Cassius Thundercock or the Unknown Sergeant, also known as the State Trooper Meme, is a nickname given to a Tennessee highway patrol officer (or state trooper) named Captain Eric Miller, seen walking onto the field after a November 9th, 2024, SEC college football game, notable for his prominent chin, thick rimmed glasses and for wearing his hat at an angle that covers his eyes. The officer became the subject of memes the night after the game as his image spread on sites like Instagram and Reddit, with many comparing his looks to a stereotypical Chad.

The clip of the police officer resurfaced on TikTok in August 2025 and went viral that November, inspiring the nickname "Cassius Thundercock" and memes in which people dress up as him and jokingly portray him as a cartoonishly crooked, aggressive cop who always turns his bodycam off to deal with people who wrong him. One of the most common jokes is that Cassius has had his bodycam turned off since Vietnam, meaning the Vietnam War.

Origin

On November 9th, 2024, the Tennessee Volunteers football team played against Mississippi State in an SEC college football game. Tennessee won the game 33 to 14. YouTuber^[1] vol freak uploaded the full game that night, garnering over 33,000 views in a year.

At the end of the game, after Tennessee wins, many people come onto the field to celebrate, including Tennessee highway patrol officer and state trooper Captain Eric Miller^[14] with a prominent chin, a full-brimmed hat pulled over his eyes and thick glasses.

That night, the @oldrowsports Instagram^[2] page shared a screenshot of the police officer that highlights his facial features, writing, "New Gigachad just dropped," garnering over 164,000 likes in a year.

An image of a Tennessee highways patrol officer / trooper with a big chin, thick glasses and hat pulled over his eyes. He has earned the nickname Cassius Thundercock online.

Spread

The image of the police officer at the football game continued to spread in late 2024, leading into 2025.

For example, on November 10th, 2024, the image was posted to the /r/nflcirclejerk^[3] subreddit with the same description as @oldrowsports, garnering over 2,100 upvotes in a year. The image was also posted by Instagram^[4] user @onebuzzcollege and 9GAG ^[5] user the_snapp that day.

On January 27th, 2025, Instagram^[6] user bakedwaffless posted an image of the officer that possibly originates from a TikTok video captioned, "dis the typa cop that you alr know finna turn you into a BLM movement when he pulls you over," garnering around 600 likes in 10 months.

It was reposted by Instagram^[7] user n3nt_figure on January 31st, garnering over 551,000 likes in the same span of time.

On August 7th, TikToker^[8] @donaldtrumplovesdih posted a meme beginning with a video of a man with a flattop haircut, then an image of the highway officer, captioned, "When u and twin trolling tryna get a mugshot pfp and ranger Cassius Thundercock who has no bodycam pulls you over," garnering over 280,000 views in three months. This is one of the earliest known memes to reference the officer as "Cassius Thundercock."

On August 21st, 2025, TikToker^[9] @doorknob_28 posted a near-exact recreation of the meme, garnering over 3 million views in the same span of time.

[引用]

@donaldtrumplovesdih #dontflop #giftok #meme ♬ Ride At Dawn – Above & Beyond & Zoë Johnston

On November 10th, TikToker^[10] @yzsp100 posted a meme using footage of the officer, followed by an image of a similarly Chad-like police officer, captioned, "When Officer Cassius Thundercock pulls you over and asks you to 'step out the vee-hickle' so you request to speak to his supervisor and Officer Nate Higgerson pulls up so you genuinely tell your mama you lover her," garnering over 1.6 million views in a day.

A meme using a video of Cassius Thundercock. The meme reads, "When Officer Cassius Thundercock pulls you over and asks you to 'step out the vee-hickle' so you request to speak to his supervisor and Officer Nate Higgerson pulls up so you genuinely tell your mama you lover her."

Later that day, TikToker^[11] @chunkandslop posted a comedy skit based on Cassius Thundercock, where someone bumps into an officer with a similar look, who then turns off his bodycam, garnering over 650,000 views in a day.

[引用]

@chunkandslop another tally for thundercock #cassiusthundercock #chad #ranger #bodycam #fyp ♬ original sound – ozwald

On the same day, TikToker^[12] @hoop.arab0 posted an AI-generated video of Cassius recreating the What's A Father meme, replacing "father" with "bodycam," garnering over 200,000 views in a day.

[引用]

@hoop.arab0 #fyp #viral #cassiusthundercock ♬ Money Count – 2COLD

On December 12th, 2025, Redditor Castieru posted an image of the meme alongside a portrait of Captain Eric Miller from the Tennessee Highway Patrol to the /r/TheMatpatEffect^[13] subreddit, titled "Cassius Thundercock's glorious chin actually isn't edited," receiving over 9,900 upvotes and 160 comments in 13 hours.