A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Thatcher served last fall as the Bills' defensive quality control coach.

Prior to joining the Bills' staff, Thatcher served one season as defensive backs coach at Mercyhurst College, a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division rival of The Rock, one season as graduate assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh and one season as defensive backs coach at St. Vincent College.

“Eric is very familiar with western Pennsylvania football and brings a tremendous amount of coaching experience at multiple levels of competition,” Mihalik said. “He has coached on the (NCAA) Division III, Division II and Division I levels as well as in the NFL, so he brings an enviable amount of knowledge to our coaching staff.”

A three-year starter as a defensive back at Pitt, Thatcher served one season (2010) as linebackers/defensive backs graduate assistant under his former head coach, western Pennsylvania native Dave Wannstadt. Thatcher rejoined Wannstadt's staff last fall while the former NFL head coach was the Bills' defensive coordinator.

Prior to accepting the GA position at his alma mater, Thatcher served as defensive backs coach at St. Vincent in 2009 under former Rock All-America linebacker and assistant coach Shawn Rohrer, who was the Bearcats' defensive coordinator.

Thatcher received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Pitt, the first as an administration of justice major in May 2007 and the second as a social sciences major in December 2008.

Thatcher, who succeeded Raleigh Jackson as The Rock's linebackers coach, joined an SRU defensive staff that includes associate head coach/defensive coordinator Shawn Lutz and defensive backs coach Jason Makrinos.

Jackson stepped down as linebackers coach after one season to take a similar position at Arkansas Tech.