Photo by: Aly Bayliss
Wildcats Brotherhood: Linemen Trio Hit 100 Combined Starts at ACU
11/7/2024 3:42:00 PM | Football, General
ABILENE - It is becoming rarer to see college football players stay at one school for multiple seasons - let alone an entire collegiate career. The transfer portal has created a revolving door of talent that can hop from one place to the next.
That's part of what makes the interior of ACU's offensive line so special.
Center Tay Yanta, and guards Alan Hatten, to his left, and Jacob Thielen, to his right, have been playing side-by-side for three seasons. In the Wildcats' 28-25 win over Southern Utah on Nov. 2, the trio hit 100 combined career starts - all at ACU.
"We're old," joked Hatten to the laughter of his teammates. "We know what to do [on the field] and what we're all seeing without mentioning it. We can say a code word and everyone knows what to do."
"It kind of goes back to high school, especially since we're all from smaller schools," said Yanta, who graduated with a class of 29 students from Falls City High School about an hour south of downtown San Antonio.
"I bet you these guys all played with the same guys they knew from elementary all the way to high school. In college you are a smarter football player so there's a higher trust level. You know they're going to do their job."
Thielen went to a private Christian school in Broomfield, Colorado, and Hatten grew up in Great Meadows, New Jersey, a rural community of just over 300.
ACU's Senior Day game against Southern Utah was Thielen's 40th career start. Hatten has started each game in his three seasons for a total of 31, and Yanta has totaled 29 starts.
"Time flies," said Thielen, who caught the eye of ACU's coaches at an on-campus summer camp on his way to see family in San Antonio.
Thielen actually began on the defensive line, and after redshirting in 2019 he played in all six games of the shortened 2020 season.
"In the spring of 2021 between seniors leaving, people transferring, and injuries I moved over to the O-line for the spring," explained Thielen. "I was killing it, so they left me there."
The move turned out alright. Thielen is a four-year starter on the Wildcats' line and is finishing his MBA with a focus in business analytics.
"ACU is a small campus, but it is a great community," said Thielen. "There's professors I haven't had in three years but they'll see me in the grocery store and they know my name and want to talk with me."
Yanta went to Mary Hardin-Baylor out of high school, and then transferred to Texas Tech. It may seem like God was pointing him to ACU in 2022 because the Wildcats' new staff was made up of coaches he knew from UMHB and Tech.
Yanta is working on his master's in strength and conditioning and is considering a career in coaching or working on his family's ranch.
Hatten started at Lackawanna College, a junior college in Scranton, Pennsylvania. ACU recruited one of his friends, and the coaches watched Hatten's film, too. He said the Wildcats gave him his best offer and he headed to Texas for the first time in his life.
Four years later, he is finishing a Master of Science in Management with a focus in marketing.
"When you get to this point in your career you start reflecting on your past," said Hatten. "I am just so grateful for all the opportunities I was given to be here, to play here, and to have friends and teammates like I do. It's been an amazing opportunity I was given and I wouldn't want it any other way."
Thielen and Hatten will run out of eligibility at the end of this season, while Yanta still has another year remaining. After three seasons together, they only have a few games left playing alongside each other.
"You're seeing people grow into their families and go off into the lives," said Yanta. "It's not like high school where you're sad that you won't play with these guys again. You're more thankful for the opportunity and it got you a friend for life. You get to watch them grow, have kids, things like that."
Said Hatten: "It's the memories, like playing Texas A&M in front of 95,000 people. Having those funny moments and memories. It's a great time."
In the current era of college athletics when coaches not only have to recruit new players but also actively recruit their current players to stay, ACU has made an impact on these three young men and kept them in Abilene.
"It's the friendships and the bonds," said Thielen. "These guys are a group you can have fun with and you're close."
"The people," answered Hatten. "The people we know and trust. ACU has given me so much. There's no place I'd rather finish my college career than ACU."
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