'08 FL RB Carlton Thomas (Georgia Verbal)

[irishunclebill]

Carlton Thomas - RB (5'7"/159lbs)
Frostproof HS (Frostproof, FL)

Combine
Forty: 4.5
Bench Reps:
Bench Max: 315
Squat Max: 440
Shuttle:
Vertical:
GPA:

Star Ratings
Rivals:
Scout:

Rankings & Accolades
2006 Leading Rusher/ Polk County, FL
#87 on Fla Varsity Pre-Eval 100 list for 2008 Class
Scout #13 RB
Rivals #11 APB

Statistics
2006- 2,280 yards, 24 Touchdowns

Schools of Interest
Arizona State
Arkansas
Auburn
Connecticut
Florida State
Notre Dame
Ohio State
West Virginia
Rutgers
Georgia
Clemson

Multimedia & Resource Links
Carlton Thomas's YouTube Highlights

 

[irishunclebill]

 

[irishunclebill]

Rivals is reporting that Carlton has received an offer. Carlton was the leading rusher in Polk County, Florida last year as a Junior with 2,280 yards and 24 touchdowns. He edged out Chris Rainey, Florida’s #1 RB recruit for 2007 for the Polk County honors.

This offer was posted based on comments made by Carlton and his coach, and should not be considered an Official Offer until verified.

 

[irishunclebill]

Rivals has confirmed that the Official Offer to Carlton Thomas is a written offer, and Scout now also list Carlton as an Offer. With that the Irish hit the half-century mark in 2008 Official Offers as Carlton becomes the 50th member of the 2008 Irish Envy Official Offer list.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

He is pretty small, I would think his 40 time would be faster. Perhaps he has good cutback and acceleration ability?

 

[irishunclebill]

He is pretty small, I would think his 40 time would be faster. Perhaps he has good cutback and acceleration ability?

FWIW, he tries to emulate Barry Sanders. Whether he can or not is obviously a big and premature question, but for a kid his size, Sanders is a heckuva role model.

 

[Ricochet]

He is pretty small, I would think his 40 time would be faster. Perhaps he has good cutback and acceleration ability?

Wouldn't get caught up in the 40 times right now, alot of the are off at this point atleast last year on the recruiting sites that had guys that ran 4.3 at combines but on there profiles listed them from anywhere from 4.5 to 4.7. Plus forty times are an overrated stat IMO because they are with out pads and it's in straight line thats and it's not a in football situation so it doesn't mean that much to me. RB's are about more about quickness rather than speed because you have to be patience and then be able to hit top gear when the hole opens up. I look at durability, quickness, balance, vision etc as being more important than a 40 time but with that said I don't want somene who's slow either but the point is that the 40 isn't end all be all.

 

[Shark Attack]

I'd be really excited if someone could find some footage of this guy. Everything is all relative, so even though you can't run your 40 time on the field, you can still run it relative to the other guys.

Without footage, I'd be interested to see if anyone can dig up shuttle times or something from a subscription to Rivals or somewhere, if they have anything...

 

[GoshenGipper]

I'd be really excited if someone could find some footage of this guy. Everything is all relative, so even though you can't run your 40 time on the field, you can still run it relative to the other guys.

Without footage, I'd be interested to see if anyone can dig up shuttle times or something from a subscription to Rivals or somewhere, if they have anything...

Sunshine Preps will probably have a free highlight reel at some point.

 

[irishunclebill]

I'd be really excited if someone could find some footage of this guy. Everything is all relative, so even though you can't run your 40 time on the field, you can still run it relative to the other guys.

Without footage, I'd be interested to see if anyone can dig up shuttle times or something from a subscription to Rivals or somewhere, if they have anything...

Other than the stats listed in his profile, there is virtually no information about Carlton Thomas on Scout or Rivals. There are a few recent stories about his new offers, but no videos, not even pictures. I'm sure that will change now that he has some big time offers, but for now there is little to know other than he gained more yards than Chris Gainey last year in Polk County, FL., and that he likes ND and FWIW at this point considers ND to be one of his favorites.

 

[GoshenGipper]

Carlton has started on the varsity football team since he was in 8th grade. He started at DB his 8th grade year, but he has been starting at RB since his 9th grade season. It seems like he wants to go out of the state of Florida for college and he currently favors Arkansas, and Arizona St. It seems like ND is in the next group of schools along with Auburn, W. Virginia, and Florida St.

According to Carlton the top three determining factors in selecting a school will be...

1. The position he will be playing (He wants to play RB, not DB)

2. Academics

3. The competitiveness of the school, and how much they get along. ("For example, will they take me as a member of their family.")

He currently doesn't have any timetable for a decision.

 

[irishunclebill]

7 1/2 minute video on the Florida RB #20. Video is a little grainy with no sound, but you can easily see why some coaches are comparing this kid to a young Barry Sanders. Thomas is a true RB prospect and IMO much more impressive in that capacity than Sam "the flying wallenda" McGuffie. The cutbacks are amazing, and Thomas shows consistent power running ability as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gfhtSE0WGs

 

[Irish52]

Carlton Thomas will be the premier running back in his first year of college. Should ND get him, I predict we will win the national championship in his first year of playing. Charlie should go all out in his recruiting effort to get him.

