Joey Thomas

Joey Thomas, one of the key components of Montana State’s football turnaround a quarter-century ago, began his second act almost as an afterthought.

 “When I first retired” from playing, he said, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. A good friend of mine, Derek Sparks, called me and said, ‘Hey JT, do you want to be a head coach? The kids can really benefit from you.’”

 That phone call came just around 16 years ago and opened the recently retired cornerback’s eyes to new possibilities. He told Sparks he wanted to sleep on the idea, but “I called him back and took the job at Ballard (High School in his hometown of Seattle), and the thing that was so great for me personally, having just retired and trying to figure out life, is that coaching high school football gave me purpose.”

 Those two phone calls started Thomas on a path that has zig-zagged through the football coaching industry. He spent nine seasons as a prep head coach in Seattle (2011-15 at Ballard, 2016-18 at Garfield), then spent one season coaching junior college football as passing game coordinator, special teams coordinator, and secondary coach.

 His two seasons at Florida Atlantic (2020-21) set the stage for two season at Texas (2022-23), where Thomas reunited with former Bobcat defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and worked with former MSU head coach Jeff Choate. The two became acquainted while Choate was at Washington.

 Conversations with Choate, who also found a path to college coaching after excelling at the high school level, planted the seeds for Thomas. As a prep head coach “you see all these coaches,” Thomas said. “Coach Choate came by the office because we had players, and I started thinking to myself that maybe I should take that jump.”

 As time passed, the stability that high school coaching offered Thomas and his young family finally tilted in the other direction, toward career advancement and, ultimately, greater challenges. When a friend in the profession told him that he would be easier to hire with a some level of college coaching on his resume, he took another leap.

 “When I took the job at Fort Scott I knew I would do it for a year then take a (four-year) college job,” Thomas said. “It was kind of like a placement for me, I got placed for a year, do well, and then I would go on to a university, that was the plan going.”

 Not all battle plans survive the first bullet, but Thomas executed his to perfection. “I was betting on myself,” he said. “I’ve been doubling down on me for my entire life.”

 That mindset began early. After a legendary prep career at John F. Kennedy High in Seattle landed him at the University of Washington, a proposed detour ended up changing history, both his and Montana State’s.

 “Joey Thomas came to us as a gift from the University of Washington,” said Mike Kramer, Montana State’s head coach from 2000-06. Thomas spent the spring of 2000 as an early enrollee at UW, and in the summer, when the coaching staff wanted to move him to linebacker, Thomas headed to Bozeman. “He was fast, had great feet and change of direction, great size and arm length, durable. He was a shut-down corner.”

 Thomas’ impact came soon after arriving. He played in all 11 games for the Cats in 2000, all losses, and started eight. “He was a great pass pattern disruptor,” Kramer said. “He allowed us to play man-to-man on every down.”

 After the 0-11 season of 2000, which featured only four seniors, the Cats won five games the next year. Then in 2002 the team stood 3-5 after a narrow loss at NAU when the magic started to happen. A miraculous finish, featuring a field goal after time expired, led to a 31-30 win at Sacramento State. The Cats then beat Eastern Washington and Portland State at home, before one of the program’s great moments.

 With Thomas playing a lead role, the Bobcat defense completely stymied the Grizzlies. Montana State held UM to 8-33 passing and a feeble 199 total yards. Thomas repeatedly smothered the home team’s receivers, and with only 199 total yards the Grizzlies never gained traction. The Cats won 10-7, snapping a long losing streak in the series, and boosting the team into the post-season for the first time since 1984. Injuries limited Thomas to eight games in 2002, but the next season he broke out. Thomas intercepted four passes and broke up 11. The Cats again beat the Grizzlies, and again won the league.

 Thomas finished his Bobcat career as an All-America (honorable mention in 2021) and a two-time All-Big Sky First Team choice. He picked off 11 passes, tied for seventh in MSU history, and broke up 37 passes in his career.

 While Thomas’ Bobcat legacy is impressive on the surface, Kramer said that doesn’t tell half the story. “Joey should have been an All-American and a four-time First Team All-Big Sky selection,” said a man who has played in, coached or observed the league since 1972. “He’s the best corner to every play in the Big Sky Conference, flat out. I’ve never seen better.”

