Patience, hard work have put OU defensive end Isaiah Thomas in position to finally have success

In a world where immediate gratification is the currency that buys and sells our behavior, patience has become more than a virtue.

It’s a blue-chip stock.

As the NCAA has relaxed transfer options for student-athletes, it has become harder than ever to find patience. And as competitive as college football is — your coach’s most fundamental job is to recruit over you — patience can often go unrewarded.

But at Oklahoma, one player stands as a shining example for what patience can provide: defensive end Isaiah Thomas.

“Yeah, Isaiah’s a great example,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said. “I mean, he’s a great one right here. We’ve made that example with the team.”

Thomas is a fourth-year junior from Tulsa who redshirted in 2017, played mop-up in 2018 and was a reserve in 2019.

But in 2020, Thomas has been called “the MVP of the defense” by defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and is hailed by his head coach as the ideal for what patience — and lots and lots of hard work — can yield.

Thomas is second on the team and sixth in the Big 12 Conference with 4.5 quarterback sacks, and he’s second and 12th, respectively, with 7.5 tackles for loss. Having grown to 6-foot-5, 267 pounds, Thomas is capable of spinning inside to tackle, but still quick enough to play defensive end.

The fact that he’s been at OU for four years and is just now becoming a household name among Sooner Nation is a testament to his will, his determination — and his patience.

“I had ups and downs early in my career, as you know,” Thomas said in a recent video interview, “but I stayed the course. I believed in my coaches and I believed in myself more importantly. A quote that I stick to every day is, ‘adversity defines a man’s true character.’ I knew that if I wanted to see how well I could really be and how good I could actually play, I would have to play through this adversity and see how I can actually perform.

“I thought probably transferring was — not taking the easy way out, but it would have not been in the best interest for me or my family. I stuck it out and the outcome is working out pretty well for me. I just persevered, stuck to it, stuck to the grind and it worked out well.”

“I’m so happy for him,” said Ronnie Perkins, whose return at end has necessitated Thomas’ emergence inside. “He’s been here for a long time, so it’s finally good to see him take those strides and become a better football player and being one of the top d-linemen in our conference. I got nothing but happiness for him. I tell him that every day, like, ’Dog, you’re doing it, you’re balling, man. You gotta keep this up.’ “

That’s a popular sentiment among Thomas’ teammates, because Thomas is a popular teammate.

“Off the field, Isaiah is probably the funniest guy on the team,” said linebacker Nik Bonitto. “On the field, you can just see from last year to this year, he just made such a huge jump. Give credit to him and coach (Jamar) Cain, because Isaiah has put in the work and then you see coach Cain, he’s doing a really phenomenal job just producing and getting good development in all of us.

“So, I’m really happy for Isaiah.”

Thomas chose OU over Oklahoma State and others, including Alabama, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Missouri, Nebraska and others. He’s the first Tulsa Memorial product at OU since the early 1970s, when Randy Hughes became an All-American (and later a Dallas Cowboy) at safety.

“I know, at my high school in particular, a lot of student-athletes that play football don’t believe that you can go Division I out of Tulsa Memorial,” Thomas said. “They think that you’d probably have to play basketball to make it to a Division I school. I’m a walking example that if you believe in yourself and you apply the work and you put yourself out there and put your best foot forward, you could end up at a school like this or any Division I program.”

Said Riley, “That’s an example of a young guy that maybe could’ve got discouraged when it wasn’t the fairy tale start to a career and this guy’s kind of hung in there, kept working and kind of turned himself into a heck of a player.”

Thomas chases ballcarriers with fanatical effort. After the victory over Texas — four overtimes, 93-degree heat, a blast furnace of intensity — his teammates offered praise for an unyielding will that kept him going.

“I think that shows a credit due to my family, because I see how hard they worked to get me here and how much they pushed through adversity,” Thomas said. “I look back and say, ‘Who am I not to give it my all for my family, who sacrificed everything for me to get here?’

“Every time, in those overtime periods, when I’m dragging myself up or I’m pushing and fighting to get back to the quarterback, I couldn’t give up because I knew that there was a bigger picture and I have to keep working hard to get to my goals. I just kept thinking about the people who got me here and what would they think if I gave up.

“Even after I hurt my shoulder late in the game, I told coach Cain on the sideline before the (game-clinching) interception, I said, ‘If there’s a third down after this play, I’m ready; put me in.’ I learned that I can push my limits. I learned a lot about my toughness, which is a lot stronger than I thought it was. That Texas game showed a lot to me.”

Said Riley, “Guys have got to be patient. Sometimes you walk into an opportunity and everything kinda lines up right. Kinda like Marvin Mims through the first half of the season. Opportunity presents itself, we’re really down at receiver, (Mims) goes out and gets off to a good start and kinda takes off a little bit from there. And sometimes those opportunities don’t quite present themselves exactly how you dreamed it up.

“The key is to hang in there, to persevere. If you’re doing the right things, if you’re working the way you should, then those opportunities will come. And when they do, you’ll be ready for it. Isaiah’s a great example. There’s a ton of great ones here. I still always tell the team, shoot, the guy that was a Heisman Trophy winner, No. 1 pick and right now one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL sat here for two years.”

His name was Kyler Murray.

“That’s the nature of the beast,” Riley said. “We've got several guys kinda in that position, like a Reggie Grimes, that are talented, that are getting better quickly — it’s been great to get them some snaps the last few weeks — and that are gonna be really, really good players here. They’ve just gotta hang in there, they’ve gotta keep battling. They’re closer than they think. One breakthrough and those guys could really take off.”

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