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The Gamecocks won three OVC titles and advanced to the FCS Playoffs in 2003, 2004 and 2010.
Thurmond spent a single season at Reinhardt University in 2013 before a two-year stint at West Alabama for 2014-15 where he oversaw linebackers and special teams and coached eventual Super Bowl champion, Tyreek Hill.
In the stop before his first return to Jax State, Thurmond served as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for head coach Will Healy at Charlotte in 2019. In his season with the 49ers, UNCC set school records for wins (7), Conference USA wins (5), and winning streak (5) and advanced to the program’s first bowl game.
Thurmond was previously linebackers coach and special teams coordinator for Healy at Austin Peay for 2016-17. He inherited a team that went 0-11 the season prior. After a winless 2016 season, Thurmond helped the Govs snap their 29-game losing streak – the longest losing streak in NCAA football at the time – and go an outstanding 8-4 in just his second season.
Between working with Healy, he served as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2018 at Central Arkansas.
After serving as the special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Charlotte, Thurmond returned to Jacksonville to coach special teams and linebackers under John Gross.
The return was a successful one as his outside linebackers unit helped lead a Gamecock defense that was one of the top run defenses in the nation and in Gamecock history. All-American and First Team All-OVC selection DJ Coleman, Freshman All-American J-Rock Swain and All-OVC performer Umstead Sanders paced a defense that held a school-record nine-straight opponents under 100 yards rushing.
In Thurmond’s first season taking over the Jax State special teams in the 2020-21 season, the Gamecocks enjoyed one of the OVC’s greatest turnarounds in that phase of the game. Freshman Michael Pettway was a First Team All-OVC selection as a kickoff returner, while freshman kicker Alen Karajic led the league in touchbacks, while also ranking third in the OVC in scoring among kickers.
Thurmond picked up another OVC championship in 2020, and later served as interim head coach for two games at the end of the 2021 season.
With the Volunteers from 2022-24, he helped Tennessee to it best run of the 21st century with two bowl wins, including the 2023 Orange Bowl, and the program’s first CFP playoff berth in 2024.
Thurmond holds a degree in Exercise Science. A native of Sylvester, Ga. where he attended Worth County High, Thurmond and his wife, Gresha have three children: Maxwell Jr., Asha, and Xuri.
