Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

If Jim McElwain hadn't stepped in to block it, former CSU quarterback Pete Thomas might have been starting for Wyoming next season, he said Wednesday.

Thomas, who left Colorado State University two years ago for North Carolina State, instead signed Tuesday with Louisiana-Monroe. As a fifth-year senior with a bachelor's degree in hand, he'll be eligible to play immediately for the Warhawks.

"The last thing I thought I would do is play for three different schools," Thomas said. "But everything happens for a reason, and I've got an opportunity to play at Louisiana-Monroe for my last year, and I'm pretty excited about it."

Thomas played two seasons at CSU under former coach Steve Fairchild, throwing for 4,269 yards and 18 touchdowns with 21 interceptions, during 3-9 seasons in 2010 and 2011. He transferred soon after Fairchild was fired and replaced by McElwain, who had been the offensive coordinator on national championship teams in two of his four seasons at Alabama.

His original release to transfer from CSU prevented him from continuing his career at another Mountain West school without forfeiting a year of eligibility based on the MW's intraconference transfer rule. But Thomas said that rule should no longer apply now, given that he's spent the past two seasons at North Carolina State, where he sat out the 2012 season and played in nine games last fall after replacing an injured Brandon Mitchell in the season-opener. Thursday, he said his request for a waiver to the intraconference transfer rule had been denied.

"I don't want to get into it too much, but Wyoming was going to happen, and Jim McElwain denied it," Thomas said. "... If he hadn't opposed it, it would have happened.

"... Pretty much everywhere, they block you from transferring to conference schools, which I completely understand. I do not understand why he would block it now. It does not make sense to me."

McElwain, through a school spokesman, declined comment. New Wyoming coach Craig Bohl, through a school spokesman, also declined comment.

Thomas, 6-foot-5 and 236 pounds, completed 149 of 247 passes for 1,667 yards and four touchdowns with nine interceptions last season at North Carolina State. The Wolfpack went 3-9, ending the season on an eight-game losing streak under first-year coach Dave Doeren.

Thomas, who went to North Carolina State to play for former coach Tom O'Brien, decided it was time to move on again and spent the past four months looking for a place to finish his career.

"He has to go find a place that needs a senior quarterback to fill in a year," Thomas' father, Dan, said. "There aren't a lot of places that need that. ... You go where you think you have the best shot of playing."

Besides Wyoming, he also considered Akron, where two former CSU players were on the defensive line last season and another, running back Donnell Alexander, is headed this fall. Doeren helped connect Thomas with Louisiana-Monroe, Pete Thomas said. The Warhawks went 6-6 last season with a senior quarterback at the controls of a spread offense similar to the one Thomas ran in high school in El Cajon, California. Louisiana-Monroe threw the ball on 55 percent of its offensive plays last season.

"I think it fits me pretty well," Thomas said. "It's a unique situation I'm in, so I had to take my time with it and make sure I made the right decision. I want to finish my career the right way."

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