A year ago, early in his junior season as an unproven member of Navy's otherwise highly seasoned defensive backfield, Navy safety Daiquan Thomasson wondered if and when he would make a meaningful contribution to the Midshipmen in 2015.

It wasn't long before unfortunate necessity pushed Thomasson into a role he craved. During the third quarter of a 33-11 rout of service academy rival Air Force at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, veteran safety Kwazel Bertrand suffered a severely broken ankle, a gruesome injury that left the Mids temporarily shaken and ended Bertrand's year.

And suddenly, after a fairly anonymous two seasons in Annapolis, Thomasson was the next man up for Navy.

"I pulled [Thomasson] aside and told him, 'This is your opportunity. Let's go,'" recalls senior inside linebacker Daniel Gonzales. "Daiquan was really antsy. His eyes were everywhere. But you could tell he was laser-focused. From his first play, he took advantage of his opportunity."

Thomasson made some mistakes that day against Air Force from his demanding rover position, but he settled down as the fourth quarter rolled toward its lopsided conclusion.

A week later, it was time for Thomasson's first collegiate start at, of all places, South Bend. As the Mids prepared to take the field at Notre Dame to continue the longest-running intersectional rivalry in college football - against a Fighting Irish squad with legitimate national title aspirations - Thomasson soaked in the moment.

"I was kind of star struck at first, and I usually don't get nervous," Thomasson says. "I was standing in the tunnel thinking about how this was what I dreamed of as a kid - walking into a big stadium with thousands of people screaming, and you're playing one of the best teams in the country. It doesn't get any better than that."

Thomasson produced three tackles against the Irish, who defeated the Mids, 41-24. With that, the newest piece in Navy's starting defensive lineup was off and running.

By the end of Navy's historic, 11-2 season, Thomasson had contributed 41 tackles, had forced and recovered one fumble each, had broken up four passes and intercepted two, including a spectacular, leaping pick deep in Navy territory in the closing minutes to preserve Navy's 21-17 squeaker against Army.

The landscape of the Navy defense since then has changed dramatically. Nowhere is that more evident than in the secondary, where Thomasson has transitioned from relative unknown to undisputed leader. With the graduation of defensive backs Quincy Adams, Lorentez Barbour and Bertrand, and the disciplinary release of senior cornerback Brendon Clements, Thomasson is lone returning starter among defensive backs.

Thomasson entered the 2016 season with more game experience by far than any other Navy defensive back. He was the easy choice for captain of the position group. And the 6-feet-2, 205-pound graduate of Clayton (N.C.) High School has left no doubt about who is in charge of the young secondary that includes sophomore strong safety Sean Williams, freshman cornerback Alohi Gilman, junior cornerback Tyrus Wooten, who recently moved to the secondary from wide receiver, and junior cornerback Elijah Merchant.

In Thomasson, the Mids have a tough-minded, tone-setter blessed with eye-catching athletic ability and the smarts to handle the chores that make the rover position uniquely challenging in Navy's system. As much as he loves the game of football, Thomasson also is equally passionate about the military path he is determined to pursue, as he aims next May to be commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Since taking over as the dean among the defensive backs, Thomasson has made his presence clearly felt among the younger players.

"[Thomasson] is the type of guy that will get in your face and let you know you're doing something wrong. At the same time, he's got your back," says Merchant, recalling how irritated Thomasson was early in the week leading up to the season opener against Fordham.

"We were sluggish [that Monday] in practice. Our tempo wasn't to his liking," Merchant adds. "If you're not running to the ball, he really lets you know. But he'll also pull you aside and have a conversation, to try to help you out and put yourself in the best situation possible. He knows what he's doing out there. He's earned it."

"My delivery sometimes might not be to their liking, but they know I mean well," Thomasson says. "I've always been one of those guys who wants to take charge and lead from the front. You can't be a nice guy all of the time, when you're trying to lead people."

"Daiquan is a great leader to have out there in practice," says Navy secondary coach Dan O'Brien. "He keeps the guys in line. He knows when to chew them out and when to coach them up. He's a guy you had to recognize coming into last year as having great talent and all kinds of athletic ability. It's really hard to keep those kinds of guys off of the field."

Like so many players who come through the Navy program, Thomasson had to make a humbling transition, starting with the year he spent at the Naval Academy's prep school in Newport, R.I. After starting as a two-way player for his final three seasons at Clayton, after making the all-conference team twice, being team captain as a senior and basically functioning as the team's captain as a junior, according to former Clayton coach Gary Fowler, Thomasson hit a competitive wall.

