Tomorrow, some 95 student-athletes will don golden helmets while others put on white, nameless jerseys -- but only a few will be mentioned on both sides of the ball.

Notre Dame's Travis Thomas will be one of them.

The Fighting Irish's version of Ethan Kilmer will line up tomorrow as a starting linebacker and the backup tailback. He was a staple on special teams last season, and this is his first season even playing defense.

"Initially, it was set up to be a
week trial to see how I progressed," Thomas said yesterday. "So it was just a day-by-day thing, and it worked out
well. I'm staying there right now."

Last season, Thomas was strictly a special teams guy who might get a carry at tailback every now and then. Still, he shined whenever he had the chance.

Now, the Nittany Lions will see him the majority of plays -- on offense, defense and special teams.

"He will continue to be the guy to put in [the fourth quarter] for the foreseeable future," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said about his play at tailback.

With the departure of two of the Irish's starting three linebackers during the offseason, the coaches approached Thomas in the spring to see if he'd be interested in taking over one of the two openings.

He hadn't played defense since high school and admittedly liked offense more. But, he decided to give it a shot.

It was on a trial-basis -- and after last week, teams like Penn State will probably end up seeing Thomas a lot more than they want to. He finished last weekend's game against Georgia Tech with a game-high two tackles for loss and a sack.

"My condition definitely surprised me. I didn't know if I was going to be able to hold up for all four quarters," Thomas said.

Fans probably wouldn't be happy to learn that Thomas "was never really a fan of PSU," but they definitely wouldn't cheer after he shared three of his favorite teams, at least when he was a teenager.

Florida State, Texas and Pittsburgh.

Despite those choices, Thomas said he talked pretty heavily to fellow Pennsylvania prospect Austin Scott when he came out of high school. Both were the state's most-recruited running backs at the time, but that wasn't Thomas's lone tie to Penn State either -- Thomas recalled one more while he talking yesterday, too.

"Paul Posluszny -- we were co-captains in the Big 33 game," Thomas said about the annual Pennsylvania/Ohio high school all-star game.

Ties or not, that obviously won't matter come game day. Thomas said there's been a tremendous buzz around campus this week in preparation for the Penn State game, and even said it reminded him of a game the Irish had last season.

"The atmosphere is pretty similar to the USC game," he said.