Top defensive lineman for Marshall, announced on Instagram on Wednesday that he has committed to Syracuse.
He was rated as a three-star prospect and ranked No. 441 nationally in the 247 Sports composite rankings, initially signed with Florida as part of the Class of 2021.
As per his social media, he received transfer offers from several schools, including Maryland, Toledo, UAB, Southern Miss, and Arkansas State. Out of high school, he had offers from top programs like Georgia, Florida State, Miami, LSU, and others.
After spending two years at Florida with limited playing time, he transferred to Marshall in 2023. In his first season at Marshall, he recorded 13 tackles, then improved to 43 tackles in the following season.
During his second year, he also tallied 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, and four quarterback hurries, playing a role in Marshall’s Sun Belt conference championship win.
Standing at 6-foot-6 and weighing 327 pounds, he played 469 snaps for Marshall last season, the ninth-most on the team’s defense. His performance earned him a ranking of 31st out of 39 defensive players. Listed as a redshirt junior by Marshall, Thomas likely has one season of eligibility left.
He is the older brother of Eric Thomas, an incoming freshman at Syracuse who played last season at Miami Northwestern. Like his older brother, Eric is a defensive lineman.
Both Thomas brothers will join a Syracuse defensive line that returns many key players but must fill the void left by star defensive end Fadil Diggs. Diggs led the team with 7.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss and was responsible for more than 20% of Syracuse’s quarterback pressures last season.
Thomas is the sixth transfer addition for Syracuse this offseason, joining a group that includes quarterback Rickie Collins (LSU), receivers Chris Long (Rutgers) and Tyshawn Russell (South Carolina), offensive lineman Naquil Betrand (Alabama), and kicker Tripp Woody (Iowa).
Under new head coach Fran Brown, Syracuse added 18 transfers in his first offseason, assembling one of the nation’s top transfer classes. While Brown did not anticipate being as active in the transfer market this year, preferring to focus on high school prospects, Syracuse’s transfer class was ranked 60th in the country by On3.com before Thomas’s commitment.
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