Nobody could blame Deontre Thomas for smiling on Tuesday morning.
Sure, the Nebraska defensive lineman and his teammates are heading into the dog days of camp. And, yeah, he had just wrapped up practice – the first day back after an off-day, which followed a physical Sunday scrimmage – on a particularly steamy Lincoln morning.
Thomas, though, was happy and excited on this day. That should come as no surprise, considering he was limited to two games in 2020 because of a preseason ankle injury and then a knee injury suffered Nov. 14 against Penn State.
Those were particularly frustrating because of all the other oddities that came with the 2020 season. Imagine going through all kinds of COVID-19 protocols and all the unknowns about whether the season would get played at all, then getting so close to the season starting and getting hurt.
He fought through it against the Buckeyes, missed a Nov. 7 game against Northwestern and then suffered the knee injury against the Nittany Lions when he took a late hit from behind by a PSU player.
“That was a hard year for me because I needed that year. I really needed that year,” Thomas said. “So it was hard for me. Frustration. I was mad, I’m not going to lie. I was real mad that I couldn’t be out there with my brothers. Because we worked our butts off during camp, you know? Last year, that COVID season, we were up here, we really didn’t go home. We were working out a lot for that season, so when I got hurt, I was disappointed, I was hurt. Real frustrated.”
Now, though? The Mustang, Oklahoma, native can’t help but feel good about where he’s at with less than three weeks before NU’s opener against Illinois.
“Compared to last year, my body feels the best it has ever felt,” Thomas said. “I’m feeling good, I’m running faster, I’m hitting gaps faster. I feel great.”
The 6-foot-2, 295-pounder has come a long way since his days as a 250-pound nose in Bob Diaco’s defense in 2017 and says he feels like he’s in a position to put together his best season as a Husker.
“I feel like that. They’ll see it this year,” Thomas said. “I feel the best I’ve ever felt. Faster, I understand what offenses are trying to do to me. They’re going to see me.”
Even though Nebraska eventually settled into an effective five-man rotation up front last fall, NU did have a tough stretch right before the late-October opener against Ohio State with injuries to both Thomas and defensive tackle Jordon Riley.
Riley suffered a knee injury that held him out against the Buckeyes defensive line coach Tony Tuioti said he didn’t see Riley back to looking like himself until about the end of the season.
“I’ve really made it an initiative to really come in this summer and drop the weight,” said Riley, who changed his number from 87 to 91 this offseason. “I got with (head strength coach Zach) Duval and (performance nutrition director Dave Ellis) and they really helped with that. I feel it. I feel it tremendously. I’m moving a way lot faster, a way lot quicker. So thanks to those guys, they’ve helped me a lot with that.
“I wore 87 last year, so I kind of use 91 and 87 as two totally different people. I dealt with a lot of injuries last year.”
Riley dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 pounds in recent months after playing last year around 340 pounds, which he said thinks contributed to his knee injury. This fall, he’s teamed up with fellow junior Damion Daniels, the duo that is tasked with holding down the middle of the Husker defensive line.
“Jordon’s a big body, man,” sophomore defensive end Casey Rogers said of the 6-6, 310-pounder. “He’s just a huge guy who can plug up the middle and he can move, too. I remember watching him when he first got here and watching him do pass-rush stuff, and he’s huge, but he can flip his hips and he can get on an edge, too.
“It hurt a little bit when he was a little banged up last year, but I think now that he’s back to 100%, he’s a hard person to block.”
