For the first time as a member of the Duke football team, running back Star Thomas reached the 100-yard mark on Saturday night against Connecticut.
With returning senior Jaquez Moore out with an ankle injury, the New Mexico State transfer took over responsibilities as the lead back against the Huskies. After the Blue Devils failed to reach 100 yards as a team or even have a single carry longer than 12 yards in either of the first two games, Thomas rattled off two runs longer than 20 yards against UConn and didn’t get tackled for a loss once.
Thomas’s first big gain came in the early second quarter when he carved his way up the center of the Connecticut defense, picking up 22 yards to put Duke just outside the red zone.
Then, in the fourth quarter, with Duke leading by five points and hoping to run out the clock, he found a small seam in his offensive line and broke free for a 21-yard run. While Thomas had every chance to reach the end zone for his first touchdown of the season, he instead fell to the ground inside the 5-yard line to clinch the win.
Thomas, who picked up at least five yards on 10 different attempts, finished the game with 122 yards on 22 carries to average 5.5 yards per tote.
The former Aggie only reached the century mark once with his old team, a 144-yard game against Hawai’i back in 2022.