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Countdown to College Football Kickoff 2015, Day 27: Derrick Thomas Still Sack King

By Michael Collins

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With only 27 day remaining until the 2015 college football kickoff, we are taken to a record number of sacks in a single season, held by the late, great Alabama Crimson Tide defensive lineman, Derrick Thomas.

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The old saying goes, records are meant to be broken, and while we stand in awe as we see some of sports greatest achievements eclipsed by modern-day athletes, there are some records we simply say…

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“Nobody’s beating that one. Not while I’m alive.”

One such college football record may very well be the single-season sack record set by Alabama’s Derrick Thomas in 1988, when the ferocious defensive lineman sent quarterbacks crying to their mamas an incredible 27 times.

The NCAA didn’t start counting sacks as an official FBS statistic until the 2000 season, but it’s highly unlikely that anyone came near 27 quarterback turf-eating parties in one season prior to that, and the only one to come close since 2000 was Terrell Suggs, who collected 24 sacks for Arizona State in 2002.

During that 1988 season, Thomas finished 10th in the Heisman Trophy voting. Yes…as a lineman, he finished that high in the Heisman tally.

Thomas was one of a kind, and he continued his quest for immortality while playing with the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. Unfortunately, Thomas didn’t leave his speed and power on the field, and was taken from us in a tragic car accident on On January 23, 2000 (oddly enough, the same year the NCAA decided to start officially tracking sacks).

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