Meet NC State linebacker Drake Thomas: Consistent, intense, and violent — in a good way
About six years ago, N.C. State football coach Dave Doeren went to a Wake County high school game between Sanderson and Heritage.
There was no shortage of future Division I talent on the field: Sanderson featured future Army All-American Alim McNeill and Trent Pennix. On the other side, Heritage had an Army All-American of its own, running back Ricky Person, Jr., and a scrappy wide receiver named Thayer Thomas.
Those upperclassmen were already household names, but it was the sophomore with the curly hair hanging out of his helmet that Doeren couldn’t take his eyes off of.
“I was going to see a bunch of players, but just the violent way he played the game,” Doeren explained about the first time he watched current N.C. State linebacker Drake Thomas in person. “I was like, ‘I don’t know how this guy plays like this everyday,’ and he just does. He was bringing it and he’s still bringing it.”
Eventually all those players would enroll and play for Doeren. With the exception of McNeill (now a rookie with the Detroit Lions), they are all currently on the N.C. State roster. But if any fans watch Wolfpack football this season, especially the last couple of games, like Doeren, it’s hard to take your eyes off Drake Thomas.
Thomas is coming into his own this season. He’s always been consistent and capable, but now a junior, and suddenly the voice of the defense, Thomas is showing why Doeren left Sanderson that day knowing he had to have him on his team.
“I couldn’t do anything but want to coach that guy,” Doeren said.
Fast forward and Thomas is now a junior and leads the team in tackles. He’s coming off his best game at N.C. State — 15 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, two sacks — against Louisville.
Forced to move to middle linebacker after Isaiah Moore was lost for the season, Thomas looked right at home, making life hard for Cardinals’ quarterback Malik Cunningham all night long.
The move from outside to middle meant more responsibility on Thomas. Twice the workload since N.C. State was down two linebackers, Moore and Payton Wilson. But being in the middle of all the action felt natural for Thomas. When Doeren and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson approached Thomas about the move, it was a very short conversation.
“I said ‘do you know what that means?’” Doeren recalled. “He said ‘yeah, I’m ready for that.’ I said I agree and that was it.”
Same person everyday
Making the move to the middle and taking over as the head of the defense is one thing. To make it look so effortless and have a career game is another.
For his efforts Thomas was named the ACC Linebacker of the Week and his performance drew attention from national pundits. While it was a coming out party for the nation to see, it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone inside the program.
Two of Thomas’ teammates said almost the exact same thing when asked about his play.
“You know you’re going to get the same person everyday,” safety Tanner Ingle said. “Drake is as consistent as it gets.”
Pennix, who had battles with Thomas dating back to high school, spoke about his one-time rival a day earlier than Ingle, and had the same description.
“Literally every play that he’s on the field,” Pennix told the media. “You know what you can expect from Drake Thomas.”
That consistency makes it easy to coach a guy like Thomas, according to Doeren. It’s hard to build a game plan around a guy when you don’t know what to expect from him on Saturday’s. Not the case with Thomas. He plays hard, he prepares the right way and doesn’t make mistakes. That’s Thomas on the field in a nutshell.
“That’s a coach’s dream,” Doeren said. “To have a guy that’s not only talented, but is the same guy everyday.”
A coach’s dream, but a quarterback’s nightmare. Coming into the Louisville game, Cunningham averaged two rushing touchdowns per contest. He was kept out of the end zone against N.C. State and running for his life, mostly from Thomas, all night.
Thomas lived in the backfield and made some open field tackles against one of the most elusive players in the ACC look routine.
“I didn’t feel any different than I have in the past,” Thomas told the News & Observer. “The only difference was I was in the middle. I approach every single game like I always have and I approached that game the same way. It was clicking for me.”
In his second season as a full time starter, things are starting to slow down for Thomas. Going back to last Saturday and he admits that most of his plays were made before the ball was snapped. Thanks to film study with his coaches and additional film study before bed, Thomas was able to diagnose the Louisville offense and what was coming before Cunningham took the snap. That would explain the two sacks and the tackles in the backfield. It would also explain how it seemed like there were two players wearing No. 32 on defense.
Moving to the middle meant he had more ground to cover, but it didn’t look like he missed a beat.
“Just the plays he made in space on such an agile quarterback, it’s … nobody has done that,” Doeren said. “It takes that kind of performance, not to beat Louisville, but to keep that guy from beating you.”
The film session after the Louisville game, quickly turned into a Drake Thomas fan fest for the rest of the defense.
“I do it all the time, I always find myself watching him,” Ingle, the second leading tackler on the team, said. “Like last game versus Louisville, he blew up the center into the running back to make the tackle and I was like, ‘I wish I could do that.’”
Chances are, fans will see a similar type of performance against Florida State this weekend. Thomas will prepare the same way, but he doesn’t care too much about the accolades. That was last week, old news.
“I try not to get too excited,” Thomas said. “In the past I felt like I could get myself too worked up before a game and that could get me out of my own skin. All week I’m trying to stay level headed, cool, calm, relaxed.”
One word was left out: intense.
Always intense
Thomas walks, talks, looks how a coach would want their middle linebacker to look.
After games, when he meets with the media, smudges of eye black are still all over his cheeks. He’s as intense answering questions as he is facing a third and short. Make no mistake about it, Doeren explained, Thomas likes to have a good time just like any other college student. But when it’s football time, it’s no time for games.
“You only get the business side of him around here,” Doeren said. “That’s who he is. That’s Drake Thomas, he’s all about football and performing at a high level.”
Pennix recalls that it’s always been that way, chuckling at the thought of a play from their prep battles when Thomas almost broke his arm on a tackle.
Ingle, a year older than Thomas, said Drake, has been that way since he stepped foot on campus.
Thomas, well, he doesn’t know where that intensity comes from. He just knows it works in between the lines on game day.
“I don’t really know, it just kind of comes naturally when I make plays,” Thomas said. “It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s honestly how I’ve been since I was little, it’s just how I’ve played. Where I get it from? Maybe from watching college football my whole life, but it’s really just always been a part of my game. Just who I am, I guess on the field.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 5:15 AM with the headline "Meet NC State linebacker Drake Thomas: Consistent, intense, and violent — in a good way."
