Long before he led his Northern Illinois Huskies to a shocking upset of Notre Dame, Thomas Hammock was a two-time All American running back for NIU running for over 1,000 yards in both his sophomore and junior seniors.
When his playing career was cut short due to a heart condition, forcing him to step away with a season of eligibility remaining, Hammock immediately got involved in coaching, starting as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin before going on to coach running backs at NIU and Minnesota and with the Badgers before a stint on John Harbaugh's staff in the NFL.
In 2021, shortly after taking over at his alma mater, NIU was picked to finish last in the MAC and instead went out and won the league with a 9-5 mark. Over the next three seasons, Hammock has led the program to two bowl games and a pair of bowl wins.
Yesterday evening, at his weekly presser, Hammock was asked if he had thoughts on making the transfer portal "more fair" and his response has been making waves across social media. By January earlier this year, the Huskies had seen 19 players enter the portal.
"To be honest with you, I love the challenge. It don't bother me one bit, because in life you are going to make decisions - sometimes it is going to work in your favor and sometimes it is not."
"I told our guys earlier today, yeah we lost all these guys, but let's see who plays. It's all good when people put on Twitter, 'All glory to God, I'm going in the transfer portal,' but let's see if they play. How many of those guys are going to play? Or travel? Or get snaps?"
"I was going to tweet something the other day...a picture of me, and say I enjoyed my college experience and I didn't get one dime, but the lessons I learned was more valuable than any money you could ever pay me. And I appreciate that, because that is long term. People are losing sight of the fact that this is short term."
"Don't lose focus of the long term. Get your degree. Learn valuable lessons that are going to help you in the long term of your life. That is the whole purpose. This is a transition from being a kid to being a grown up, and I hope people don't lose focus of that. Everyone is talking about everything else other than what is the most important thing about going to college, because if you're going to college to go get a couple dollars, you might as well go get a job. [College football] is too hard than to do it to get a couple dollars."
"Learn the lessons that you need to learn to be successful in life for the next 40 to 50 years of your life. That's it. I would do it again for free. FOR FREE, because of the things I learned. That is why I am standing here today, because of what I learned in college. Not because of what someone gave me."
"That is what I would tell people, and parents need to learn that lesson too. Stop trying to live through your kids. Teach them what they need to learn to be successful. That's what I'm teaching my kids. Not about NIL or revenue sharing...I couldn't care less. You need to learn things in college that prepare you in life to be a father, a husband, to work, and everything else."
"Those are the most important things."
Hear more of Hammocks comments being applauded across social media in the clip.