University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Big Man, Little Drama
August 7, 2006 | Football
Aug. 7, 2006
By Adam Lucas
The recruitment of Cam Thomas should have been a blockbuster.
He had all the right qualities: incredible size, good athleticism, and a high skill level at a position of need (defensive tackle) for every major program. His hometown, Robbins, is less than 90 minutes from the three major Triangle college football programs and still close enough to South Carolina to be tantalizing for the Palmetto state's top squads.
Thomas could have been one of the "hat guys." You know the type. The kind of player with a fistful of scholarship offers who delays his college decision until the morning of Signing Day. He could have sat down at a table with the hats of his three final choices and pretended, in front of a legion of cameras, to struggle with his decision. The drama over his choice probably would have inflated the ranking (he was ranked in the top 20 in the state by most services) he was given by the recruiting services that thrive off the hat guys.
He grew up a Florida State fan--agonizing when Carolina thumped the Seminoles 41-9 in 2001--and his father was a Clemson fan, so he already had connections to two ACC powers. It could have been one of the recruiting battles of the year.
It could have been. But it wasn't.
Instead, Thomas committed to Carolina during February of his junior year, a full year ahead of schedule. By the time the next signing day rolled around, he was almost an afterthought in the Tar Heels' 2005 haul.
He looks perplexed when asked what pushed him over the edge so early. To him, it seems simple.
"The academics," he says. "I wasn't thinking about football. Don't get me wrong, football is very important to me. But even if I get the chance to play professional football, I'm not going to be there forever. In the long run, I need an education, and Carolina was the best place for that."
He's gotten an education both on and off the field over the past year. He arrived in Chapel Hill last summer tipping the scale at 350 pounds--and it wasn't a muscular 350. A regular feature of the opening days of 2005 training camp was Thomas on one knee, gasping for air.
"When he first came in as a freshman, I thought he was going to leave after about two days," John Bunting says. "But he sucked it up and now he's ready to go."
Sucking it up required a redshirt year that Thomas had requested as soon as he committed. He knew he wasn't physically ready for the college game and was aware he wouldn't physically overpower people in the ACC the way he did at North Moore High, where he played both defensive tackle and fullback.
Yes, fullback. Somewhere there's some entertaining prep game tape of a 350-pound fullback rumbling for 798 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior.
The athleticism that enabled him to amass those yards is what intrigued the Carolina coaches. But in order to uncover some of his potential, the first priority was to melt away some of the extra poundage.
Thomas was introduced to college-level strength and conditioning for the first time in his life. He quickly discovered he was a natural in the weight room.
"The thing about Cam Thomas is that he is so young he doesn't even really know his own strength yet," strength and conditioning coach Jeff Connors says. "It's scary how easy he makes it look in the weight room sometimes.
"Where he's strong right now is in his hips and legs. He will be a very tough guy to move. He just has to keep working on his upper body."
The conditioning was coupled with--in another first for Thomas--a balanced diet. No more of his mother's macaroni. No more of his favorite, fried chicken.
Well...almost no more.
"I figured out the way to do it," he says. "Instead of eating a bunch of pieces like I used to, I just take a little pinch and then I put it away."
The hard work has resulted in a newly toned Thomas. He weighs in at 315 pounds and should be a contributing member of the defensive line rotation under tackles coach Ken Browning.
After spending his redshirt season getting an off-field education, he's emphasizing on-field knowledge during training camp. After almost every repetition, he's soaking up pointers from Kentwan Balmer, Kyndraus Guy, and the more experienced tackles.
"I'm trying to understand the game," he says. "I need to learn the keys and how to do things like read the feet of the linemen. Once I do that, I can add my power to it and be successful."
His recruitment may not have earned much attention. His potential suggests his career should make up for it.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
