Xavier Thomas’ production at Clemson hasn’t matched the hype. What happened?
This was supposed to be a breakout year for Clemson defensive end Xavier Thomas.
The former five-star recruit got his feet wet as a freshman in 2018 and learned while playing behind first-round NFL Draft pick Clelin Ferrell. Entering his sophomore season, Thomas was a preseason All-American who seemed destined to introduce himself to the college football world in a big way.
Unfortunately for Thomas, that hasn’t been the case.
The Florence, South Carolina native has two sacks all season and hasn’t recorded one since Sept. 14 against Syracuse. Five other players on Clemson’s defense have at least 3.5 sacks.
“I definitely haven’t lived up to my expectations,” Thomas said at Clemson’s media day Monday ahead of the national championship game vs. LSU. “I’m stepping into a new role, dealing with my injury and sitting out all of those games, having to come back. It’s been pretty challenging.”
So why hasn’t the production matched the hype?
Let’s start with the preseason.
There were warning signs during fall camp that All-American expectations might be too high for Thomas. He started off preseason practice working as a backup behind Justin Foster and Logan Rudolph. While most assumed Clemson was just trying to motivate him to work harder, Thomas came off the bench in two of the Tigers’ first five games.
“A year ago he was a one-trick pony,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “We put him out there in passing situations and he did terrific. This year the challenge was, let’s develop as a defensive end. He was only there one year in high school full time.”
As good as his natural athletic ability is, Thomas entered the 2019 season relatively new to the defensive end position. He played all over the field for three seasons at Wilson High in Florence before transferring to IMG Academy and focusing on defensive end his senior year.
“I remember one of the first high school games I went to watch him play, he played middle linebacker the whole game,” Venables said. “They did a great job with him at IMG, but they only had him for a few months. And you just don’t have a lot of time to create a foundation.”
Venables and defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall have worked on building that foundation each of the past two years, and early on in the 2019 season it appeared that Thomas had turned a corner.
He had 16 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks through the first five games and made the play of the regular season to preserve Clemson’s lead late against North Carolina in late September, stopping a two-point conversion try that led to the Tigers holding on for a 21-20 victory.
Since then, the production just hasn’t been there. Thomas hasn’t recorded a sack in nearly four months, due in part to a concussion that sidelined him for three games.
“We’re really looking for him just to bring that pressure to quarterbacks like he has in the past, and hopefully he’ll come through for us,” Clemson safety Tanner Muse said before the start of the College Football Playoffs. “He just needs to really lock in on the little things. He’s been kind of out there to the side being injured and all. We’ve gotta bring him back in and make sure he understands that he’s appreciated and everything. He’s gotta work on his part and we’ll continue to work on our part.”
Prior to the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State, Thomas said he was finally feeling like himself again from a conditioning standpoint and that he was hoping to be at his best in the postseason.
He certainly made his presence felt against the Buckeyes, finishing with a career-high six tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. Thomas enters the national championship game against LSU with 29 tackles, eight tackles for loss and two sacks. From a statistics standpoint he isn’t having an All-American type season, but Clemson’s coaching staff feels good about the way he has performed.
“He’s done a great job. He’s accepted the challenge. He’s doing everything we asked him to do and he’s playing at a high level,” Hall said. “It’s an overall team defense. Our defense is ranked high and it just so happens this year, from a defensive end standpoint, we didn’t get a lot of sacks. That doesn’t mean Xavier’s not doing his job. All of the other guys are doing their job.”
Thomas has one more opportunity to make a difference this season before what he described as “a very important offseason.” If he can make plays against LSU and help Clemson to a second straight national title, his lack of sacks from earlier in the year will be forgotten about.
“People remember the biggest games, so I’m just going out there and being focused on doing my job to the best of my ability,” he said.
The future is still bright for Thomas and the potential is still there, even if it is taking a little longer than most expected to shine through.
“Xavier can be the best d-end that we’ve had around here. He’s just gotta continue to work at it,” Hall said.
“One year from now he’ll be on another planet as a player,” Venables added. “And the biggest reason why is Xavier has a lot of humility. People put him up really high with what the expectations are and all well-deserved. He’s got a great skill set. But Xavier wants to become a great player. He’s a good player right now that’s made tremendous improvement this year and has been a huge part of our success.”
When does Clemson play LSU?
Who: Clemson vs. LSU
When: 8 p.m. Monday
Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans
TV channel: ESPN
Betting line: LSU by 5.5
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 2:32 PM.
