Zac Thomas set the team record in the power clean as a true freshman — a mark he since has raised to 397 pounds (photo by SMU athletics).

When Zac Thomas signed with with SMU in 2006, the then-defensive end was 245 pounds — maybe.

Since then, he has been something of a human yo-yo. The previous coaching staff moved him to defensive tackle, and asked him to bulk up for the role, which he did. Then the coaches told him he was being kicked back outside to defensive end, and asked him to shed weight — which he also did.

But then the SMU staff was told it wouldn’t be retained for the 2008 season. Thomas, for lack of a better description, was left in limbo. The new defensive coaches left him at defensive tackle, where his considerable strength gave him a chance, but his lack of bulk left him somewhat overmatched. When he weighed in at the end of spring practice, Thomas tipped the scales — barely — at 243 pounds. That’s rock-solid for a running back, but for a defensive tackle?

For the summer, Thomas went back home to Stephenville. Normally, when a player vacates Dallas for the comforts of home, it’s a concern to Vic Viloria and the strength and conditioning staff, but considering Thomas’s dedication to strength and fitness, Viloria said he wasn’t worried about Thomas losing any of his conditioning.

“Zac works out all the time,” Viloria said. “I knew he’d come back looking good, looking strong.”

Viloria might have sold Thomas a little short. While his teammates ran and lifted weights in Dallas, Thomas ran and lifted — and ate — a lot. When he returned to Dallas for preseason workouts, he weighed 289 pounds … a gain of 46 pounds over just one summer.

PROPER INSPIRATION

“Vic (Viloria) was telling me the new coaches saw my build and decided I’d be best at defensive tackle,” Thomas said. “If I didn’t get bigger, there was a chance they might move me to offensive line. I didn’t really understand that, because offensive linemen are big, too, but that wasn’t important. That (moving to the offensive line) was about the worst news I could imagine. I’m a defensive lineman.”

So Thomas headed home, with two destinations in mind. He went to the supplement shop, where he loaded up on high-protein shakes, and to the weight room — for hours on end.

“When I lift here (at SMU), I’m on a schedule,” Thomas said. “We lift for an hour, or for 90 minutes, and then you feel like you’re done. At home, I stay there and just lift all day.”

Thomas also ate — a lot. He started his day with seven eggs and bacon every morning. Lunch often consisted of three cans of tuna with some boiled eggs. Dinner featured as many as five or six burgers. Somewhere in between, Thomas found time for three protein shakes per day.

Getting bigger got Thomas busier, as well. After playing in just five games in 2007, the bulked-up sophomore has worked the first and second team in preseason camp, and is expected to be a key member of the rotation in 2008. He’s slated to back up senior Serge Elizee at nose tackle, and said their physical differences present a measure of flexibility that will make opponents prepare for two completely different kinds of players.

“Serge is a great player,” Thomas said. “He’s kind of a bowling ball of a defensive tackle. He’s a little shorter than I am (Elizee is listed at 6-foot-1, two inches shorter than Thomas) and a little heavier (Elizee’s listed weight of 301 puts him 12 pounds above Thomas). He plays more like a bowling ball, and he’s built perfectly to handle everything inside. I’m taller, so I have to use my height and my quickness more to be effective.”

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Center Mitch Enright goes against Thomas in practice, and he said Thomas’ combination of size and strength give him the chance to develop into a player who can cause opposing lines a lot of problems.

“Serge is shorter than Zac,” Enright said. “When Serge gets ready to bull-rush, you’ve got to be ready or he’ll run all over you. Zac is a taller player who likes to play on your edge and scrape off you on the way by. But he’s so incredibly strong, he really can do both. There aren’t a lot of guys who can do both like he does.”

When Thomas headed home to Stephenville, his teammates and coaches had no concerns about his dedication to the weight room. They knew he’d spend hours every day in the weight room, which he did. But would he run enough to meet the conditioning goals Viloria had set for him?

“He told us he’d run his 220s when he went home,” Enright said. “Obviously he did. When he got back and we ran, he did all the running. He not only lived through it, he made all his times.”

Thomas prefers the weight room to the track, but he put in the needed running to be ready this fall, and said he will continue to do so.

“I ran eight 200s a couple of times a week over the summer,” Thomas said. “But I’d stay in the weight room for two or three hours a day. I love playing, and I want to continue playing. I knew I had to get bigger to play this position, and I don’t feel heavy.

Through extensive weight training — and eating — Thomas has added 46 pounds of muscle since the end of spring workouts (photo by Travis Johnston).

“I’d like to get to a comfortable 290 and stay there, and be able to run without getting winded. When you look at the NFL, most of their starting defensive tackles are 290, 295 — something like that — so whatever it takes to get them to look my way, I’ll do.”

Whatever it takes includes more time in the weight room, where Thomas always has been comfortable. He has squatted about 575 pounds, and bench presses nearly 400. When he arrived at SMU as a true freshman, he walked in and broke the team record in the power clean, the lift many strength coaches think best translates to on-field success. Thomas said he now can clean about 397 pounds, meaning the team record is still his.

While bulking up, Thomas also is learning a new position, and the skills that it requires. The nose guard spot in the defense taught by defensive coordinator Tom Mason and defensive line coach Bert Hill requires Thomas and the rest of the SMU linemen to abandon the techniques they have used all their lives.

“It’s kind of weird,” he said. “When we line up, there’s no weight on the ground hand. It’s like we’re in a squat — it feels weird. When we first started doing this in the spring, it felt like I didn’t have much power, but that’s something you learn as you get used to everything.”

While the new stance is something to which Thomas and the rest of the Ponies’ defensive linemen are growing accustomed, he said it can offer them a considerable advantage, too.

“It throws off the center,” Thomas said. “Just looking at the way I line up, he doesn’t know whether I’m coming up the middle or tying him up. By doing that, and making him worry about me, it frees up our middle linebacker.

“We’re learning the new defense pretty well. I’m a lot bigger, and a lot stronger. If the center doesn’t know what we’re going to do, that’s just one more thing we have in our favor.”