Friday Night Files: Omari Thomas
It was a long trip for Briarcrest Christian Academy to reach Huntsville for their game on Friday night. Between three and four hours via bus to reach Madison Academy where the Saints would be hosted by the Mustangs, one of the better teams in their classification in Alabama. It was a long trip for Briarcrest to get to Huntsville, and the Saints decided to make the journey worth it. By the time the game had ended, Briarcrest had come up with a victory to the tune of 44-7, looking physically dominant for most of the game. This could be a special year for the Saints. A program that always has lofty expectations, Briarcrest has the personnel to win a state championship this season in part thanks to that physical dominance. One of the players that contributes the most to that dominance up front is also poised for a special season, Briarcrest senior Omari Thomas.
Thomas is a four-star lineman prospect that is pushing five-star status. At six foot five, three hundred five pounds, Thomas has the size and frame that every Power Five team covets up front. Thomas has long arms and carries the weight well. He looks lean to be at three hundred pounds, with a majority of muscle on his frame. Thomas doesn’t look to be carrying much bad weight if any. His frame is one that could potentially carry more muscle at the next level, and how a strength and conditioning staff works to develop his body in college will likely come down to where he lines up at the next level. Thomas is being pursued by Power Five schools as an offensive and defensive linemen. He has the size and build to fit into any defensive front, whether it is playing either of the tackles in a 4-3, defensive end in a 3-4, or even playing nose tackle in a 3-4 if he was asked to bulk up ten to fifteen pounds. On offense, Thomas has the long arms, tall frame, and quick feet that make him a prototypical left tackle. He also has the physicality and grit to make for an incredibly gifted guard. The simple fact is, Omari Thomas can be an immediate impact player somewhere on the roster for nearly every team in America. That is incredibly rare, and one of the reasons that Thomas is being so fiercely recruited.
The other reason that Thomas is being so intensely pursued is the fact that, at his size, his athleticism is shocking. Thomas has the feet of a receiver. He is rarely off-balance, adjusts his body well when presented with contact, and moves well with sound technique whatever his role on the field is. Offensively, this means that he is outstanding in pass protection. Thomas is an exceptionally smooth athlete coming out of his stance. He has the lateral quickness and burst to drop into pass protection against great speed rushers and stay square in front of them without sacrificing his stance. With his long arms, excellent hand punch, and good strength, Thomas consistently shows the ability to drive edge rushers working against him into the dirt and out of the play when they fail to turn the corner on him. When he is on the defensive line, it means that despite being a three hundred pounder, Thomas can rush the passer off the edge as an end. He has the speed and burst to attack a tackle on an edge rush or to use his strength to bull into an opposing offensive lineman’s body, separate, and then use his speed to close on a ball carrier. Thomas utilized his combination of size, strength, and quickness to flow to the ball wherever the offense takes it. He has the long arms that let him create space against offensive linemen and effectively read multiple gaps on each play. His strength and burst allow him to shed blockers and attack the appropriate gap. Teams are also unable to simply run away from Thomas, as he is consistent in his pursuit from the backside and emphatic in closing out a play whether a quarterback holds a ball too long or a running back tries to reverse his field. When Thomas closes out from behind, plays tend to end with a bang and a loud thump.
It is the explosiveness in contact and finishing plays that sets Thomas apart from everyone else on Tennessee’s board in my eyes. Some players revel in contact, some that are ferocious hitters, and still others that are devastating. Somewhere, far beyond, but just within shouting distance of that last group, is where Thomas falls on the scale. Physical dominance doesn’t do what Omari Thomas is capable of and regularly achieves justice. There are plays on his film, on offense and defense, where he simply leaves desolation in his wake. Those plays show up over and over again on his film, and a few showed up on Friday night. The feats that Thomas is capable of, whether erasing multiple defenders on a run play or driving double teams into the backfield, splitting them, and delivering a crushing hit, are stunning. The level of overwhelming physical dominance that Thomas is capable of marks him out among other players nationally in this class. Thomas seems to chalk up a few more plays of eye-popping physicality and intensity every game. It is the regularity with which he exerts an astounding level of physical dominance that is so deeply impressive. Thomas is one of the most athletically gifted players in this class, and at his size, it becomes even more impressive. What allows him to take that next step, however, is a combination of a gift for spectacularly eliminating his opponents from plays and sound technique. For all of his physical gifts, Thomas is not overly reliant on them. He is well polished at tackle and as a 3-4 defensive end. He shows the technique his coaches for both areas have developed in him and uses that to maximize his immense talents.
Thomas describes himself as a laid back, fun-loving guy off the field. He is smiling and quick to laugh in an interview post-game, his teammates yelling to him from the sideline as he tries to keep a straight face. Thomas is a physically imposing player, but not a dirty one. He plays hard, he punishes opponents on either side of the ball, and he exerts his will in sometimes shocking ways, even to those that watch a lot of football, but he isn’t malicious. Still, it was difficult to reconcile the smiling, mountain of a young man with the same player that slammed a pass rusher so hard into the turf that the defender bounced only an hour earlier. Teammates came to crash the interview, to hype up their friend before running off again, to yell over how famous he was now as things wrapped up. Thomas only smiled and laughed while he answered questions and grinned more when he heard his teammates. They were picking on him the way that brothers do, cheering for him in his moment. It became clear then that Thomas is appreciated by his teammates. Players only behave that way with teammates that they are fond of and enjoy playing with. Thomas is one of the best players on the Briarcrest roster, but it appeared that he is also one of the most beloved by his teammates if the amount of heckling he endured is anything to go on. When your best players are also the ones the team rallies around, you have special players that can lead to a special season. Omari Thomas is a special player. Briarcrest came a long way from Memphis, but they made sure the trip was worth it. It feels like it may be the first trip in a season to remember for the Saints, and Omari Thomas is going to clearing the way along the journey for his fellow Saints to go marching into the history books.