JaCorey Thomas is heading to West Virginia, giving the Mountaineers a late addition from the transfer portal as the 2026 college football season is already underway.
The former Georgia safety made the move on Monday, according to CBS Sports College Football Insiders Matt Zenitz and Chris Hummer. Zenitz and Hummer had previously reported that Thomas planned to enter the portal and that West Virginia was viewed as the likely destination.
Thomas’ path back into college football became possible after the TRO granted last month, which opened the door for players who went unsigned in the NFL to return for a fifth season of eligibility. After going undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, Thomas spent part of the offseason in a minicamp with the Carolina Panthers before choosing to keep playing at the college level.
At Georgia, Thomas was a steady piece of the secondary over the past two seasons. He appeared in all 14 games in 2025 and started eight times, finishing with 45 tackles and 26 solo stops. His biggest moment came against Alabama in the 2025 SEC Championship, when he posted a career-high six tackles and recorded his first career tackle for loss, a sack that went for a 9-yard loss.
“JaCorey went out there and just did his thing,” cornerback Daylen Everette said of Thomas after the win over the Crimson Tide. “I was proud of him.
You saw what he did on that sack. They just turned everybody up.
Everybody on the field and on the sidelines. Just proud about how he played.”
Thomas also logged a full season in 2024, playing in all 14 games with three starts. That year he had seven tackles and two pass breakups. He said his first two seasons in Athens helped him adjust to playing farther from the line of scrimmage.
“Learning safety here is very difficult,” Thomas said. “You know, there's a bunch of ends and outs of our defense that are quite difficult for me to understand because I didn't play the position at the time,” Thomas said.
“Things started clicking around last year. I started to get into like a groove to see how I was going with it.
From that point on, I've been growing and growing and growing and seeing how everything's been changing for me.”
In 47 career games at Georgia, Thomas totaled 63 tackles. His first career tackle came in Georgia’s 2023 College Football Championship win over TCU.
He signed with the Bulldogs as a four-star prospect out of Orlando (Fla.) Boone in the 2022 recruiting class.
Georgia now has 104 players on the roster, including transfer defensive backs Khalil Barnes and Ja’Marley Riddle. In the season-opening 63-3 win over Tennessee State, KJ Bolden and Kyron Jones started at safety, while Barnes opened at the star position.
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