By Patrick McHugh
Corey Thomas’ responsibility on the football team is to shut down the offense at the point of attack and get after the quarterback and the running back.
And until recently, he was slotted to be featured in the News’s senior spotlight for his accomplishments on the gridiron.
But a loophole in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) regulations will allow Thomas to play for the team for one more year, making him our first ever junior spotlight.
“I was actually kind of excited,” said Thomas, who found out about his eligibility through a phone call from head coach Rocky Hager. “It was definitely a shot in the dark. We didn’t expect this to go through.”
According to NCAA rules, a college player is only eligible to play for four seasons. In order to comply with this rule, many Northeastern athletes sit out a season during their five-year tenure, a practice known as “red-shirting.”
Through an application process with the NCAA, Thomas’s freshman season qualified as a red-shirt season because he only played three games in 2004. A knee injury forced him to the sidelines for the remainder of the season.
While Thomas said he is excited to play for the Huskies for an extra year, his post-collegiate plans haven’t changed.
“I’m majoring in criminal justice right now and I want to work for the US marshals some day,” Thomas said. “That kind of stuff has always interested me.”
Thomas said he feels he’s a good fit for the marshals, a group that works in law enforcement for the government and tracks down federal criminals among other duties.
Kicker Mat Johnson said he could see Thomas filling a role in the marshals very nicely in the future.
“He’s a big man, so people probably wouldn’t mess with him,” Johnson said.
Despite his 5-foot-10, 275 pound build, Thomas was not always a football player. He played basketball throughout middle school and for two years in high school. Thomas was also involved in the band, playing the drums, before deciding to give football a serious try.
At New Britain High School in Connecticut, Thomas played three years of football and was the captain of the team as a senior. The Hartford Courant and New Haven Register named him to the All-State team that year as well. He made the All-Conference and All-League teams every year he played and twice, in 2001 and 2003, his school won the state championship. His first year playing on the team in 2001 he was named Rookie of the Year.
Thomas’ strength allowed him to excel in other high school sports as well. For two years, he threw shot put on the track and field team. Weightlifting became a part of his routine as he began lifting four times per week.
In 2003, he set a record of 700 pounds doing the squat lift, helping him earn the title of Connecticut state weightlifting champion.
Thomas said he started weightlifting competitively as a sophomore in high school and it allowed him to become a better football player.
“Without a doubt weightlifting has helped a lot on the football field,” Thomas said. “I’m not the ideal height as a football player so I have to be stronger and faster than everyone else. Weightlifting helps your strength and explosiveness and that is important in football.”
As he began to excel on the gridiron, Thomas said he realized he wanted to keep playing football in college. Offers from Division I schools came in and Thomas had a decision to make. He chose Northeastern, he said, because it was a good distance from home, not too close but not too far, and because it offered better academics than any of the other programs that were looking at him.
Thomas entered the program at Northeastern and looked to make an impact on the team. Following Thomas’ three-game freshman year, he would appear in every game for the Huskies during the next three years as a part of the defensive line rotation, recording 15 tackles and two sacks. In 2006 he started every game at nose tackle except for one he missed with an injury, and finished the year with 21 tackles and one sack. Thomas started every game on defense for NU in 2007. In the 2007 season, he made 31 tackles on the year, including an eight-yard sack in the team’s home finale, a 35-31 win over Hofstra.
“There is a high level of competition in college football and I really enjoyed playing,” Thomas said. “Only a small percentage of people get to play at this level so you know you’re playing against the best. I liked the camaraderie among my teammates and I met some lifelong friends in college. That is by far the best part of my experience.”
He said his extended career with the Huskies will be beneficial to the team.
“I think it just helps us [make] team chemistry that much better,” he said. “I’ve been here all four or five years. I know I can be a leader to the team, and I know what to expect and everything like that.”
Even with a busy football schedule Thomas finds time to do things he really enjoys. He said one of his favorite hobbies is playing handball at the Cabot Center with friends. He also has drums at home and plays them on occasion.
When he isn’t taking down linebackers, Thomas said he is concentrating on his possible future in law enforcement. This summer Thomas is vying for a chance to intern with the US marshals.
Wherever his future takes him with the Huskies and abroad, Thomas said he is determined to do something extra with his life.
“I volunteered at the police department in my home town and I could easily go be a cop there right now if I wanted to,” Thomas said. “That just doesn’t interest me though. I didn’t go to college to be a cop, I want to do something more. That’s why I’m interested in the Marshals.”
He said he hopes he’ll soon be able to stop criminals in their tracks much like he stopped running backs and quarterbacks during football.
