COMMENTARY: Drake Thomas, An NC State Great

The lineage on the linebacker place runs deep at NC State. 

Invoice Cowher, Robert Abraham, Vaughan Johnson, Frank Bush, Bobby Houston, David Merritt, Damien Covington, Levar Fisher, Pat Thomas, Manny Lawson, Stephen Tulloch, Nate Irving, Audie Cole, Terrell Manning, and Germaine Pratt are a number of the nice linebackers in NC State historical past since 1980 — and that isn’t a whole record of greats throughout a span that’s now into its fifth decade.

Being a Wolfpack linebacker is a accountability. The backer usually directs the protection, however it additionally runs deeper. It’s about being cognizant of the greats which have worn the crimson and white (and generally black and grey) of NC State. 

It’s about understanding that there’s a excessive normal for that place group at NCSU, however not shying away from attempting to carry it to a different degree and in the end leaving it in a greater place for the successor. 

There’s a nice linebacking heritage at North Carolina State College, so maybe it’s becoming that one of many newest legends graduated from Heritage Excessive Faculty. 

When Drake Thomas made the trek from Wake Forest, North Carolina to NC State as a school freshman, there was no possible way of realizing fairly how his faculty profession would end up. He clearly had the drive and want, however would he have sufficient of the ‘measurables’ and will he compensate for any of his perceived dimension shortcomings, no pun meant, to play on the ACC? 

The reply was sure, resoundingly. The motor Drake Thomas possesses has manifested itself not in simply the bodily or psychological traits of his place, but additionally the psychological facets. Thomas by no means appears to be misaligned or drifting away from the place he’s speculated to be, and often that’s the place the play is to be made. 

Clearly, Thomas has earned accolades. He additionally helped the Wolfpack win video games. Within the course of, he received the hearts of NC State’s fan base. 

In what have to be the best portion of his legacy, Thomas will get to share within the sustaining and lifting of the NC State linebacking lineage along with his teammates, Isaiah Moore and Payton Wilson, who even have earned their spots within the Wolfpack linebacker antiquity. 

He will even share the expertise of being part of the NCSU soccer household with members of his family — which shall be a method of strengthening the hyperlink they’ve collectively as time goes by. 

Thomas is in a Wolfpack brotherhood along with his two brothers, an NC State household along with his family, and a terrific NCSU linebacking legacy along with his linebacker teammates. That have to be a achievement that phrases can not correctly specific. 

Along with his faculty profession winding down and in its remaining week, phrases can, nonetheless, specific what he has product of himself. 

Drake Thomas is an all-time nice Wolfpacker. 

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