NRL 2023: Thomas Yassmin knocked back NRL and Rugby to reach pinnacle of American college football
Thomas Yassmin was on the radar of multiple NRL clubs as well as Super Rugby’s Waratahs, but he knocked them all back for a sport he had never played before.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Thomas Yassmin will make history on Tuesday morning as the first Australian to start in US college football’s prestigious Rose Bowl.
Yassmin, from Coogee with roots in south western Sydney, will line-up at tight-end for the Utah Utes when they take on Penn State in the Bowl match known as ‘The Granddaddy of Them All.’
Among the 90,000 people to pack the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, and the estimated 16 million-plus fans watching from home in the US, will be NFL scouts analysing Yassmin’s every move.
Yassmin’s pursuit of a professional football career could have easily taken a simpler route.
At 196cm or 6’5 and 114kg, Yassmin was a GPS rugby star for The Scots College in Sydney and was on the radar of Super Rugby’s NSW Waratahs and multiple NRL clubs, including Manly and Brisbane.
Instead, Yassmin opted for the path less travelled, joining Utah on a full scholarship in 2018 as an 18-year-old.
And five years after biding his time behind two of America’s best tight-end prospects, Yassmin gets his shot at glory.
KISSED BY A ROSE
With the two leading tight ends, Dalton Kincaid and Brant Kuithe struck down by injury, Yassmin has played more games in the last four months than in the last four years.
His powerful touchdowns, like the 60-yard effort in the Pac-12 championship game to help get Utah into the Rose Bowl, have seen Yassmin amass a cult following in the American college football scene.
Yassmin REFUSED to get tackled 💪 @Utah_Football pulls ahead 34-24! pic.twitter.com/EsuzjJf6bL
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) December 3, 2022
“It‘s been a long journey for me. I didn’t even play the first few years here at all. So to be able to get to play in the Rose Bowl, it is all kind of surreal honestly,” Yassmin told The Daily Telegraph.
“I didn‘t see much game time, so in the beginning I entertained the idea that I would get my degree and get out.
“Brant and Dalton have been consistently the top tight-ends in all of college football and I happened to have both in some room as me. When Dalton went down, I was the go to guy and I haven‘t looked back since.
“But now I have been out there, and starting to get noticed by NFL scouts, the NFL is not out of reach. I’m full pedal to the metal now.
“I want to play in the NFL.”
PLAYBOOK MISERY
Behind the bright lights, the glitz and glamour of American football is the intricacies of a playbook, a source of ‘misery’ for Yassmin.
The typical playbook is filled with thousands of offensive combinations.
Even for Yassmin, who has a degree in mathematics and quantitative analysis, getting a handle on the playbook was a ‘miserable’ experience.
“It’s taken three and a half years to get to this point. In the morning, before and after practise, late at night you‘re sitting in the position room going over film. It’s a full-time job,” Yassmin said.
“To start understanding the concepts, just so I can start understanding the playbook, that took about two years.
“Last year was the first time I started to get comfortable with it.
“Even this season was like ‘it’s starting to make sense’. I’m understanding defence and different parts of the offence, and not just rote learning each individual play.“
A lifetime of rugby league and union was also no help when it came to mastering the block, a crucial skill in offense for a tight-end.
“Athletically, I felt like I was better than a lot of guys coming in but there is so much more technically, me being the tight end, it took me three years to learn how to block, it seems like such a simple thing but when you have never done it in your life it’s so foreign,” Yassmin said.
“To be able to go from never doing it to the top level, is another ball game.
“To get to the point where you can go out and play and not think about it, takes a long time.”
THE MOMENT
Around 30 Aussies have featured in NFL squads since 1965 but most have an AFL background and signed as punters. Only a handful have come through the college system as offensive or defensive players and drafted into the big time. Colin Scotts, who like Yassmin was also a former Scots student and Australian Rugby Schoolboy representative, was the first ever drafted into the NFL in 1987.
.@TYassmin21 !!!!!!!!!! !!!
— Utah Athletics (@utahathletics) November 26, 2022
📺 https://t.co/8r89OLdztd@Utah_Football | #GoUtespic.twitter.com/F8VXMX82VM
The NFL’s international pathways system opened the door for NRL stars like Jarryd Hayne, who played eight games for San Francisco 49ers, and Valentine Holmes, who played three preseason games for the New York Jets.
