Thomas Still Confident
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At a few points in Saturday's loss to Alabama it didn't seem to matter where senior quarterback Logan Thomas threw the football. His receivers dropped six of his passes by assistant coach Aaron Moorehead's count, but that number was over a dozen by others' counts.
Either way, it added up to a dreadful stat line of 5-26 passing for just 59 yards and an interception.
Thomas has done his best to keep encouraging his receivers, the majority of whom are still plenty young and inexperienced. This week, Thomas is spending a little extra time with them.
Of course, Thomas shoulders some of the blame as well. He admits he could have thrown a few better passes, though he said it's not a lack of self-confidence.
"I mean, I'm still playing quarterback, aren't I?" Thomas said. "Yeah, my confidence is fine. Why would it falter now? I'm just excited to see where this season is going. I'm not really worried about two years ago. Two years ago is a long ways away. I'm a different person, different quarterback than I was then."
Two years ago, in his first season as the starting quarterback, Thomas threw for 3,013 yards en route to a berth in the Sugar Bowl. And though his accuracy has declined in the process, Thomas doesn't see one thing standing in his way.
"There's a lot of things that go into it," Thomas said. "It's routes, defense. Depending on where your guys are supposed to be at the right time, those guys are supposed to paint a picture for the quarterback. But whatever it is, I'm just gonna come out here and so my own job. If they're not where they're supposed to be, I've just gotta keep moving forward, keep doing my own thing."
It would help however, if the Hokies' receivers are able to rebound in some fashion. It's not like they can't catch. Sophomore Demitri Knowles hauled in a game-tying touchdown against Georgia Tech last season. In the meantime, Thomas is trying to keep them upbeat.
"I just tried to encourage him the entire time," he said. "He's a young guy, just like the rest of our receivers, pretty much. He just kinda needed a little reinforcement. Obviously, they know they messed up, so you don't really need to tell them."
What was shown on Saturday is that if the passing game can get straightened out, Virginia Tech could have a formidable offense. That much was evident behind redshirt freshman Trey Edmunds and an offensive line that helped him churn 132 yards and a touchdown out of 20 carries.
Thomas' confidence with the offense as a whole is still there. Now, it's just bringing it all together, with the hope being it comes against a woeful FCS team in Western Carolina Saturday.
"That's something we really wanted to see coming into the season," Thomas said of the running game. "We know we're gonna be able to throw the football and we wanted to see if we would be able to run it. The offensive line, the running backs did a great job of letting us know, hey, they're there to stay. They're gonna be able to run the ball and in the end, that's what's gonna make our offense very explosive."