For Clemson's Domonique Thomas, the rainbow after the storm is comforting

Domonique Thomas began his Clemson career in January 2022.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Fri Oct 14 07:00:05 GMT-05:00 2022

CLEMSON – There's a saying that after the storm comes the rainbow, and while the destruction from that storm will always live on, the rainbow makes each day after just a little bit better.

Walk-on turned scholarship running back Domonique Thomas suffered an immeasurable loss on March 25, 2021, when an EF-2 tornado in his hometown of Ohatchee, Alabama, took the lives of five people, including his mother, National Guard veteran Ebonique Thomas; grandfather, Willie Harris; and grandmother Barbara Harris.

But what followed was a rainbow brighter than he ever could have imagined.

Thomas began his college career at Union College (KY), but he always had aspirations of playing Division I football.

"I knew I could play at a higher level. I knew I could play Division I. I knew deep down inside, and I wanted to go see if I could, and I can," Thomas said recently during interviews.

After one season in Kentucky, Thomas sought a new opportunity, leading him to Clemson.

"I started off at an NAIA school in Kentucky," Thomas said. "I knew I would only play there for one year, and it would be temporary. I was deciding where I wanted to go next, and I was between Memphis, Oklahoma State, and Clemson. One day, I prayed, 'Lord, the first school you show me tomorrow, that's where I'm going to go.' I saw the Vlog on Youtube, and it was Clemson. Now, I'm here."

Shortly before the tornado, Thomas told his mom of his decision to come to Clemson, and now that he's a Tiger, he knows he is making his family still here and those watching over him proud every time he steps on the field.

"I think about them every day. I decided to come to Clemson before the tornado," he said. "It's something me and my mom had talked about. I feel like now that I'm here, I have a feeling inside that I know that I'm making them proud because that was the plan. It wasn't easy. It didn't happen right away. I think they'd be proud that I kept going and stayed the course."

When Thomas first met Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, instead of talking about his stats and running style, Swinney learned about his future player's heart, what motivated him and what made him the person he is today. All of those things reinforced Thomas' decision to be a Tiger.

"When I first met Coach Swinney, he told me (that) my mom was up there with his dad, and if I make the right decisions that, I would see my mom again," he said. "He told me that he knew he would see his dad again because of the decision he had made. He told me my mom planted a seed of greatness in me. That made me realize the type of person that was. When I first met him, he didn't ask me anything about football. He was talking about me and my family."

Receiving a Scholarship and Realizing a Dream

Thomas' Clemson career began in January, and after playing in his first spring game, he realized that he belonged.

"Just playing in the stadium for the first time was a great experience," he said. "It was a dream come true. I had like 40 of my family members there. It was a good feeling to play in that stadium in front of them. Playing at a bigger school is something I've always wanted to do."

After coming to Clemson as a walk-on, Thomas wanted to take that next step at Clemson and earn a scholarship, so during exit interviews after spring practice, Thomas had one question for Swinney: What would it take to earn a scholarship?

"In our exit meeting, I asked Coach Swinney what I needed to do to get a scholarship, and he told me that I needed to be a good citizen, needed to be committed, needed to be a productive player. The day before, we were sitting down at dinner, and he told me I was all three of things, and then the next day, I got the scholarship at a team meeting," he said.

As he received the news, all he could think about were those who are no longer here.

"When we were in the team meeting, he kept asking me questions," he said. "He was talking and just being Coach Swinney. I kind of zoned out, thinking about all of the things he was saying and asking me about my family. I have a chain with my grandparents on it. He asked me what is on my neck. He was telling the guys that life isn't fair, and my life has been an up-and-down roller coaster, and I didn't jump off the cart. Then I started thinking about my mom and my grandparents. Then I heard him say, 'That's why I'm putting Domonique...' and I heard everybody screaming. I didn't even get to finish hearing what he said."

Thomas made his season debut against Georgia Tech as he carried the ball three times for 13 yards, and he had one word to describe the experience: surreal.

"It was a surreal feeling because it's something I've always dreamed about - just playing at a big school and playing at Clemson," he said. "Ever since I decided I was coming here, I've been manifesting it. It was a really good feeling to get a carry in the game and getting to have a few good runs with a lot of my family there."

Quadzilla

If you've paid any attention when Thomas is on the field, the first thing you will notice is his legs, specifically his quads.

They are, in a word, thick, earning him the nickname 'Quadzilla' from his teammates.

Thomas said he first realized that his legs were going to be big after his freshman year when he was squatting nearly 500 pounds. His high school football coaches even went as far as to make him stop doing squats.

"I think I did like 500 in ninth grade. After my freshman season, that's when they cut me off from squats. They were getting too big, and they felt like they were slowing me down," he said.

Now, he's squatting 605 pounds, and the Clemson coaches like the fact that he has strong, powerful legs.

"They want me to get as strong as possible," he said. "I didn't talk to Coach (Larry) Greenlee a while back and said I feel like if my legs weren't so big, I'd be a lot faster. He told me that I need to think about the football side of things and that I'm hard to tackle because I have big, strong legs, and guys don't want to tackle me because of that."