By vteffect

Virginia Tech first-year quarterback Logan Thomas hasn’t put up an impressive passing stat line in his first two career games – 17 of 39 passing (43.6 percent) for 240 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

But numbers don’t tell the true story of how he’s played. The coaching staff broke down the film from Saturday’s 17-10 win at East Carolina and they were more pleased with Thomas’s performance (8 of 20, 91 yards, INT) than the stat line indicated.

“I think part of (his low completion percentage) is newness of playing, and that’s going to come over time,” Hokies quarterbacks coach Mike O’Cain said. “I’m not really too much worried about that. As long as he is making the right decisions, and that’s what he has done thus far, as long as he is making the right decisions, the physical part will come.”

O’Cain said Thomas has been nearly flawless in his decision-making. The only fault he can find is not paying attention to the play clock Saturday before it ran out and the Hokies were flagged for delay of game. Other than that, he’s done quite well.

Thomas said he was surprised when he took a look at the stats Saturday. He thought he had a better game than that.

“I thought I played better than my stats showed. After the game, I saw my stats and I was kind of confused. I didn’t feel like I played that bad in the passing game and neither did coach (O’Cain). It was good to hear that. I played better than I looked like I played,” he said.

After the film breakdown, Thomas earned an 85 percent grade, which is quite good for only completing 8 of 20 passes. Thomas himself admits to not knowing what the grade means exactly, but he knows it indicates he played pretty well.

He was intercepted once against the Pirates and had two other passes that could have been picked off.

“One of them I was being hit. When I was getting ready to throw, I was getting hit and it just kind of floated out of my hand,” Thomas said. “The first one … the outside linebacker kind of baited me. He was running toward the flat route and he just stopped and got in front of the curl, so he just made a good play there as well. I’m just thankful they both dropped them.”

Thomas is working on his accuracy. He has thrown some passes behind his receivers, which explains some of the incompletions and/or drops. There have been at least eight dropped passes by Hokies receivers in the first two games.

“We’ve got to throw the ball better to a degree, and honestly we’ve got to catch the ball a little bit better. … We’ve had like seven dropped passes or eight dropped passes in two ballgames, and you can’t do that,” O’Cain said.

“Now one or two here or there you understand, but eight in two games hurts you, so that part has got to get better, and we’ve got to throw a little bit better.”

Thomas knows he’ll need to throw the ball much better for the offense to be successful.

“It definitely has to improve. We’re going to face different competition and I’m going to have to be a 65 percent completion person for this offense to win those big games,” Thomas said.

But at this point, O’Cain has been very pleased with Thomas, particularly in his ability to manage games.