Hokies' Thomas strong against Hurricanes

Published Oct. 9, 2011 10:20 p.m. ET

foxsports

Logan Thomas made the plays in leading Virginia Tech to a victory against Miami, something that he didn't happen a week earlier in a loss to Clemson.

Perhaps now fans of the No. 19 Hokies (5-1, 1-1 ACC) will relax.

Except for a pair of fumbles on botched snaps, one of which he recovered himself, Thomas was almost perfect in Virginia Tech's 38-35 victory against Miami on Saturday night, right down the 77-yard drive that he capped with a 19-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 with 56 seconds left.

The numbers: 23 for 25, 310 yards, three touchdowns, and two touchdowns rushing. One of the incompletions was a drop, the other a smart play by Thomas to throw a bungled snap away.

His completion rate, 92 percent, was the highest for any quarterback with at least 20 attempts in a game in the 301 that Frank Beamer has coached with the Hokies

Just as he took a poor performance a week earlier in a 23-3 loss to Clemson in stride, saying he'd been taught growing up to let criticism slide off his back, Thomas treated his performance as just the next game in a career still only six games old.

''I said I wanted to get better, but I wasn't expecting this much better,'' he said.

Teammates and Beamer have said that they could see that Thomas has what it takes to be the next star quarterback for the Hokies, and they grinned broadly Saturday night.

''Today going out there and watching Logan go to work, it was just amazing,'' wide receiver Jarrett Boykin said.

It was Boykin, the Hokies' career leader with 143 receptions, who caught a 60-yard TD pass from Thomas, a play that inadvertently probably aided Miami in its comeback.

The Hurricanes had just driven 89 yards in 12 plays, and the Thomas-to-Boykin connection answered that score in just one play - and sent a weary defense right back onto the field.

At the end, though, after Miami had gone ahead 35-31 with under 3 minutes to play, Thomas said he headed back onto the field with confidence because the offense had been clicking well.

And he made it happen, even when the Hokies faced the fourth-down play, and changed their mind after initially calling a short pass and instead let the 6-foot-6, 254-pound Thomas keep it.

He started the play thinking of going for the first down, he said, and found space in front of him.

''He just did his job,'' Miami linebacker Sean Spence said.

Rather than sliding, the one-time tight end lowered his shoulder, leveling Spence.

''He just did his job,'' Spence said of the final TD. ''We didn't make the play.''

Thomas did, and Beamer cut short his answer to a question about the defense later.

''I want to talk about our offense,'' he told reporters after the game. ''You guys have written (negatively) about our offense, and I want to see you writing about it tomorrow, too.''