 

[Newc]

WOW! The first thing that stikes me is how quick this kid is to the hole, then exploding out of it. After hearing about the Sanders comparrisons I thought maybe the kid was a dancer but he looks very impressive. I can't believe how good this kid's vision as it looks like he sees pretty much everything and has the ability to make quick decisions to avoid contact. Also, when someone does get a hand on him he doesn't appear to go down easily, which seems to be common with the smaller backs.

I really hope ND can land this kid, he is the kind of player that can break a game open once he touches the ball. I am pretty amazed.

 

[seniorle]

I think he has a great stiff arm as well which is very important.

 

[irish0307]

He looks awesome! He has that great breakaway speed that can't be taught. Kind of reminds me of AA.

 

[Irishknight1023]

Not sure if he signed with us coming in as a freshman he'd start. Allen, Hughes, and Aldridge might have to transfer before he even comes here.

 

[AlbuquerqueIrishFan]

You don't hear the Barry Sanders comparisons very often. This guy is definitely exciting and would be a phenemonal back for ND.

 

[GoshenGipper]

He looks awesome! He has that great breakaway speed that can't be taught. Kind of reminds me of AA.

While I think C.Thomas is one of the most elusive RBs I've ever seen, right up there with Barry Sanders in fact, I'd still rather have A.Allen. I think Allen is faster, plus given the film that we have I think Allen showed he could catch the ball better comming out of the backfield, plus Allen really showed that he can effectively run through the tackles on a consistant basis. Even though they're both smaller RB Allen almost always seemed to be able to power into a pile of players at the line of scrimmage and then still managed to blast through the other side with an explosive burst of speed. Now, all that being said I still think Thomas looks like an excellent prospect, and he would be a valuable edition to the Irish recruiting class.

 

[Sweeney6083]

wow that was like watching super tecmo bowl with all those pitches to the left and right.

 

[Irishknight1023]

New videos on rivals...

http://notredame.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=64641

 

[Irishknight1023]

Recently recieved an offer from USC. It is seriously nauseating to see that they accually offered another RB after they ALREADY locked one up for this class, 3 amazing ones the year before, and 3 amazing ones the year before that. I have to assume that this is a sick joke. I get how some recruits don't care about "competition" but RB at USC is like, fine go there if your that stupid you don't deserve to play here.

 

[knute]

Recently recieved an offer from USC. It is seriously nauseating to see that they accually offered another RB after they ALREADY locked one up for this class, 3 amazing ones the year before, and 3 amazing ones the year before that. I have to assume that this is a sick joke. I get how some recruits don't care about "competition" but RB at USC is like, fine go there if your that stupid you don't deserve to play here.

Everybody wants to be like OJ Simpson.

 

[stevens04]

Recently recieved an offer from USC. It is seriously nauseating to see that they accually offered another RB after they ALREADY locked one up for this class, 3 amazing ones the year before, and 3 amazing ones the year before that. I have to assume that this is a sick joke. I get how some recruits don't care about "competition" but RB at USC is like, fine go there if your that stupid you don't deserve to play here.

I agree... I do not understand the mentality. It was like last year with DL's committing to LSU and Florida.... I respect the guy who will listen to what ND is preaching on defense and want to come here to be part of the rebuilding process. That being said in 2008 we will have 5 highly rated TE's and 5 QB's on the roster....... competition can be a good thing.

 

[irishunclebill]

I wish this story was not from Allen Wallace, but since it says that Carlton Thomas slightly favors ND right now over Auburn, West Virginia, Arkansas and Arizona State, I will accept it as gospel, especially because it has no mention of the unholy triumvirate.

Here is the link to the free Scout story:

http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=109&p=2&c=642126

 

[irishunclebill]

Also, anyone who has not seen video on this kid should take a look at the link below. Remember Thomas plays in Florida, so this is the real deal here. IMO, he is going to be a great college RB, and is much more impressive than McGuffie, both in talent and attitude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gfhtSE0WGs

 

[irishunclebill]

More on Carlton Thomas:

Carlton Thomas Ranked #1 RB in Florida...by Orlando Sun Sentinel, see link:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/recruiting/orl-recruit0607may06,0,1574397.story?coll=orl-sports-headlines-recruit

 

[Irishknight1023]

I wonder he wants to take all of his officials or not, seems like we sent him alot of texts and now it's banned. The plus of that is that since we are leading Florida and some other Douchebag coaches can't harrass him with lies and fake promises. Thank god he hasn't been interested by them so far.

 

[IrishCalves]

The text ban goes into effect in August, so its not over yet. But it will probably help put the kabosh on some poaching tactics late in the year, made famous in Florida last year...

I think we stand a real good shot of plucking a top back out of Florida two years running. It definitely feels nice to get some premiere athletes out of there at the skill positions.

 

[Irishknight1023]

Has announced a top 5 of ND, USC, WVU, Iowa, and Auburn. Just three days ago scout had us as the favorite and now we're just listed medium interest 3 days later with everybody else, typical.

http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=109&p=8&c=1&nid=3024438