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Chris Hatcher
Valdosta State University
Hatcher,
a Macon, Ga., native, has reached the highest levels of Division II
football as both a player and coach. As a quarterback at Valdosta State
in 1994 he led his team to the second round of the Division II playoffs
and was the winner of the Harlon Hill Trophy as Division II National
Player of the Year. In 2004, as head coach at Valdosta State, he
led the Blazers to the Division II National Championship with a win over
Pittsburg State in the championship game. As a player, Hatcher
compiled a 29-10-2 record and led the Blazers to their first NCAA
post-season playoff appearance. He was a two-time consensus All-American
pick and holds 11 school, nine Gulf South Conference and eight Division
II records. From 1991-94 he completed 1,001 of 1,451 pass attempts
for 10,878 yards and 116 touchdowns. He was a two-time recipient
of the Gulf South Conference Commissioner's Trophy (1993, 1994), was a
member of the GSC Team of the 1990s, was an NCAA Top Eight Award winner
(1994) , was one of 16 post-graduate scholarship recipients from the
National Football Foundation and was named CoSIDA Academic All-America
National Player of the Year (1994). Hatcher was elected in his
first year of eligibility to the Valdosta State Athletic Hall of Fame in
2001 and was elected to the Macon Sports Hall of Fame as well.
He
began his coaching career in 1995 as a student assistant at VSU under
Hal Mumme. He then coached quarterbacks and receivers as an assistant
coach at Central Florida in 1996 where he coached All-American and NFL
first-round draft pick Daunte Culpepper. From 1997-98 he was a graduate
assistant quarterback coach at the University of Kentucky where he
coached All-American and No. 1 draft pick Tim Couch. After serving
as a full-time assistant at Kentucky in 1999, Hatcher became head coach
at Valdosta State in 2000. He has led his VSU teams to records of
10-2, 12-1, 14-1, 10-2, 13-1 and 5-1 over the last five and a half
seasons for an incredible 64-8 record as a head coach. All five of his
Blazer teams have advanced to the Division II playoffs. He has a 46-3
record in Gulf South Conference games and has led VSU to four GSC titles
in five years. Hatcher has been selected GSC Coach of the Year
three times (2000, 2001, 2002), Division II Regional Coach of the Year
three times (2001, 2002, 2004) and National Coach of the Year in 2000 by
the American Football Quarterly and in 2004 by the American Football
Coaches Association.
He was also selected to coach at the Hula Bowl
all-star game following the 2004 season. In addition to having coached
numerous all-conference and All-American players, Hatcher coached a
two-time Hill Trophy winner in quarterback Dusty Bonner in 2000 and
2001. He and his wife Lori, a VSU graduate in early childhood
education, have a son, Tyler Christopher.
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