Logan Thomas can run, sure, but he’s not going to wow you with speed. He is hard to tackle, but considering Alabama returns their top tackling Safety, their top Safety overall, 4 starting LBs and a LB who rotated in to rush the passer more and more as the season went on, and with the average weight of the starting Defensive Lineman being 297 pounds, Alabama shouldn’t have much of a problem tackling Thomas.
The Tide returns most of the key pieces to their “mush rush” from last year, and they did a good job containing everyone except Johnny Manziel. I don’t think I’d be too worried about his ability to run the football, and since they’re seemingly out of Running Backs, unless JC Coleman is indeed able to play, it only makes things worse for their offense. They will start two Freshman Tackles as well, only making things worse for the Hokie offense.
Logan Thomas completed just under 52% of his passes last year, and threw 16 INTs. He had FIVE games where he completed LESS than 50% of his passes, including the last three he played, and he only passes the 60% mark in two games, with one being Austin Peay. In 6 games, he threw at least two Interceptions, and one where he threw 3.
The following is a game by game (except Austin Peay because cfbstats.com does not list FCS teams) listing of the pass defenses he faced.
Georgia Tech, 58th
Pittsburgh, 20th
Bowling Green, 13th
Cincinnati, 91st
North Carolina, 83rd
Duke, 104th
Clemson, 73rd
Miami (FL). 105th
Florida State, 1st
Boston College, 77th
Virginia, 33rd
Rutgers, 39th
Average Pass Defense Rakning : 58th
So on average, he played a, well, he played an average pass defense. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when you put up the numbers he did, it speaks to your ability as a passer.
To add fuel to the fire, Virginia Tech lost their top three WRs, all Seniors. Marcus Davis, Corey Fuller, and Dyrell Roberts combined for 127 catches, 2166 yards, and 12 Touchdowns. To give you can idea of how much production Logan Thomas lost, that’s 2166 yards lost out of the 2976 that he threw for. It also means that he lost 12 of the 18 TDs he threw for. It’s now been announced that starting Tight End Ryan Malleck will miss this season with an injury. That’s another 17 catches for 174 yards gone from Logan’s production.
I’m sure the Hokies could find lightning in a bottle and make a play on Special Teams, or maybe beat a blown coverage, but I don’t see much of a chance for VT to move the ball on a defense that returns almost everyone from a defense that led the nation in Rushing, Total, and Scoring defense.
Everything points to a dominating defensive performance by the winners of the last two National Championships, and an abysmal offensive performance for the Virginia Tech Hokies.
Don’t miss top ranked Alabama vs Frank Beamer and the Virginia Tech Hokies, at 4:30pm Central Time tomorrow evening on ESPN. For those of you in other time zones, it’s 5:30pm Eastern Time, 3:30pm Mountain Time, and 2:30pm Pacific Time.