How defensive end Xavier Thomas transformed for his final season with Clemson football

CLEMSON — Xavier Thomas' Clemson football career hasn't gone the way he expected. When he came to campus as a freshman in 2018, he anticipated he would be playing for three years before entering the NFL draft and beginning a professional career. After being named a freshman All-American that year and third-team All-ACC the following season, he looked on track to meet his goal.

Then came the pandemic, injuries and a personal struggle with depression. Now, Thomas is getting set to start his sixth season at Clemson. But instead of feeling disappointed, the defensive end said he felt relieved when he stepped on the field for the Tigers' first preseason practice on Friday.

"In my eyes, I really haven't played football in three years," Thomas said Monday. "In 2019, I had a pretty decent year, but that's the last time I really played football in regards to being able to play fully healthy."

His Clemson career has been full of setbacks ever since his promising first two seasons. In 2020, he missed five games because of complications with COVID-19 and a strep infection. He later revealed that he had been struggling with depression and considered quitting football during that time.

He was healthy in 2021 and was again third-team All-ACC, but he said he didn't think he was playing his best football. Last season, he broke his foot before the season, came back for three games in October, then aggravated the injury and missed the rest of the year.

Thomas is back, and he feels better than ever. Not only has his foot healed, but he's physically transformed. He weighed in at 243 pounds at the start of preseason practice, the lowest he has been since coming to Clemson. He came in at 260, according to Clemson's official roster, and got up to 270 in 2020. Thomas said that while dealing with injuries, illness and depression, he got up to 295.

Since then, he has been trying to get down to his ideal playing weight of about 245 to 250 pounds. In July, he tweeted he had reached 10% body fat, fulfilling a personal goal.

"It's 90% diet, in my experience," Thomas said. "Recovering from the injury (last season), I just had a lot of time to actually work on that . . . My strength hasn't gone away. I definitely feel faster in regards to my weight. That was the main thing with my weight was so I could improve my speed and things like that, but my power hasn't gone anywhere."

Defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall said there's a lightness to Thomas' mood that he hasn't seen in a long time.

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"Big, huge smile on his face," Hall said in July. "He just looks lighter in terms of the focus, not worried about anything, and that's been really, really good. He's taken on a leadership role. He's never had to do that before, and he's embraced it."

Thomas and fellow sixth-year Justin Mascoll will start at defensive end. With talented but inexperienced players behind them, the Tigers need both to stay healthy. But if Thomas is truly at his best in his final college season, Clemson should be more than fine.

"If you can keep him focused, Hall said, "I feel the best is yet to come with Xavier Thomas."

Christina Long covers the Clemson Tigers for the Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. You can follow her on Twitter @christinalong00 or email her at clong@greenvillenews.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Recovered from injuries, Clemson football's Xavier Thomas feels renewed