Hoosiers land commitment from 3-star DE Richard Thomas

Adding to the defensive line has been an offseason priority for Indiana, and on Friday the Hoosiers picked up more help in the form of 2022 three-star end Richard Thomas.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla. product picked IU over offers from Michigan, Miami, LSU, Oregon, Mississippi State, Auburn and Louisville, among others. He’s coming off a junior season that saw him record 64 tackles, 10 stops for loss and seven sacks, while helping his school, American Heritage, to the Florida Class 5A state title, per the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Thomas is ranked as the No. 26 strong-side defensive end in his class and the No. 52 overall player in Florida in the 247 Sports Composite. The 6-foot-2, 255-pound prospect is the third member of a 2022 IU recruiting class that, so far, is defense-heavy with verbal pledges from four-star athlete/linebacker Dasan McCullough and three-star linebacker Kaiden Turner. At IU, Thomas will join fellow Broward County products Tiawan Mullen and Josh Sanguinetti.

As a sophomore in 2019, Thomas made 77 total stops, 14 tackles for loss and seven sacks. You can see more of Thomas from his junior year highlight reel below:

Thomas is the second notable addition to the Indiana defensive line this week after the program picked up a commitment from Auburn transfer Jaren Handy on Wednesday.