Last December, Jordan Thomas made the most mature decision of his young life. For a guy who hadn’t been known for mature decisions, Thomas’ announcement he would return for his senior season was a big one.

Thomas has been one of the most perplexing OU stars in recent years.

Thomas was a great athlete, but also smart enough to have a scholarship offer from Northwestern coming out of Klein (TX) High School.

He appeared to embody the term student-athlete as much as anyone. Starting his college career as an engineering major, Thomas quickly found success on the football field.

He played in all 13 games as a true freshman, starting the last four games at cornerback.

But questions about Thomas’ maturity level started to appear as his sophomore season got underway in 2015. He was suspended for the first quarter in the season opener against Akron. He was then suspended for the Sooners’ third game of the season against Tulsa.

As the Sooners were preparing for OU’s College Football Playoff matchup with Clemson, Thomas was arrested for failing to pay a speeding ticket.

I don’t know if a player has ever been kicked off of a football team in a major conference for failure to pay a speeding ticket, but it wasn’t hard to see OU’s youngest and most talented cover corner was troubled.

That perception became reality when Thomas was arrested on multiple charges the summer before his junior year. He was charged with assault and battery, public intoxication and interfering with an official process.

Local talk shows were ablaze with debates of whether Thomas should be suspended or dismissed from the OU football program.

In the end, the charges were dropped. But the damage to Thomas’ reputation was done.

When the Jim Thorpe Award Watch List was announced without Thomas’ name attached, it was a reminder that people weren’t focused on his bounce back junior season. They just remembered the reasons he needed to bounce back.

Even though Thomas ranked fifth in the FBS last season in passes defended (passes broken up plus interceptions), The Jim Thorpe Award did not include Thomas on their preseason watch list recognizing the nation’s top defensive backs.

And because of that, Thomas won’t be eligible to win the award this season.

Eddie Griffin, the president of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, told The Oklahoman Thomas was left off the watch list because of character issues.

“I hated it when I saw it,” Griffin told the Oklahoman. “We’d go against our principles and criteria and everything we’ve done in the past. You’ve got to be a great player to win the Jim Thorpe Award. But you’ve also got to be a man of character and a community leader. All those sorts of things.”

Monday during Big 12 Media Days, as I was asking OU senior linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo about Thomas being left off the list, I was stopped in mid-question.

“Yeah, I saw that,” he said, jumping up in his chair. “I already know what you’re talking about, about Jordan Thomas.”

I asked Okoronkwo if he felt Thomas’ exclusion upset him because it paints Thomas as a bad kid.

“Yeah,” he shouted. “Because he’s not a bad guy. He just did some dumb stuff as a young kid and he’s a senior now. He’s grown a lot from then and I know – he’s a great guy. He’s a really great guy.”

Since Thomas’ incident last summer, he’s seemingly been a model citizen. He didn’t miss any games during the 2016 season. Before that season he dropped out of his engineering degree tract for African American Studies.

There have been plenty of things that have gone unsaid by Thomas or his teammates and coaches during this process.

Family issues, alcohol issues, academic pressures.

Thomas had issues with all of those things as he was seemingly spiraling out of control during his sophomore season. But his teammates now see Thomas as someone who is getting his life together.

Coming back for his senior year, being around familiar faces, it was a way for him to continue trending in that direction.

“He realized there’s a lot of stuff that comes with being a student-athlete. You’ve got to really understand who you are when you’re out. I feel like him being young, that was a little twisted for him then and he understands that now,” said Okoronkwo. “For them to say he has character issues, I feel like they need to get to know the real Jordan. He’s like a great dude and he does a lot in the community.”

The comments from the Thorpe Award are also sobering for Baker Mayfield. Who had his own off-the-field issue this offseason.

“It’s a shame to see because I know the type of kid that J.T. is and speaking from experience, mistakes don’t define you,” said Mayfield. “I love J.T., I know the type of guy he is. He’s very smart. He’s very, very talented.

“J.T.’s play and how he handles things and how he’s going to bounce back from his mistakes, it’s going to be the most important thing in his life. Right now he’s handling it the right way and that’s important for me because he’s a good leader on our team and he’s very talented.”

Some players said they believe Thomas being in Oklahoma played a role in the Thorpe Award leaving their teammate off their watch list and out of the running for the award this season. After all, the award is given out by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.

Those voters live here and are exposed to OU player news more than any other team in the country.

Thomas was the summer time talk radio flavor of the month last year at this time.

No one is making excuses for Thomas inside the OU locker room. They know he’s made his own bed. But his teammates are rallying around the guy they believe Thomas is becoming as his final season gets underway in Norman.

“It definitely bothers me,” said Steven Parker of the Thorpe Award questioning Thomas’ character. “I’ve talked to J.T. plenty of times and we’ve had great conversations and it’s just one of those things where he has to let it go and we have to go on and play the season.

“His off the field issues, that’s something that everyone sees and they might think he’s a bad kid but we all know Jordan. We all know JT. He’s a great kid and he knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s just one of those things and he knows he has to settle down and he had to mature. I feel like he has matured a lot since then.”