Criticism of Hokies' Thomas Needs to be Toned Down

By Alexander Koma on July 21, 2013

Regardless of how you feel about the Virginia Tech Hokies’ 2012 season, there’s no equivocating when it comes to one simple point; the play of quarterback Logan Thomas held the team back.

The Hokies had a variety of issues that contributed to their 7-6 record last year, but Thomas’ 16 interceptions and 51% completion rate were truly frustrating for a guy that was as dominant as the passer was in 2011.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Consequently, over the course of the last few months, the negativity surrounding Thomas’ performance has snowballed.

He managed to throw three interceptions in the team’s spring game, and with a new offensive coordinator running the show in Scot Loeffler, the general consensus is that Thomas is in for a rough 2013 season.

This criticism has reached its high point over the last few days. Thomas has been named to the Camp, Maxwell, and O’Brien award watch lists, which are meant to identify the nation’s top players before the year starts, and fan backlash to these selections has been intense.

To top it all off, Bleacher Report’s lead NFL and draft writer Matt Miller took to Twitter to comment on the word around the league that Thomas is still highly regarded in NFL circles, saying that the media has every right to disagree.

While drafting Clemson’s Tajh Boyd over Thomas might’ve seemed ridiculous just one year ago, it’s now a pretty uncontroversial opinion.

It’s easy to get carried away and be outraged that people still think highly of Thomas after last season’s debacle, but to do so is to ignore some truly important facts surrounding the maligned quarterback.

Ignore the 2011 season if it makes things easier; sure, Thomas threw for 3,000 yards and 19 TDs with a 60% completion percentage, but for the sake of this argument, pretend that 2012 is all there is to judge Thomas on.

Let’s start with the bad, simply because avoiding it would be difficult.

The biggest reason to be down on Thomas is for the truly depressing lapses he showed in mechanics and decision making last season, and there were plenty of examples on display.

Take this interception against Pitt in the team’s first loss of the year.

Thomas felt some pressure, and rather than stepping up in the pocket, he chose to throw off his back foot, and that results in the ball drifting high. This type of play was relatively common last year, and it’s clear that former quarterback coach Mike O’Cain didn’t put enough emphasis on Thomas’ footwork, leading to this regression.

The decision-making was similarly puzzling at times.

Thomas has two different receivers crossing the formation that would’ve been better options than trying to force the ball to Marcus Davis, who is double covered. The QB has had trouble reading the defense since he first stepped on the field in 2011, but when combined with his mechanical issues, it proved to be a truly crippling issue last season.

Now that his shortcomings are clear, let’s look at why there’s still hope for Logan.

To start with, the guy has the one thing you can’t teach a pro quarterback: the arm strength to put the ball anywhere. Check out the way he nails Davis on the sideline here.

That’s the mark of a guy that can do some damage if he corrects his mechanics and is given the chance to set up and throw.

Therein lies the key to understanding the source of many of his struggles last year. His offensive line allowed 25 sacks last year, after letting through just 17 in 2011, and former offensive line Curt Newsome was abysmal at managing the unit over the course of the season.

Similarly, Thomas lost three of the program’s best offensive players ever after last year when Jarrett Boykin, Danny Coale, and David Wilson departed. The team didn’t have much of a running game, largely due to the line’s struggles, but Thomas’ receivers truly left a lot to be desired.

Corey Fuller proved to be a surprising bright spot, but veterans like Davis and Dyrell Roberts seemed to be sleepwalking at times. Just look at the way Davis would lollygag though his routes.

It’s tough to blame Thomas’ supporting cast for all of his various woes last year, but it’s also impossible to lay all of his struggles entirely at the passer’s feet either. When combined with an offensive coaching staff that couldn’t craft an identifiable identity if their lives depended on it, it all led to the type of season that earned Thomas this enmity.

Coming into this year, Thomas gets receiver D.J. Coles back from injury, a newly constructed offensive line with new coach Jeff Grimes, and the tutelage of QB guru Loeffler to help reverse these perceptions.

While there’s no guarantee that Thomas will return to the highs of 2011, it’s also seems unwise to believe that he’s destined for a repeat of 2012.

Perhaps rating him as the top NFL quarterback prospect in 2014 is a little ridiculous, but so is believing that passers that lack Thomas’ incredible physical gifts should be rated so far ahead of him.

In any case, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Thomas will change the perceptions of both Hokie Nation and NFL scouts alike after next year.

Maybe Thomas won’t hear his name called first in the draft this April, but if he can improve on these problems areas in 2013, then he shouldn’t have to wait in the green room long.

 

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