Thomas Pearson

Title

Assistant Football Coach/Co-Defensive Coordinator/Safeties
Email

tpearson3@uco.edu
Phone

405-974-3431

Thomas Pearson joined the Central Oklahoma football coaching staff in 2024 and serves as co-defensive coordinator and safeties position coach for the Bronchos.

In his first season, UCO went 11-2 and won the MIAA title for the first time since joining the league in 2012. The Bronchos qualified for the NCAA Division II Football Championship and hosted a first-round playoff game, beating Oauchita Baptist 38-31 in overtime. UCO made it to the Super Region III semfinals before losing to eventual national champion Ferris State. Pearson coached a pair of All-MIAA selections with defensive backs Kobey Stephens and Dylan Buchheit earning the honors.

Pearson brings 13 years of collegiate coaching experience to UCO from Gannon, where he spent the last three seasons working with the defense there. He also spent six years prior to that at Ottawa University in Kansas.

Pearson was a student-assistant coach for Ottawa in 2010 and a graduate assistant for Bethel University in Tennessee in 2012 and 2013 before landing his first full-time coaching job at Orange Coast College in California, where he worked for two years before returning to Ottawa.

Career highlights include coaching four all-conference linebackers at OCC and two at Bethel, including a preseason All-American. At Ottawa, he coached 37 All-KCAC picks and three All-Americans. He guided the Ottawa Braves defense that led the KCAC in interceptions while ranking second in sacks after ranking third in both total defense and scoring defense in 2018, when the team went 8-2.

At Gannon, Pearson helped turn the team around with a defensive-minded force that helped Gannon tie for first in the PSAC West division with an 8-3 record in 2021. The numbers dropped significantly on the defensive side of the ball, with Pearson’s bunch going from allowing 29 points per game down to just 21 points per game.

He guided the defense that posted 33 sacks in one season, ranking among the best in the country. Pearson also worked with special teams at Gannon and led the group that blocked four kicks in one season (2021), knocking back two field goals and two punts.

Pearson earned his undergraduate degree from Ottawa (2009) and his master’s degree from Bethel (2013). Pearson earned a bachelor’s degree studying exercise science and he earned a master’s degree studying secondary education.

He is married (Nicole) and has twin boys (Thomas III and Jackson) and one daughter (Zoe).