Thomas Wearing Blinders To Critics

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There have been plenty of struggles since the onset of this season for senior quarterback

But for a three game stretch, against Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Pittsburgh, Thomas appeared to have turned the corner. He and the Hokies had no turnovers and found ways to win.

The past two games were a different story, as Thomas threw six interceptions and fumbled twice, resulting in losses to Duke and Boston College. With the mistakes has come the grumbling from fans and outsiders that Thomas should be yanked as the starting quarterback.

Thomas dismissed any notion of that after Saturday's loss. And though he's kept his even-keeled nature, Thomas had a few blunt remarks at yesterday's weekly Virginia Tech press conference, when pressed about his mistakes and if he has any thoughts of being replaced this season.

"You deal with it any way you deal with any other kind of criticism," Thomas said. "Especially from you guys. You can't really get away from it with you guys. I'm up here and I've gotta hear it from you guys, but for that, I don't even pay attention to it. It's pretty simple, you don't look at your mentions. For me, it's whatever. People are gonna say what they're gonna say. If they wanna say something after they come sit in the meeting room with me, come be on the practice field with me, then you can say whatever you want to. But until you do that, your opinion means nothing."

There have certainly been numerous calls for Thomas' backup, junior

"You can go ahead and ask anybody in this building right now," Thomas said. "You can walk across the street to Merryman and ask anybody over there. You can ask anybody that's a part of this program if they think there's any chance of me being taken out for a series and it'll be a quick no. I feel the same way. Wherever that question is stemming from, you can go ahead and throw that out."

Thomas also had no regrets in how he's thrown the ball to his receivers. Sophomore

"I'm supposed to deliver the ball how I'm supposed to," Thomas said. "They're the ones that's gotta make the plays. If you ask Willie right now, he will take the blame for it."

As he usually does, Thomas doesn't show a ton of emotion, at least not publicly. After rolling to six straight wins, back to back losses wouldn't sit well with anyone, much less Thomas. But he said he's looking straight ahead with blinders, at least to outsiders and those not within the program.

"The most frustrating part of the past two games is that they've ended in losses, really, for me," Thomas said. "Yeah, of course you wanna correct the interceptions, the fumbles, whatever, the turnovers in general. But you've just gotta keep playing. For me, I've gotta be the one to take care of the football in the throw game and obviously, I had two fumbles as well, which goes on us as a team. We've dominated in every category the past two weeks, besides turnovers and that's what's caused us to lose."