2022 Texas DE Curlee Thomas Tearing It Up So Far

With 22 scholarship offers already, Curlee Thomas‍ has certainly caught the attention of college coaches across the country.

“Honestly, it feels pretty good,” the 2022 Texas defensive end says. “It feels really nice to be wanted by people and to know a lot of my hard work has paid off. At the same time, I just try to stay humble and just keep working hard.”

The Nolan Catholic High School standout’s current offer sheet includes schools like Baylor, Houston, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Iowa State, Indiana, Kansas, Arizona, Cal, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Syracuse and UConn among others.

“They said they really like how I come off the ball aggressively,” the 6-foot-4, 242-pounder says. “They said they really like how long I am and they say they could seem me thriving in the pass rush and against the run.”

Through four games so far this season, Thomas has 10 sacks, the highest per game average of anybody in the state who has played as many games.

With the extended dead period in place because of COVID-19 since March, Thomas hasn’t had a chance to do many visits yet, although he does stay in touch with college coaches on the phone and via social media.

Notre Dame has started to reach out to Thomas over social media.

“They were just sending me some quotes about their Next Man In mentality about always being ready,” says Thomas, who has received messages from multiple Notre Dame staffers, including recruiting coordinator Brian Polian.

Thomas goes to the same school that current Irish defensive end NaNa Osafo-Mensah attended, but they don’t know each other personally.

“I just know he was a force when he was here,” says Thomas.

Thomas does know a little bit about Notre Dame.

“I know it’s a pretty good Catholic school that has one of the best Engineering facilities of any of the colleges,” he said.

Academics will be important when Thomas looks at choosing a college.

“I’m looking for a good football team of course as part of it. For the most part, I’m looking at the Engineering program to help me get a good degree for when I’m done. If I don’t go to the NFL, I want to make sure I go somewhere with a strong Engineering program.”