Thomasson recalls the year he spent at NAPS as formative and challenging. He missed home and the warm weather down south and says he truly learned how to balance academic and football responsibilities while getting his first real taste of independence. It was a stressful and exhilarating year.

"It makes you grow up fast," Thomasson recalls of his NAPS year. "I didn't really know how to study until that year. It taught me to become a man."

When he reported for Induction Day at the Naval Academy, Thomasson envisioned himself in the thick of the Navy depth chart right away. After all, he'd always been a disciplined student, had always excelled on the playing field - he was a varsity sprinter and basketball player who could dunk a basketball as a 5-feet-9 seventh grader - and had always been a quick study in the football classroom.

But Division I football is a whole new ballgame for most freshmen, as Thomasson discovered. He got buried early on the depth chart and did not see a lick of varsity action. He got very familiar with the scout team.

"I remember I came in with the same idea, and I didn't travel to a single game as a freshman," recalls Gonzales, who is now a third-year starter and a co-captain. "Understanding the process from then on was a big part of it. There might be a few plebes that actually make the travel team or even start, but they're outliers. That's not a [typical] Navy football player."

Thomasson digested that lesson, but his sophomore season proved disappointing once again. He appeared in four games, made two tackles on special teams, which was not good enough to earn a varsity letter.

"For a while when I was younger, I just felt like I was sinking," he says. "I'd had maybe my best summer ever [coming into his second season]. The doubts started creeping in [during the 2014 season]. Am I good enough? What am I doing wrong? I tried to turn that into motivation."

All along, according to Adams - now a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps training at The Basic School in Quantico, Va. - Thomasson was making steady progress. He did not let his doubts show.

"We never had to console him. Daiquan understood he had a role, just like everybody else has a job," Adams says. "He was great in the locker room. You never had to worry about him off the field. I'd seen him enough in practice and heard him enough in the film room to know he would be ready when his turn came. He's the quintessential Navy football player."

"The thing that separated Daiquan [at Clayton High] is he never talked about being a leader, but that's exactly what he was naturally, even as a sophomore," says Fowler, who broke his own rule by allowing Thomasson, as his quarterback, to play safety also.

"He played part of his junior year with a broken wrist," he adds "He didn't have a Superman body, but he was a great athlete with the perfect attitude and demeanor. It was never about him."

Earnell Christian, Thomasson's father, says Daiquan was a natural caretaker in the family. His mother, Melody, is an accountant. Earnell has been a truck driver for the past 12 years. Daiquan embraced the job of looking after his younger siblings - brother, Arnel, and sister, Micayla.

"Daiquan was top dog through elementary school, in academics and P.E. class. He was a big kid," Christian says. "The first year he played city football when he was 10, he knew what to do and would tell the middle-school kids what to do.

"By the time he was in the seventh grade, it seemed like he was in the end zone every other time he touched the ball. During his freshman year [at Ragsdale High Scholl in Jamestown, N.C., he got promoted to the varsity football team after rushing for over 300 yards in a JV game."

Christian's job transfer brought the family to Clayton, where Thomasson drew serious recruiting interest from East Carolina, before Navy came into the picture. The idea of serving his country and playing Division I football was too tempting to pass up.

By the time his junior year rolled around at Navy, Thomasson was nearly mastering the ins and outs of the rover position.

It calls for him to read his offensive keys, commit to the run aggressively like another linebacker in the tackle box while watching for weak-side blocks and cutbacks. It also calls for him to read the pass correctly, cover the right receiver in man-to-man or protect against the big play in zone, while communicating with linebackers and cornerbacks to make sure Navy is in the right coverage scheme.

"It's not an easy position," O'Brien says. "A safety has to be fast, physical and really smart."

After replacing Bertrand a year ago, Thomasson showed all of those traits with more consistency as the season wore on. He capped the year with three tackles, a pass breakup and that huge interception against Army, some of it after suffering what turned out to be another broken wrist. Thomasson wore a cast while chipping in four tackles during Navy's blowout win over Pittsburgh in the Military Bowl.

"Kwazel was playing a terrific game, one of the best games I've ever seen him play [when he got hurt]," Thomasson says. "I hate what happened to him. But we had to move forward. I took on that experience head-on, and it made me a better leader."

Bertrand, who soon will begin submarine warfare officer training, predicts big things in 2016 for Thomasson.

"He's willing to take on the challenge of leading the young guys, and I think he's prepared for it," Bertrand says. "He's playful and personable and easy to laugh with, but when it's time to get serious, Daiquan is dedicated to the task at hand. I never had a doubt that he was capable of taking over my position. I think he's going to have a phenomenal year."