Terrell Buckley/Lamar Thomas XFL coaching partnership personifies respect players gain playing in Miami/FSU series

In 1991 Lamar Thomas and Terrell Buckley were fierce rivals in that storied game between second-ranked Miami and top-ranked Florida State at Tallahassee: Wide Right I with the Hurricanes winning 17-16 and going on to win the national championship.

Thomas was a star receiver for the Hurricanes, Buckley was the Jim Thorpe Award-winning cornerback for the Seminoles.

Since then their paths have crossed several times in more friendly circumstances, including many rounds of golf. They were teammates on the Miami Dolphins in the mid 1990s, they were both on the coaching staff at the University of Louisville from 2014-2015.

And earlier this week it was officially announced that Buckley is the head coach of the new Orlando Guardians in the revamped XFL, and he has hired as his assistant head coach, yes, Thomas.

The XFL, which will begin play next February, has new co-owners: former Hurricane Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, his former wife of 10 years who is a business woman, professional body builder and producer.

The XFL, which has a contract with ESPN, owns the eight teams in the league. So technically The Rock is the boss of Buckley, who is the boss of Thomas.

Wednesday night, appropriately in the middle of Florida State Week, Buckley was the guest on the Lamar Thomas Show on CaneSport.com, and they talked about their rivalry, friendship and coaching partnership.

“In 1989 we first met on the field and had two fierce battles,” Buckley said, adding that when the Seminoles faced the Canes “we looked across the field and we saw ourselves.”

As for his relationship with Thomas, Buckley said, “Off the field we started hanging out, and similarities just kept coming. And then we had an opportunity to play with each other with the Dolphins. And on golf course. And work with each other, worked really well together. And his knowledge and wisdom of football, how to treat players, all the things that I believe in, it matched.

“So when this opportunity came along and I needed an assistant head coach to be able to step in when I’m not here and I have to step out and do some things … the same philosophy, know what talent looks like. We’re going to run this program first class.”

Buckley recalled that when he began considering what his staff would look like, “I’m sitting there thinking who is better than Lamar? He’s been there, he’s done that, not just as a player but as a coach also. And then I’ve personally seen him work with players in development on and off the field. Our stories of growth and ability to relate goes hand in hand.

“We’ve been around this for 30 years and I’ve been around some great coaches. I recruited 15 offensive linemen who came in and started or went to the next level. Same thing can be said about defensive players. We understand what it takes to win and put together a team.”

Buckley said he has “a database of over 1,800 players. And we’ve been at this for about five months now. We just had a pre-draft camp in Orlando, we had like 200 guys out there. Lamar had 60 wide receivers, the biggest group.”

He noted that he has met with coaches from FSU, Florida, the Green Bay Packers and the University of Buffalo for advice on coaching and player personnel. He estimated he and Thomas have had about 100 hours of conversation about how to put the Orlando team together.

“It’s going to be high quality football,” Buckley said. “As Lane Kiffin said, pop the popcorn and light up the scoreboard.”

Added Thomas: “We’ve been friends a long time. Before he hired me I was able to help him a couple of times. It got to a point where I felt like I was his agent.”

Thomas said that when he was on the staff at Louisville and coach Bobby Petrino was looking for corner backs coach, he lured Buckley from where he was coach at Akron University to join the Louisville staff.

“Petrino said can you get him here in three days?” Thomas recalled. “I said I can get him here tonight.”

Thomas also noted that Buckley was an impetus for him going back to school to earn his degree.

“The whole thing about even me going back to school was because of him,” Thomas said. “He went back to school and I saw it could be done through Florida State’s program.”

Buckley: “We had a special program for former players where  we could take care of everything, get it organized and make it real easy.”

Thomas: “I called Randy Shannon (former UM player and head coach who is co-defensive coordinator at Florida State) about go FSU and finish my degree … He talked to the AD and said I’d be the first to go through it.”

When Thomas and Buckley were rivals on the field, the Canes and ‘Noles were perennial top five programs. Thomas played for Miami from 1989-1992 and Buckley was at FSU from 1989-1991.

Both also were members of the track teams, Thomas played briefly on Leonard Hamilton’s basketball team in four games before being sidelined by tendonitis in his knees, and Buckley played on the baseball team.

In that 1991 football showdown, Buckley had an interception and a punt return for 8 yards.  Thomas caught 2 passes for 21 yards but seldom was a target of Gino Torretta because the Canes didn’t want to deal with Buckley and spread their passes to six other receivers.

In the 1992 UM-FSU showdown at the Orange Bowl, with Buckley having moved onto the NFL, Thomas was the leading receiver as he caught 7 passes for 104 yards, including a 33-yarder for what proved to be the winning touchdown with 6:50 left in the Hurricanes’ 19-16 victory.

After his UM career ended, Thomas played for the Tampa Bay Bucs (1993-1995) and Dolphins (1996-2000), and later coached at Hampton, Western Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky and the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football, whose head coach was Dennis Erickson, Thomas’s coach at UM.

Buckley, who set FSU records for interceptions and interception return yardage (501 yards, and NCAA record), played for the Packers, Dolphins and Patriots, and coached Mississippi State and Mississippi in addition to Akron and Louisville.

Now Thomas and Buckley are immersed in preparing for the XFL draft later this month.