North Carolina defensive tackle Cam Thomas played in the Senior Bowl in January. (PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
CHARLOTTE -- At 330 pounds, Cam Thomas is big. Big enough to fill space on the inside, big enough to play nose tackle in the NFL if the team that drafts him sees fit.
But he's not as big as he was when he stepped on campus in Chapel Hill four years ago.
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"I came in as a freshman in college at 350," said Thomas, a product of North Moore High School in Robbins, N.C., approximately 82 miles east-northeast of Charlotte. "I was still athletic. I was still dunking with one hand or two hands at 350."
It isn't hard for Thomas to describe how he hit that weight; it began when he grew up on the south side of the Carolina border before moving to Moore County as a fourth-grader.
"I’m from South Carolina. We love to eat," he said. "My grandmother, before she passed, she used to cook on Sunday fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, homemade buttermilk biscuits, candied yams, baked beans with hamburger meat inside.
"I ate it all."
He still does, just not as much.
"I'm more disciplined now," Thomas said. "In high school, why not (eat)?"
When a scholarship and a professional future was on the line at UNC, Thomas scaled back at the dinner table, turning his focus to the field. Like many successful gap-clogging defensive tackles, numbers don't illustrate the quality of his performance -- he had 3.5 sacks in his career while starting the last three seasons.
But perhaps the best item on his résumé was his versatility, which enhances his possibilities.
"It doesn’t make a difference -- 3-4, 4-3. I played both of them at (North Carolina); in certain packages we’d run both of them," he said. "It’s really nothing different to me, either I’m going to be shaded, or I’m going to be heads-up.
"Our defense (at UNC) is pro style; we’re attacking, we’re gap-scheming and stuff like that. Most of the stuff (in the NFL), I’m already used to right now.
"It doesn’t matter where I play. I’ll play 4-3 or I’ll play 3-4, it really doesn’t matter. I’ve played both of them. I’m versatile athletically like that."
What Thomas knows he has to learn is how to play low and establish better leverage.
"I feel like it’s coming along pretty well, but I still have to work on it," he said. ""Even though I got up high in college, I wasn’t really moved. But at the next level, these guys get paid millions. I have to stay low and stuff.
"I love that. I love to hit."
And as he showed in January with his on-field exuberance during Senior Bowl practices, he might love hitting and playing more than he once loved to eat.
"I was just out there having fun, running around. If anyone was out and heard somebody screaming the whole time, just laughing, being loud having fun," Thomas said. "You never know when the last time you’re going to put those pads on, so why not just get it all in right now?"