Yassmin, who played with the likes of Sydney Roosters back Billy Smith at Scots, believes the NRL’s elite players can cut in the NFL, but a player’s commitment must be greater than their athletic talent.
“Even at the beginning of the year, I had been here for four years, and I was close to throwing in the towel. I felt like I was going nowhere,” Yassmin said.
“But everyone has that moment when it clicks.
“It was against Arizona State, they threw me the ball and I went 73 yards, broke up some defenders and just ran.
“That was my moment when I got my confidence, you need that moment. You need that confidence.”
Now, Yassmin is fifth on the team for receiving yards, has caught 12 passes for 300 yards and scored five touchdowns.
JOURNEY
Before he was scoring touchdowns for the Utes, Yassmin was wreaking havoc as a teenager on the wing for the Scots college first XV team.
University of Hawaii coach Chris Noaele had seen the footage and made it a priority to meet Yassmin while the Rainbow Warriors, where Scotts and Balmain Tigers great Paul Sironen played, toured Australia in 2017.
For a teenager who had never played a game of American football, or even worn a helmet, Yassmin blitzed the invite-only combine held by American university scouts in Sydney at the time.
But it was his 40-yard dash that set tongues wagging.
“We did some drills, ran a 40 … I ran a 4.49. I was a little lighter than I am now. I think I could have ran a faster time but I’d been training hard with rugby during the week.” Yassmin said.
Yassmin’s 4.49 is quicker than any time posted by a tight end in the 2022 NFL combine.
And when word spread about the 6’5 Aussie running a 4.49 dash among college scouts, the scholarship offers came rolling.
“About two weeks after Hawaii offered me a scholarship, the University of Utah called me. But I also got an offer from UCLA, Oregon and the University of Washington,” Yassmin said.
The enormity of the situation only hit Yassmin when legendary college coach Chip Kelly rang him personally.
“UCLA coach Chip Kelly, he also coached the Eagles in the NFL, called me on my personal number … that’s when I realised ‘wow, this is really happening’,” Yassmin said.
“I always thought If I did go to America, UCLA would be my top school. So ultimately, to say no to them in the end was something I never thought I would do.“
BIGGEST FANS
Utah have been crowned back-to-back Pac-12 champions but will be looking to avenge last year’s Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State Buckeyes.
Yassmin, who is Australian-Lebanese, is hoping his biggest supporters, in his grandparents, will be a lucky charm on Tuesday morning 930 (AEDT).
“You can hear my tayta (grandma) and jedo (grandpa) yelling from Greenacre,” Yassmin laughed.
“They go crazy. My tayta doesn’t understand a lick of English and somehow at 4am she is finding YouTube links and watching my games.
“They are my biggest fans. After a game, if I have made a play or scored a touchdown, she’ll send me a thousand screenshots.”
HOMECOMING
While his main focus is the NFL draft, he hasn’t closed the door on coming home to play footy.
Before getting on a plane to Salt Lake City, Yassmin knocked back the likes of the Waratahs, and NRL sides, the Sea Eagles and Broncos.
“Coming out of high school I had some offers from the NRL and rugby union. When I got offered a full ride scholarship at a prestigious university, and to play sport at the highest level you can non-professionally, it wasn’t an opportunity I could pass up,” Yassmin said.
“If the opportunity presents itself to play NRL or rugby, I’m not going to say no. But for me, I want a shot at the NFL.
“The aim is to declare for the 2024 draft. I want to show what I can do.”
Originally published as NRL 2023: Thomas Yassmin knocked back NRL and Rugby to reach pinnacle of American college football
NRL star charged with threatening police
Canberra Raiders veteran player Josh Papalii has been charged over an ugly confrontation with police inside a licensed venue, just weeks before he won a prestigious award.
‘Sprays me every game’: How Luai’s tough love transformed Penrith star
Panthers young gun Paul Alamoti has praised Jarome Luai for helping turning his NRL career around, crediting some of the five-eighth’s savage sprays for turning him into a grand final player.