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If you want me to be completely honest, I wasn't expecting to take a Nebraska Cornhuskers angle at all when I attended the Dallas Showtyme Football camp in Grand Prairie, Texas on Tuesday evening.
However, once I asked a question, it was all that I was focused on for the evening.
Nebraska Running Back verbal Aphonso Thomas arrived in Grand Prairie with his guardian Uncle and took in Jim Harbaugh's Satellite camp as his literal first visit to such a place. Talking to both Aphonso and his Uncle, I got a clearer idea in why Thomas feels like he can be something at Nebraska.
The first thing you get with the Thomas family is that Aphonso has something to prove. The plan of Thomas is to graduate by December so that he can arrive to Lincoln in time to get in for Spring Ball in 2016, therefore maximizing his ability to get as many reps under RB coach Reggie Davis and HC Mike Riley.
Thomas is a very polite, very soft-spoken young man. I feel terrible that I didn't realize he was there until literally 2 plus hours had gone by. However, I can vouch for his ability in that he can make defenders miss.
The first rep I saw was a 1 on 1, LB vs. RB running drill. Thomas runs very hard, so hard in fact that it's fair to say he could have a style that makes tacklers miss. In the three reps I saw, he was barely touched and showed great acceleration in his running.
The last drill I saw was a 1 on 1 pass catching drill, again LB's vs. RB/TE's. The one drill that stands out in my mind is Thomas running a stutter, five-yard out route to the right. Thomas was basically tackled by the LB, yet going to the ground he made the catch and held onto the ball that was very impressive.
Thomas' Uncle really wants the best for his Nephew. He's a little apprehensive in Aphonso going 11 hours away from home to go to school. However, if Nebraska is as truly as good as Reggie Davis and Mike Riley says it is (and we all know it's the case), then it'll be much easier for him to leave to go North.