“I was a safety, maybe,” Thomas remembers. “Wasn’t for long.”
In addition to those ambiguous duties in the secondary, Thomas began to return kicks on this peewee team. Coaches noted he was the fastest child on the field.
“They took me off of defense,” Thomas says, “and they just wanted the ball in my hands. Told me to never tackle anyone and get hurt.”
This was Thomas’ only stint as a defensive football player, at least the last the 5-foot-9 speedster can intelligibly remember.
Eight months ago, a Lance Guidry phone call converted Thomas, a running back throughout his prep career and a receiver his first three seasons at McNeese, to cornerback.
New to the position and already with an inherent height disadvantage, Thomas was a favorite quarterback target during spring. Customarily, he’d cover Kent Shelby — an all-conference receiver who, at 6-foot-3, towers over his cornerback by six inches.
“I knew he’d be a great DB, but I didn’t know he was going to be this good,” Shelby said. “Yeah, he’s a little corner, but he’s feisty. He’s not just going to give up an easy touchdown or an easy pass. You’re going to have to actually work for it and that’s what I like about him.”
Players switching sides of the ball possess an intrinsic advantage with the ability to exploit the meticulous details of their former positions. Thomas says he can cut a receiver’s route tree at the stem, knowing exactly where he’ll break and how to track the quarterback’s impeding throw.
His speed, too, is an asset. When he was still defensive coordinator, McNeese coach Lance Guidry always toyed with getting Thomas — who ran a 10.5 100-meter dash in high school — snaps in the secondary, but it was not feasible until he was, officially, named head coach.
“It was kind of the first thing we addressed, that we had a corner depth problem,” Guidry said. “So we moved Khalil there immediately. He did good this spring, but he’s really doing well now … he plays the ball well and gets it out. When you can add a guy on defense that’s fast like Khalil, it just makes your defense faster.”
Thomas ran with the first-team throughout spring and is slated to make the first defensive start of his football life on Saturday against Tarleton State — one of only two seniors on defense. The other, Jake Grode, is filling in for the injured Anthony Yruegas.
It’s hardly the only change in Thomas’ final season.
The team’s kickoff returner for the past three seasons, Thomas will still receive the opening kickoff, he said, but then cede his place to freshman Justin Pratt on ensuing returns.
Guidry put a “rotation” in place on kickoff returns to mitigate the risk of injury to Thomas, one of the few reliable corners a depleted secondary can rely upon.
“I’m trying to score,” Thomas said. “They only give me the first one every game, so I’m trying to get the team started in good field position, if not try to set up a score. I’m not hiding, I’m not running, I’m just going to attack it.”
Much like everything in a senior season few could have envisioned beginning this way.
Upon their high school graduations, Shelby and Thomas attended the 2013 Bayou Bowl, where the best graduated seniors from Texas and Louisiana play an all-star game.
“I just knew what kind of player and competitor he was,” Shelby says. “Never thought he’d cover me. Thought we were going to end here as receivers. But, hey, we needed him at corner.”
There is no defensive back like him, Shelby says. He’s one of the best speedy corners in the country, the receiver proclaims, eight months after this experiment was hatched.
“I love having the ball in my hands, but at the same time, I want to win a championship,” Thomas said. “So if (Guidry) told me the best place to do that and the best place for me to help the team is defense, I went right away and told him I’d work my ass off and do it. I got some great coaches and they got me where I’d want to be.”
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