Chad Thomas became a dominating defensive end for the Miami football team as a junior and senior after Mark Richt took over as head coach commencing with the 2016 season. Thomas signed with the Miami football program in 2014 under former head coach Al Golden.
Thomas was the 25th ranked player nationally, the third-ranked weakside defensive end and the fifth-ranked player in Florida in the Class of 2014. Thomas began his Miami football career with 25 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack and four pass breakups in his first two seasons playing in the 3-4 defense.
| Tackles | Def Int | Fumbles | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | School | Conf | Class | Pos | G | Solo | Ast | Tot | Loss | Sk | Int | Yds | Avg | TD | PD | FR | Yds | TD | FF |
| *2014 | Miami (FL) | ACC | FR | DE | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| *2015 | Miami (FL) | ACC | SO | DL | 11 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| *2016 | Miami (FL) | ACC | JR | DL | 11 | 22 | 15 | 37 | 11.0 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| *2017 | Miami (FL) | ACC | SR | DL | 13 | 19 | 22 | 41 | 12.5 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Career | Miami (FL) | 51 | 52 | 103 | 26.0 | 10.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 2 |
Provided by CFB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 6/15/2020.
The departure of Al Golden and the 3-4 defense the Hurricanes played under defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio and switch to the 4-3 under Richt hired Manny Diaz as defensive coordinator gave rise to Thomas becoming a star for the Hurricanes. Thomas put up numbers worthy of a five-star signee in 2016 and 2017.
In his final two seasons with the Miami football team, Thomas finished with 78 tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, nine sacks and three pass breakups. Following his Miami career, Thomas was a 2018 third-round NFL Draft pick, 76th overall by Cleveland. Thomas has 26 tackles, six TFLs and four sacks in two seasons with Cleveland.