 The Green Bay Packers took notice, nabbing Thomas in the third round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played in 14 games for the NFC North Champions, logging 39 tackles with a pass breakup against Jacksonville and a forced fumble. He registered one tackle in the playoff loss to Minnesota. Thomas played for Green Bay in the first eight weeks of 2005, finishing that season with the Saints. Injuries plagued Thomas, who spent 2007 with the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos and the Dallas Cowboys, then finished his career with Miami (2008) and Oakland (2010).

 When the time came to return Sparks’ call, with his coaching career hanging in the balance, the foundation had already been laid. “My dad was a neighborhood coach,” Thomas said of Joey Thomas Sr. “He coached basketball, he coached football, everybody knew him as ‘Coach.’ I grew up in a gym, I grew up on the field.”

 Beyond his roots, Thomas acknowledged that satisfaction from coaching motivated him into his current profession. Exposure to that process came early in his NFL playing career. “My rookie year I put on a camp back home and all the kids came out, and I just loved to see kids that were at risk or kids that were having a hard time. I loved seeing their smile, I loved talking to them, I loved sharing some of my experiences. There’s something special about helping someone accomplish something that they don’t believe they can do,” he said. “That excites me. That gets me going. It’s like energy, it’s like being on a road trip and getting fuel.”

 Thomas said he learned the foundational concepts of his coaching career in its earliest moments. “The greatest thing that prepared me to be a coach is my high school experience,” he said. “As a head coach you learn how to balance the budget sheets, work with people, deal with boosters, do all those little things, it really sharpens those skills. And as a high school coach you don’t have a lot of time, so I had to be creative and think outside the box, take two or three drills, merge them, and turn them into one drill because I only had four minutes of individual time. It made me a better coach, it forced me be more creative.”

 The most important lessons on interpersonal relationships Thomas learned – “It’s really how you treat people that’s important,” he said – came in Bozeman. “That’s one of the things I love about Kramer is that he was one of the first coaches that let me be me. He didn’t try to change me, that’s why he got the best version of me.”

 Maintaining a sense of self within an organization of over 100 individuals working toward the same goal is something Thomas learned on the MSU campus. “(Kramer) showed me how to be Joey Thomas within a team framework, and I needed that,” he said. “If I hadn’t come to Bozeman, Montana – I didn’t even know where it was at that time – and I had to be somebody outside of who I was, I would have failed. He showed me how to take people from different walks of life and allow them to be themselves within a team structure, and I carry that on today.”

And now, after a long and steady climb through the coaching profession, Thomas coaches defensive backs and coordinates the defensive passing game at Nevada. His body of work, and the experience it has created, is benefitting another former Bobcat football coach.

"I met Joey and got to know him during my time at Montana State,” said current Nevada coach Jeff Choate, “while he was coaching high school football in Seattle where he had a reputation for turning programs around, like he did for Ballard and Garfield. Joey had an outstanding career at Montana State, and we spent a lot of time talking about the program. He played in the NFL and is a technician at his craft. Joey is another high-character individual on our staff, and the amount of time he takes to mentor is impressive."

Thomas is honored by his induction into the Montana Pro Football Hall of Fame, but deflects the glory. “There’s nothing accidental about being successful,” he said. “It’s a very intentional act. I’m excited, but it’s not about me. It’s about every teammate I ever had, every D-lineman I played with, every linebacker I played with, any DB that played on the other side. It’s about my teammates.”

Most importantly, Thomas said bringing his family with him to Montana is a thrill for him, and hopes it is a lesson for his children. “I’m happy that they get to see what hard work looks like.”

SUMMARY

* All-America and 2-time All-Big Sky at Montana State
* Key force in suffocating UM’s passing game in MSU’s 10-7 win at Missoula in 2002
* Played for Packers, Saints, Cowboys, Dolphins and Raiders
* Head coach at two Seattle high schools
* Coached at Fort Scott JC, Florida Atlantic, Texas and currently at Nevada