Oregon RB De'Anthony Thomas Is Ready To Make a Run at the Heisman in 2012

Playmaker, game-breaker and difference-maker are all terms that you could use to sufficiently describe a player like Oregon’s ultra offensive weapon De’Anthony Thomas.

The fact is, though, no matter what word or term you want to use to try to sum up Thomas as a football player, it probably wouldn’t come close to really doing him and his rare talents justice.

The Black Mamba is simply the type of player that you have to see to truly believe.

You won’t find a word in the dictionary that can properly represent the type of explosiveness and game-changing ability that Thomas possesses, and sadly for Wisconsin, the Badgers defense had to find that out the hard way in the Rose Bowl on Monday.

De’Anthony Thomas only touched the ball six times on offense for Oregon during the Ducks’ 45-38 victory in Pasadena, but the young freshman sensation still managed to outproduce and outshine his much more heralded teammate, LaMichael James, who touched the ball 25 times in what was likely his final game in an Oregon uniform.

James averaged a more-than-respectable 6.5 yards per carry in the game.

Thomas, on the other hand, averaged 77.5 yards per carry.

OK, sure, he may have only carried the ball twice, but both touches resulted in highlight-reel, defense-embarrassing, dominance-imposing long touchdown runs of 91 and 64 yards respectively.

Before the Rose Bowl, I didn’t think it was possible to build a more perfect weapon for the Oregon spread offense than LaMichael James, but Thomas has forced me to rethink that opinion.

I can remember back when the young super-speedster first announced his decision to de-commit from USC and join on with Oregon, and thinking to myself, "Well, this could get interesting."

But now, after seeing how perfectly Thomas fits in with Chip Kelly’s offensive philosophy, interesting doesn’t even seem like strong enough of a word anymore.

Dangerous is more like it.

Over the past few days, I’ve been assembling my “College Football’s Top 100 Impact Players for 2012” list, which I’m planning on publishing right after the declaration deadline on Jan. 15. I initially had De’Anthony Thomas ranked at No. 14, but after his Pasadena performance, he may have just moved himself into the top 10.

Thomas is a budding superstar who shined brighter than everyone else on one of the biggest stages that college football has to offer, and the fact that he did so as just a true freshman should only serve to build up his Heisman hype for 2012 even more.

Oregon may be losing one star player if LaMicahel James does indeed jump ship for the NFL, but have no fear, Chip Kelly’s got another star growing in his backfield and this new one may just be capable of bringing home the Heisman hardware that his predecessor never could.

The De’Anthony Thomas 2012 Heisman campaign is sure to pick up plenty of steam by the time next season rolls around.

So get ready.

The Black Mamba is on the loose.