3 things to know about De’Anthony Thomas, Oregon’s deadliest weapon
Oregon’s star running back takes the national stage yet again Thursday night, so here’s a quick primer on De’Anthony Thomas.
Kevin Casey
Our own Jason Kirk previously counted down Thomas’s 10 best tweets of all time, but here are some of our personal favorites. I, unlike Jason, do not have the willpower to write this entire thing in DAT’S PATENTED ALL CAPS.
WISH I HAD MY OWN REALITY SHOW
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) November 2, 2013
OR A BOOK
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) November 2, 2013
I JUST ORDERED A STRAWBERRY SQUAT
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) October 30, 2013
MAN THEY DONT REALIZE I SPEAK THE REAL MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) October 28, 2013
Daisy is DAT’S DOG.
THINKING ABOUT TAKING DAISY TO GO TAKE CHRISTMAS PICTURES
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) December 1, 2012
#THOMAS EDISON http://t.co/EUpXXRri
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) October 20, 2012
This one works even better with the broken link.
SEEN A DEER http://t.co/6J7N8imM
— DE'ANTHONY THOMAS (@EATBLACKMOMBA6) December 7, 2012
The best part of his Twitter account? It’s an entirely welcoming experience. He retweets just about anyone that mentions him (trolls and haters excluded, obviously), and it’s hard to find a more joyous place on the web.
2. He’s probably the most explosive player in the country
Players like De'Anthony Thomas are the reasons we watch football. Oregon's got a lot of such players, from quarterback Marcus Mariota on down, but nobody in the country is more capable than Thomas of turning a handoff into a highlight.
In the 2012 Rose Bowl, De’Anthony Thomas had two carries. One, he took for a 91-yard touchdown to tie the game in the first quarter. The other, he took 64 yards for a score, giving the Ducks the lead in the third. The lesson? No matter how much yardage is available, DAT will take all of it, thank you.
That's not exactly an anomaly. His freshman year, Thomas averaged 16 yards per touch. I will repeat that for effect. On average, if the ball was in De'Anthony Thomas's hands, Oregon moved 16 yards. That's slightly skewed by return numbers, but from scrimmage he averaged a still-insane 11.9 yards per play.
As a sophomore, those numbers dwindled as he got more of the ball, but not considerably -- averaging 10.6 yards per touch and 8.4 yards per play from scrimmage.
How about a play where he jukes a guy for 10 solid yards? We’ve got that, too.
3. He isn’t exactly shy
The Twitter account should be proof enough, but just this past week, DAT said Oregon “should” score at least 40 on Stanford’s defense. The Cardinal pride themselves on their defense, giving up 19.4 points per game and 4.7 yards per play this season, but Thomas knows exactly how good he and the Ducks are.
Thomas also has more style than you, as he showed at an Oregon basketball game last year and at his Signing Day ceremony, when he picked the Ducks over his hometown Trojans. He also was (allegedly) given the nickname “Black Mamba” by Snoop Dogg (Thomas was a legend in the rapper’s Youth Football League), and then had the audacity to change how his nickname was spelled, instead preferring “Black Momba.”
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