University of Connecticut Athletics
Caleb Thomas’s Journey From Mansfield to … Mansfield
2/17/2020 10:36:00 AM | Football
Caleb Thomas is a resident of Mansfield. No, not Mansfield, Connecticut. A different Mansfield about 1,700 miles away in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. Although Thomas's college relocation didn't require a change in town names, it required a change in just about everything else: culture, environment and most importantly, weather.
"What I notice is it starts to get a little colder and then I go home for winter break and it's not really cold to me," Thomas said. "But then when I go home for the summer and then come back here, the summer's not really hot to me. So I kind of got the best of both worlds in that sense."
Over his three years in the program, UConn has continued to recruit players from Texas, so a group that was basically non-existent when Thomas arrived has grown into a strong portion of the team with guys like Chase Lundt, Justin Moore and Jayce Medlock all with Texas backgrounds that Thomas can relate to.
"It's kind of cool because we get to bond," Thomas said. "I can't talk to a guy from Connecticut about it because it's kind of hard. It's like when we talk about something, it's like we see eye to eye."
One of the major differences in Texas culture is more of an emphasis on high school football than other areas. Thomas said he got to play in some crazy atmospheres, but none were more special than when he got to play at AT&T Stadium, the home of his favorite NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys.
He said the quality of the players he was playing, along with the exposure to a "theatrical atmosphere" made his transition to the college level easier.
"I played against a lot of guys that were Division I caliber, pretty much saw one D-I guy every week," Thomas said. "I think that kind of talent and then just the hype and the support and the crowds helped because not many states get that kind of support for high school football."
Thomas was originally committed to play at Nevada, but after the coaching staff was let go, he opened up his options and ended up deciding on UConn.
"I saw what Coach Edsall had going on with his staff and his vision and what he wanted to do with this program," Thomas said. "His success here before obviously assisted in the decision. I felt like it was a good, family-oriented place, somewhere where I could learn and grow."
After redshirting his first season in 2017, Thomas became a key part of the defensive line in the last two seasons. He has played in different schemes under different defensive coordinators in each season — Billy Crocker in 2018 and Lou Spanos in 2019. He said that has made him more of a student of the game.
"As my time here and I've seen different coaches, I understand defensive football a little bit more," Thomas said. "The big picture, how to attack offenses and what offenses are trying to do to attack you. Basically, I've just been taking all that information and trying to help myself get better."
Thomas is among a big group of UConn defensive players that have been playing together for almost three years now since they were all first-year starters. He said that longevity really helps with the chemistry of the team.
"When you play with guys so long, you know what you're going to get out of a guy," Thomas said. "You kind of know what you need to do to communicate with a guy. Playing with each other for so long, it's helped us gel and we communicate certain things just by looking at each other."
Thomas said the mood around the team this spring season is more serious and more focused than in previous years. There is a feeling that this team can accomplish something special this season if they all put in the work.
"If we want to go to a bowl game, we have the capacity to do that," Thomas said. "It's just the fact of us coming together as one, finding a goal, falling in love with the process of working towards that goal and then everything else will take care of itself."
