Va. Tech TE/WR prospect showing potential at QB

BLACKSBURG

On the first day of Virginia Tech's preseason football practice last August, assistant coach Mike O'Cain watched a promising new tight end help warm up the quarterbacks.

Logan Thomas, rated the No. 1 "jumbo athlete" recruit in the country by Rivals.com, was catching passes and tossing them back. It wasn't the catching that grabbed O'Cain's attention.

"The ball came out of his hand pretty well," said O'Cain, Tech's quarterbacks coach. "I saw a motion

that wasn't necessarily perfect, but a motion that I felt like I could work with and develop and get better. And I saw a guy who's 6-foot-6."

Thomas had been a wide receiver and safety as a sophomore at Brookville High when Tech originally offered him a scholarship. Because he was the best athlete on his team, however, he moved to quarterback for his final two seasons. He led the team to a state championship game.

But every recruiting guru in the country, and the Hokies' coaches, considered him a tight end or receiver prospect. One who could play immediately. So O'Cain had only briefly evaluated his quarterback skills on video and again based on a few casual heaves prior to Thomas' first collegiate practice.

"I didn't want to make a rash decision," O'Cain said. "So we approached him and said, 'We'd like to look at you at quarterback for a couple days, maybe a week. If we don't feel like there's any potential there, you can step back over at tight end and play tomorrow.' "

Initially, the experiment looked like a failure. For two days, Thomas struggled with the basics of the position: calling plays, crouching under center, footwork. By the third day, though, his natural ability began to shine.

Thomas already had arguably the strongest arm on the team - he broke the finger of a scout-team receiver three times last fall - to go with long legs, size-18 feet and a 40 time in less than 4.6 seconds. He also carried the quiet confidence of a leader.

"You felt like there was that potential there," O'Cain said. "As August went on, you saw him get better and better, smoother in all the little things."

Near the end of camp, coaches sat down with Thomas and asked if he would redshirt in the 2009 season. And if he'd then be OK spending most of his sophomore season - this fall - watching and learning from the sideline. The tradeoff for Thomas, who had been all but promised playing time as a freshman, was that Tech would develop him into a big-time quarterback. He could be groomed to replace senior Tyrod Taylor.

" 'I understand what you thought coming in," O'Cain told him, 'but having done this for 33 years... I see a young man who has the ability in time, potentially, to be a three-year starter. There aren't many quarterbacks who have that opportunity. It's going to take patience, take work, take sitting a year. Are you willing to do that?' "

With a nod, the Logan Thomas Project truly took off. Eight months and lots of learning later, the progress of that project will be on display at today's spring game.

So far this spring, he has battled redshirt sophomore Ju-Ju Clayton to a near tie for the backup job. Their passing numbers have been similar, although Thomas has thrown no interceptions in spring scrimmages, while Clayton has four. Thomas also has had several long runs this spring, including a 39-yard touchdown.

Really, it seems there are two competitions going on, the battle to be this fall's

No. 2, which is a toss-up, and the fight for the starting job in 2011, which is trending in Thomas' direction.

But O'Cain has called the competition "a good battle," and it's one the coaches are content to let rage into August camp. They believe keeping the two players at co-No. 2 will keep their competitive fires stoked. And keep the pressure on Thomas.

Clayton was lightly recruited and long considered a career backup, so when he outplayed Thomas in the first three scrimmages, it came as a slight surprise. That Clayton threw four interceptions over the last two scrimmages was less surprising.

At 6-foot-1, 218 pounds with average arm strength and speed, he is not playing under the weight of the same expectations as Thomas, who is 6-6, 238, and could've played at Penn State or Oklahoma or Tennessee or about anywhere else he wanted.

He was a prized tight end, and now many Tech fans expect him to be an elite quarterback, to pick up where Taylor - a key cog in two ACC titles and counting - leaves off. Thomas admits that he has felt the pressure.

"You never want to disappoint, so you work just as hard to make the fans happy as yourself," he said. "I know that's not the way to look at it, but it's always in the back of your mind."

That's why he said he pressed in the first three scrimmages and completed just 39 percent of his passes. But O'Cain tried to unburden his pupil before Wednesday's mini-scrimmage.

"Just relax," he told Thomas. "Be the best you can be today."

The result was a 9-of-13, 116-yard performance, his best of the spring. Finally, he duplicated the accuracy he has shown in several practices. There are increasing signs that this experiment might have a happy ending.

Along with the stress of the spotlight, Thomas is also enjoying its warmth. That has helped him bide time on the bench. Quarterbacks touch the ball far more than tight ends.

"I was struggling" for a few weeks last fall, he said. "I was like, 'Man, I could be playing right now if I wasn't moved.' (But) quarterback is a position you have to love because it's such a prime-time position.

"That will definitely be worth the wait."

Kyle Tucker, (757) 446-2374, kyle.tucker@pilotonline.com