Virginia Tech Football: Hokies Will Get Offensive in Week 3 and Beyond

As has become ritual at Virginia Tech in recent years, the Hokies have been less than stellar in the early going of the 2011 college football season, particularly on offense.

That should come as little surprise, given the fact that Frank Beamer has had to replace quarterback Tyrod Taylor and running backs Darren Evans and Ryan Williams—three of Va Tech's four most productive players from last season's ACC champions.

The fourth, running back David Wilson, has performed well in his first two games as a starter in Blacksburg, rushing for 300 yards and three touchdowns in wins over Appalachian State and East Carolina.

Taylor's replacement at quarterback, though, hasn't been quite as effective. Sophomore Logan Thomas has struggled, to say the least, managing just 240 yards with two touchdowns and an interception while completing a paltry 43.6 percent of his passes in the Hokies' first two games.

Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll find that Thomas, while certainly not an elite collegiate quarterback, is at least somewhat justified with regard to what he's done on paper. For one, Thomas' numbers against Appalachian State (9-for-19, 149 yards, two touchdowns) were truncated by the 52-0 lead that he and the Hokies built up against the Mountaineers, which gave Beamer the freedom to replace his starter with freshman Mark Leal in the third quarter.

As poorly as Thomas performed through the air against East Carolina (8-for-20, 91 yards, an interception), he did manage 66 yards on 11 rushes against the Pirates.

Not bad for a guy who's 6'6" and 254 pounds.

And in Thomas' defense, he isn't the only quarterback at a big-time program to encounter difficulty throwing the ball against ECU. No. 10 South Carolina saw its signal callers, Connor Shaw and Stephen Garcia, combine to complete just 10 of 24 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown. Hence, Thomas' performance, while nothing to write home about, isn't exactly an aberration given the opponent.

That being said, he and the rest of the Hokies offense should take off from here on out, particularly given their competition. That begins on Saturday against Arkansas State, a team that gave up 473 yards, including 271 yards passing, to Illinois in a 33-15 season-opening loss. The very next week, the Hokies will hit the road to play Marshall, which allowed more than 300 yards through the air to Southern Mississippi in Week 2.

Those two contests should be enough to get Thomas comfortable and on a roll heading into Virginia Tech's ACC schedule, which features nary a game against a ranked conference opponent. With such a favorable schedule, the Hokies should have little trouble reaching the ACC championship game once again, even if Thomas never quite figures "it" out and even if Wilson doesn't keep piling up yardage on the ground like it's going out of style.

But, realistically, the Hokies have too much talent on offense, and Thomas is just too physically gifted under center, not to improve against the cupcakes of the Atlantic Coast.

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