Connecticut NFL draft bio: Donald Thomas

By Darrell Laurant  |   Monday, January 21, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Connecticut Huskies
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Donald Thomas didn't just walk on to the University of Connecticut football team -- teammate Danny Lansanah dragged him on.

The two had developed a mutual respect for each other through battles on the campus basketball courts (both starred in that sport in high school -- Lansanah in Harrisburg, Pa., and Thomas at West Haven, Conn.), and Lansanah couldn't help but notice Thomas' 6-foot-4, 250-plus-pound frame.

So he suggested football to Thomas -- repeatedly -- and the big fellow finally agreed. Now, he's over 300 pounds and and projected as the No. 11 guard in this spring's NFL draft.

Last season was Thomas' first as a starter, and he didn't allow a sack for the 9-4 Huskies. He's been clocked at 4.9 in the 40 -- lickety-split for a lineman -- and began his time under Randy Edsall and the first-down-the-field "wedgebuster" on special teams.

Like Lansanah and Tyvon Branch, UConn's other top draft prospects, Thomas was suspended for two games in 2006 after being charged with assault stemming from a fight outside the Wings over Storrs restaurant. On the upside, he is a good student who was named to the National Honor Society in high school.

Scouts are impressed with Thomas' tenacity, which was epitomized by how he worked his way up from walk-on to anchor of an otherwise young offensive line.

Once he decided he wanted to play.
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