Comeback Trail: Senior Keir

HAPPY RETURN

Senior Keir Thomas thrilled to be back — even at practice — after injury-plagued season

By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor Photos by SC Athletics, Travis Bell and Jenny Dilworth

No one missed spring football practice more than Keir Thomas.

For veteran players who have been through it before, spring football is not always the most pleasant time of the year. The early-morning practices. The extra weight lifting and strength and training sessions. The long meetings and film sessions. Adjusting to new coaches and new teammates.

But for one South Carolina senior, it was the most fun he’d had in a while.

“I missed it, I missed practice,” Thomas said. “I was happy to be back out here at the first practice. It felt great being back out there with my team.”

After spring practice was canceled due to the coronavirus, there were few players who missed it more than Thomas, a fifth-year senior who missed almost all of last season while recovering from an infection in his ankle. He played sparingly in just two games, taking a medical redshirt so he could return for one more year.

It was a frustrating season for a player who had become a fixture on South Carolina’s defensive line. A versatile defender from Miami, Thomas has played in 40 games in his three-year career with 25 starts. He started all 12 games in 2018 and 11 as a sophomore in 2017, collecting 110 tackles while swinging between defensive end and defensive tackle.

But Thomas had ankle surgery after the 2018 season and developed an infection while rehabbing. It took doctors a while to figure out what was wrong with him. Once they did, they put him on strong antibiotics that quickly cured it. Then, right before the start of the 2019 season, he developed a second infection that put him on bed rest as his teammates prepared for the season opener.

“It was serious,” he said. “Some people tell me I don’t how serious it was and I’m going to look back on it in a couple of years from now and realize I have been through a lot. I’m just happy to have the support and the training staff that we have that helped me.”

While his team started the season, Thomas was stuck at home recovering, losing weight and unable to work out to maintain his strength. The thing that kept him going was frequent visits by his teammates and coaches. Kobe Smith, his roommate, and fellow defensive linemen D.J. Wonnum and Jabari Ellis visited, as did defensive back Jaycee Horn and others, taking him out to eat or just hanging out to keep his spirits up.

It was a frustrating season for a player who had become a fixture on South Carolina’s defensive line.

“I had guys on the team come and just be there with me. It was good,” he said, adding the experience taught him “how strong I was mentally.”

Thomas lost about 15-20 pounds while battling the infection and spent most of the season trying to regain his strength. He missed the first nine games before playing against Appalachian State and Texas A&M and sitting out the season finale against Clemson.

“There was still hope and I was still trying to fight to get back, but I wasn’t able to at first. Then I started to feel better later on in the season,” he said. “I played in the App State game, but I was still banged up. … At the end of the year, I could have come back, but it was real late. There wasn’t any point in me trying to do that because I was out of shape. I had been sitting around.”

After the season, Thomas knew right away he would use a medical redshirt to return for the 2020 season instead of taking a shot at the NFL. His coaches and teammates are thrilled to have him back, especially after the loss of Smith,

Wonnum and fellow senior Javon Kinlaw, who have all three moved on to the NFL.

“That really helps us,” defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson said. “That gives us a guy who played multiple spots on the D-line and a guy that has leadership ability. And he’s doing a really good job of doing that.”

Sophomore defensive tackle Zacch Pickens, who will be playing alongside Thomas, said “it’s

really been an honor” learning from Thomas during spring practice.

“I’m glad he stayed. I was really nervous whether he was going to stay or go because he’s been really good,” Pickens said. “I’ve been trying to stay with him, trying to get some pointers a little bit to up my game like him.”

Though he has played defensive end at times throughout his career, Thomas was playing inside during the early spring and will lead a group of defensive tackles that must step up after the loss of Kinlaw and Smith. He will team with Pickens, Ellis and Rick Sandidge in a group that Robinson and head coach Will Muschamp hope will be as deep as last season.

“Keir’s a disruptive guy,” Muschamp said. “He’s been a guy that gets a lot of vertical penetration, so we’re going to play to his strengths. He’s been a very productive player for us.”

“I’m just doing inside right now, but wherever coach needs me, I have no problem with that,” Thomas said. “We did lose a lot, but we do have a lot of talent. We’ve got Rick and Zacch and those guys coming along, we just have to play tough and just go.”

Due to his illness, Thomas didn’t get to work much last year with defensive line coach John Scott Jr., who was on the coaching staff for only one season. But he loves new D-Line coach Tracy Rocker, who recruited him while coaching at Georgia.

“I love Coach Rocker. He stays on me, he’s a hard coach,” he said. “He’s going to tell me when I’m wrong, he’s going to tell me when I’m right. He’s a good coach.”

Thomas believes Rocker, who played in the NFL and has coached at five different SEC schools, will get the most out of young, developing players like Pickens and Sandidge, as well as himself.

“You have to attack every day, and coach Rocker is going to get it out of [them]. Coach Rocker is going to get it out of all of us,” he said.

After battling his illness and the disappointment of not playing last season, Thomas was excited to be back on the field during spring practice. But he had to be careful to contain his emotions. Those will come when he takes the field for real at the start of the 2020 season.

“At the first game,” he said. “I’ve got to be a leader. I can’t just be out here letting that get to me.”

“The best dishwasher we’ve ever tested.” – Reviewed.com, Best of Year awards