Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
If it wasn’t so alarming, it could be chalked up to early-season struggles. But as it is, Logan Thomas‘ poor performance in Virginia Tech‘s opening scrimmage is cause for concern.
The senior quarterback was once again inconsistent leading the Hokies offense, completing just 5-of-15 passes for 72 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately, he was also intercepted twice. If Hokie fans were looking for marked improvement from Thomas as he enters his final year on campus, today’s effort won’t inspire much confidence.
The highlight for Thomas was a beautiful 30-yard touchdown hook-up with redshirt freshman Joshua Stanford. However, he struggled with his accuracy for much of the day and wasn’t helped by an offensive line that was leaky throughout the day.
All told, the Hokie defense had eight sacks, three of which were against the starter Thomas. They also held the Hokies to 3-18 on third downs. That is tremendous for a young defense, but problematic for the Hokie offense.
Thanks to a relatively easy schedule, many college football analysts have Virginia Tech in their top 25 to start the season. In order for that to be a reality, Thomas needs to be considerably better than he was as a junior.
In 2012, Thomas completed just 51% of his passes and threw 16 interceptions. This was after bursting onto the national scene with a dominant sophomore season.
It’s hard to place an entire teams’ prospects on the shoulders of one player, but in this instance, it’s appropriate. If Thomas plays anywhere close to how he did as a sophomore, this team can contend for the ACC crown.
Hokie fans better hope today’s scrimmage was just a hiccup.
B.L. is an ACC Football writer for Rant Sports and can be followed on Twitter @coachlip or on Google.
