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Virginia is reportedly hosting one of the top available offensive lineman in the transfer portal. According to a report from Greg Madia of the Daily Progress, Arkansas State offensive line transfer Makilan Thomas, a Second-Team All-Sun Belt Conference selection in 2023, is taking a visit to the UVA football program starting on Monday (April 21).
Arkansas State transfer offensive lineman Makilan Thomas is scheduled to visit #UVa beginning today, sources confirmed to The Daily Progress.
— Greg Madia (@GregMadia) April 21, 2025
He was an All-Sun Belt second-team selection in 2023: https://t.co/tXSPL5bLIA pic.twitter.com/VyVVsDjKfD
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Thomas chose to play college football in his home state and has appeared in 38 games over the last four seasons for the Red Wolves and has been a regular starter for the last three seasons. The 6'3", 300-pound offensive tackle redshirted his first season at Arkansas State in 2021, but made his first career start in the season finale against Texas State and played three total games as a true freshman.
The following season, Thomas started all 12 games on the offensive line for Butch Jones and the Red Wolves. The vast majority of those starts came at left tackle, but he also started one game at right guard and one at right tackle.
The 2023 campaign was the best season of his career, as Thomas started all 12 games at right tackle and earned an All-Sun Belt Second-Team selection after allowing just one sack and 21 total pressures in 836 snaps. His overall grade of 67.8 on Pro Football Focus ranked third among tackles in the Sun Belt Conference and 16th among Group of Five tackles, while his 81.2 pass-blocking rating on PFF led all tackles in the Sun Belt, ranked third in the Group of Five, and 25th in the entire country. Thomas and the Arkansas State offensive line ranked 18th in the nation in run-blocking according to PFF and the Red Wolves improved their rushing average from 2.8 yards per carry in 2022 to 4.2 yards per carry in 2023.
An injury caused Thomas to miss the first four games of the 2024 season, but he returned to the lineup and started the final nine games of the year, including Arkansas State's 38-31 victory over Bowling Green in the 68 Ventures Bowl. Thomas allowed just three sacks all season and ranked third on the team in pass blocking with a 76.5 grade according to PFF.
Thomas remained with Arkansas State in the spring, but then made the decision to enter the transfer portal on April 15th. On3 has designated Thomas as an interior offensive lineman and has him ranked as the second-best uncommitted interior offensive lineman in the transfer portal. Thomas has started 35 games in his career and most of those starts have come at the right tackle position, though he does have some experience at nearly every position on the offensive line.
The Cavaliers suddenly found themselves in need of reinforcements at the right tackle position at the end of spring practice, as Monroe Mills, who was ranked the No. 1 offensive tackle in the transfer portal by On3, went down with an injury that will sideline him for the 2025 season, and Blake Steen, who started 16 games at right tackle over the last two seasons, entered the transfer portal on the first day of the spring window. With Mills and Steen no longer available for 2025, Virginia went into the portal and nabbed a commitment from Kentucky transfer Wallace Unamba, who only spent this spring semester with the Wildcats after transferring from New Mexico, where he started 10 games at right tackle for Bronco Mendenhall's Lobos in 2024.
Virginia would certainly feel much better about its right tackle position and its overall depth on the offensive line by grabbing a commitment from Makilan Thomas.
More must-reads:
- Takeaways from Black Friday's biggest college football games: Texas A&M loses chance at SEC championship
- Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin doesn't see talk about upcoming decision as a distraction
- The 'Five game-winning-drives in a season' quiz
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