Swinney convinces Xavier Thomas to make the trip - and that move pays off

Thomas was all smiles after the game (Photo courtesy of Clemson football).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Oct 09 01:51:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CHESTNUT HILL, Massachusetts – Dabo Swinney had to convince defensive end Xavier Thomas to make the trip to Boston, and even then, Thomas wasn’t convinced he would be able to play against Boston College. He wound up playing six plays but had two sacks and later wore the famed leather helmet.

Thomas was the winner of the McFadden-O'Rourke Leather Helmet Award, given each year to the MVP of the Clemson-Boston College Game. Thomas went out with a broken bone in his foot during fall camp and missed the first five games of the season as he rehabbed.

Thomas admitted after the game that he still hasn’t done any live work at practice, so he was happy with his result.

“It's definitely been tough. This is my 7th week out of surgery now. It was hard on me. But watching my teammates go to work every week kept me uplifted,” Thomas said. “They told me to keep working and I knew it was a very long season and I would get back eventually. I actually didn't know I was going to play tonight. This is first time doing competitive work in about two months, since I broke my foot. I haven't gotten any live work at all. It was amazing to see. God has really blessed me.”

Thomas said the decision to play was made after warmups, and he played on a different side of the line than usual.

“It was based on warmups. I wanted to go through warmups and see how I felt. It felt good enough so I went out there and played,” he said. “It's new for me - I like the left side, but that's the side I broke my foot on so I can't really play on the left side. Playing on the right side I just went out there and played and knew I had to get off the ball.”

Wearing the leather helmet was a nice way to end the day after not expecting to play or even travel.

“Definitely a blessing. I didn't expect to play tonight because I didn't expect to feel this good going into warmups,” Thomas said. “Practicing, there was a lot of pain throughout the week. It's really just a blessing that God allowed to go out there and play tonight. I didn't know if I wanted to travel or not, it was actually Coach Swinney's idea. So I thank him for that.”

Swinney said whether Thomas played or not didn’t matter, he simply wanted to get Thomas back into the routine of the season.

“He had his best week of practice as far as getting into the rhythm of things. He was a little sore on Wednesday, as he should be. Kind of limited on Thursday,” Swinney said. “Worst case, just make the trip and let's get back into the rhythm of Focus Friday and pregame. The doctors cleared him last week so it was kind of him getting his conditioning back and getting competitive work. It was really on him. So we thought we would slip him in there a few plays, some third downs only, and then come back Monday and try and ramp it up. That was big for him. He only played six plays and had two sacks and he will come out of this with a big boost.”