Previously: Last year's profiles. S Quinten Johnson, S Daxton Hill, CB DJ Turner II, CB Jalen Perry, LB Joey Velazquez, LB Anthony Solomon.

Fairburn, GA – 5'11, 224
		24/7	4*, #354 overall #21 ILB, #3 CT
		Rivals	3*, 5.6 rating #35 ILB, #7 CT
		ESPN	4*, 80 grade #12 ILB, #38 GA
		Composite	3*, #508 overall #26 ILB, #6 CT
		Other Suitors	Clemson, Tenn, FSU, Miami, MD, UO
		YMRMFSPA	Devin Bush
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Ace.
Notes	Twitter.
Film
Junior:

A confession: I have had a hard time remembering that Charles Thomas is in this class. He committed so long ago that Mark Snyder wrote it up and Scout.com still existed, and since he's been out of sight, out of mind. A senior-year transfer to a weird prep school in Connecticut didn't help in that department. One of Thomas's games last year was against the Nordhein-Westfalen Green Machine, which is a German team. From Germany. St Thomas More won 47-0.

You may remember Thomas as IMG Linebacker Charles Thomas. He appears to have left IMG because he got recruited over. IMG had three four-star LBs this year, including five-star Nolan Smith, so that's not the worst news in the world. He wanted to be an undisputed starter and that wasn't going to happen at IMG. He was a rotation player last year.

Wherever Thomas goes he racks up numbers. He probably has more experience than any other player in the class after being inserted into the starting lineup as a high school freshman. He racked up 102 tackles as a 9th grader on a team in Georgia's second-largest classification, then had a 132-tackle, 10 TFL sophomore year. Despite being a rotation player at IMG he led the back seven in tackles with 52. Finally, he had 64 tackles and 20(!) TFLs through five games at his weird prep school before stats ceased appearing, probably because of integer overflow errors. Thomas has hit a lot of guys over the last four years.

The resulting player is a squat, instinctive missile of a linebacker. If that reminds you of someone, it reminds Jim Harbaugh of someone too:

"You recruit players now, and you say, ‘He’s gonna be like Devin,’ or, ‘Could this guy be another Devin Bush?’ And you’re out there looking for that player. Charles Thomas – you say, ‘I wonder if we can get another Devin Bush,’ and maybe Charles Thomas is that kind of guy.

This is a good time to remind people that "You May Remember Me From Such Players As" is a style of play comparison and not a direct assertion that a kid ranked around 500th on the composite is going to be an All American and top-10 draft pick. That caveat aside, the scouting here is 100% Devin Bush.

[After the JUMP: that scouting!]

ESPN:

Big-time hitter in an explosive body. Reads and attacks simultaneously with very good closing speed and burst. Wrap-up, run-through tackler with power on contact. … Lacks ideal size and length. Not as effective when reached at second level.  … [needs to develop] more stack and shed ability rather than just run and hit production.

Allen Trieu:

… compact, sturdy build. Changes directions well. Explosive hitter who drives through contact. … does show closing ability on film. His 37-inch vertical speaks to his explosiveness. Currently best when able to run to the ball, but will have to add more bulk and strength …great nose for the ball

Brandon Brown after an in-person look:

…flies around the field. … looked like the fastest defender in the [IMG] front seven and it wasn't really that close. He has a knack for diagnosing plays  …plays with a range beyond most 6-foot tall linebackers … still working on learning the intricacies of the linebacker position. His coach described him as the most instinctive linebacker on the IMG roster but did say that he needs to work on learning pre-snap reads and being in the right place at the right time based on knowledge instead of hoping he gets it right with instincts.

That last sentence is a good distinction to make. Some guys can download a set of keys and react to it somewhat robotically, and some guys just know and go. Thomas is the latter, which currently results in some spectacularly-timed blitzes and some false steps.

This two-minute video with Mike Farrell of Rivals has a bunch of Bush-esque highlights:

The rankings upgrade teased in that video did not come to pass; Rivals eventually took a tenth of his rating and made him a mid three-star. Adam Friedman did offer a take that seems to be post-transfer, even if it's a bit of a self-contradictory one:

…very physical inside linebacker …fits exactly Devin Bush's role …instincts really take over …has the straight-line speed and plays well between the hashes, but can he read and react fast enough to be a difference-maker is really the big question with him."

Other takes include "great sideline to sideline speed, athleticism to play in space and excellent instincts" and a "very instinctive player" who "loves to hit" and is "quick to react to the football". Those instincts extended to his recruitment. When Thomas sat down with Don Brown, that was that:

"I sat down with Coach Brown and we went over plays and I realized Michigan's defense is meant for me. I also like the tradition and just the overall vibe."

He did have a slight wobble about a year after his commit where he scheduled some officials, but none of those ever happened.

Thomas didn't do the camp circuit much, if at all. His profile does have a couple of numbers: a 4.8 40, which is not awful for a high school junior LB, and a 37 vert, which is great. Straight line speed isn't the most important thing the world for a lienbacker and the vert implies that the 40 might not be representative of his football speed. It does seem unlikely Thomas is going to be able to get sideline to sideline as spectacularly as Bush did.

Many of the evaluations have questions about Thomas's size that I dropped because they were repetitive and obvious. Thomas lost an inch of height from his listing on recruiting pages when MGoBlue put up his profile; he's now claimed to be 5'11". There are programs out there who would be concerned about that. At Michigan in the immediate aftermath of Bush the appearance of a sub-six-foot LB is cause for high-fives.

There are a couple other things that will endear Thomas to Michigan fans. One is that he appears to be on the Ben Mason end of the spectrum:

“The first day he got in the equipment, he came out hitting like he had been in high school for four years,” Langston coach Willie Cannon said this week. … “He was hitting upperclassmen in practice and they were like, ‘Hey man, you ain’t supposed to be hitting your teammates like that.’ He’s one of those type of kids.”

A second is that this dude is seeking out cold weather:

“He’s one of those type of kids when it got cold here, he would come out with no sleeves, no shirt up under his shoulder pads. The shirt he wanted to have it tucked up. That’s the kind of kid he was.”

But Georgia cold and Michigan cold are different, right?

“That’s what I tried to explain to him,” Cannon said. “He’s like, ‘I know that.’”

You can hear the NFL Films music playing over slow-motion video of Thomas galloping across the frozen tundra even now.

Etc.: One of the best Area For Improvement: Size quotes in a while:

 

Thomas has to get bigger and stronger, and it would be ideal if he could add an inch or two to his frame.

A method to accomplish this was not suggested.

Why Devin Bush? Discussed above. Shortish missile in the middle who brings a thump. Might not have quite the range Bush did, close analogue in most other ways.

Guru Reliability: Moderate-minus. No projection but the move to CT meant he dropped off the radar. There is not a word about his senior season. Big gap between Rivals and the other two sites.

Variance: Low. Listed at 224 on the roster and is thus quite close to playable size. Vast amount of experience at the same spot he'll play at Michigan. No injury issues. Tight fit with positional requirements.

Ceiling: High. Excellent blitzer who times his approach excellently, and a guy whose deficits are more than made up for by his ability in modern spread-oriented football.

General Excitement Level: High. This feels like a bit of a cheat but the criteria for Sleeper of the Year was changed to composite three-star a few years ago and Thomas is that. He's the Sleeper of the Year.

Projection: MLB is occupied for the next year or two by Josh Ross, and behind him Jordan Anthony and Cam McGrone are pushing. If Ross doesn't leave early Michigan will graduate both ILBs when Thomas is about to be a redshirt sophomore, and that's a three-way battle worth watching. That could come out any dang way and it would probably be fine.