Now that you remove him out of the program and you get a chance to kick the tires and look at him as a player, look at him as a student, look at him as a developing project, I think he grows on people quite a lot, Whitfield said.
is George saying we sucked on O or something?
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Most hokies do understand that, but there were plenty of issues with his performances over the last two years that had nothing to do with anyone else as well. There were plenty of times when he wasn't getting any help just as there were plenty of times he wasn't helping himself. It was whatever the exact opposite of serendipity is.
Also, keep in mind, this is Whitfiled's job as a private QB coach to hype his clients.
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I think the bigger point here is that no QB can be reasonably expected to be perfect, which was not the case for Logan. Shoot, even Andrew Luck only completed a measly 72% of his passes his final year. In the classroom, that's a C-. For Thomas, he had so little help that even some of his good decisions looked like mistakes. And if he actually did make a mistake, forget about it. There wasn't anyone there to bail him out, a la Winston or Manziel who fairly regularly made the highlight reel on throws that should never have left their hand, but turned out well because their receiver made a great play.
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Yeah, too bad we won't get to see Manziel in college without Mike Williams to bail him out. Winston is another one. Kelvin Benjamin is a pretty good safety valve, and he's just one of how many guys from that receiving corps who will be getting drafted this year?
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At least 14 former Hokies, including dismissed place-kicker Cody Journell, and several players from smaller schools around the state participated Wednesday at Rector Field House (more on them tomorrow).
I didn't know that VT let other school's participate in their pro-day. Is that normal? I know QBs can't through to receivers that are still on roster, which was the debacle of Tyrod's pro-day, but I didn't know it was so open. It's a classy move in my opinion.
Also surprised to see Journell get a 3rd chance from Beamer.
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Yes, it's extremely common, for the simple reason that very rarely do schools graduate their starting QB AND 3-4 WRs/TEs (and if they do, they're probably gonna be in a world of hurt on offense next season). And I'm not sure what to think about the Journell situation. But hey, I don't run the program and I'm not an NFL GM, so it's not really any of my concern.
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No idea how Beamer can feel comfortable with letting a kid who got kicked off the team come back and represent the team. How many chances did he get 4-5, I'm sure we don't know the exact reasons but it mind blowing to see it happen.
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I thought he put on a show, said quarterback guru and Thomas personal coach George Whitfield, obviously not an impartial observer.
It's like when your parents say you're the best player on the team. If he said anything else, he would be a terrible business man.
Hokies offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler gave him some advice but was mostly an observer. Whitfield ran the show.
I don't know how I feel about this. What is Logan saying about Loeffler? In my opinion, which is wothless, you got a QB coach (Loeffler) and a salesman (Whitfield), and the salesman ran the show while the QB expert watched.
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I don't think it's a knock on Loeffler. Logan isn't in the program anymore and his personal coach in Whitfield so it's on Whitfield to run the show. As much as I like Loeffler, Whitfield knows how to sell Logan to the pro scouts and LT is better off having him run the show.
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I agree with that. But it is Loeffler's job to ensure his QBs get drafted well so he can recruit HS QBs that want to be NFL prospects. Maybe this is a smart move by Loeffler. Why not let Whitfield work the scouts to get Logan drafted high, making VT and Loeffler still look good.
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I have to believe Loeffler is involved in the process. NFL guys respect him. Isn't it also part of the scouts' jobs to do background on any player they're interested in? That would involve talking to Beamer and Loeffler, I would have to think.
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There's also the fact that Logan has been working with Whitfield a lot more than Lefty since the season ended. That comes down to the fact that Loeffler has enough going on with guys already in, or that he's trying to get into, the program. He's got to recruit, watch film, plan out spring practices, etc. On the other hand, Whitfield has nothing but time to help Thomas work out any issues with his mechanics, footwork, etc. It was pretty much the same issue Lefty had in the spring/fall. He was too buys trying to install a new offense and make sure Logan had the mental stuff down that they didn't really have too much time to overhaul his throwing motion.
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Lefty probably works 50 hours/week during the off season, and 60-80 during the season (film study, practice, meeting with players/coaches, designing playbook, recruiting, etc.). He doesn't have time to spend an additional 6-10 hours a day mentoring Logan. I'm sure he's willing to support Logan in anyway, but it's simply not his job to provide individual, in depth tutelage to a player after he's left the program.
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I'm not talking about in depth tutelage (which I doubt Whitfield provides, but I digress...) I'm talking about setting up a Pro-Day. I thought the VT coaches were responsible to set this up, but I have no actual idea. I mean, if VT isn't running the pro-day, then why not have the pro-day at University of San Diego, where Whitfield does his training?
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Good point. I interpreted it to mean that Whitfield ran Logan's workout. There was a video on hokiesports.com that showed Gray running drills for Exum and Fuller.
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I was under the impression that Whitfield is training a small handful of QBs across the nation, and Logan is one of them. Hasn't he been living somewhere (not home or BBurg) for training purposes?
Good point. I interpreted it to mean that Whitfield ran Logan's workout. There was a video on hokiesports.com that showed Gray running drills for Exum and Fuller.
Grey probably has less responsibility than Lefty (more time to plan a pro day) and has multiple players to plan around. I was under the impression that Logan was seeking 'full-time' tutelage from Whitfield (please correct me if I'm wrong). Since Whitfield has been training Logan, it only makes sense that he would know how to best display Logan's abilities to pros. Curious if Whitfield is also organizing/running Johnny's 'pro day'.
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Logan was in San Diego for only a week or two with Whitfield. FWIW, Whitfield ran Andrew Luck's pro-day, and that's really where he made his claim to fame. Manziel didn't workout at Texas A&M's pro-day, he'll have his own private pro-day on March 27. I imagine Whitfield will run Manziel's pro-day as well. Maybe this will be the new trend for the hottest quarterbacks, and I guess that's ok. But, I still argue that Whitfield is a salesman and marketer and not a coach, which is actually pretty smart for Logan as he heads into the draft.
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He made his name with Cam Newton, not Andrew Luck. NOBODY had Newton as a #1 pick at season's end in 2011. Two months later, he emerged from his workouts with Whitfield as the #1 pick.
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>> Logan was in San Diego for only a week or two with Whitfield.
That doesn't seem to be true. Guy tweeted quite a bit with LT3 working out in SD, pictures and dates, evidence type stuff... maybe he falsified the stream of pics and tweets?
Think someone needs a restraining order. What did Whitfield do to you?
The notion that he isn't adding value beyond sales and marketing is laughable. As a sales and marketing guy he seems like he could use some refinement at best, to be modestly out of his league at worst.
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I seem to recall that he played the position and started working as a QB coach. I'd say he realized he could probably just make more money running a QB camp than he could as a position coach, not to mention live in San Diego and have a stable job, as opposed to entering one of the most unstable professions on the planet.
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Whitfield sounds like a smart businessman, not a coach. Props to Whitfield for building his brand, but a guy that runs a camp is not a coach to me. He's a trainer. Sure, several great quarterbacks have trained with Whitfield. All them were already good QBs. How much coaching did Logan get in the few weeks he's worked with Whitfield? Loeffler worked with Logan a full year and said he still didn't have enough time to coach him into the QB he could be. Could Whitfield really be that good that he could coach Logan into a superstar in a few weeks? Considering one of Logan's biggest weakness was decision making and pocket awarness, how beneficial is it to have Logan throw the ball in the ocean to increase his strength? Consider me cynical about what Whitfield can truly provide...
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Part of Lefty's problem, as stated before, was that he had to design an offense. He couldn't just coach mechanics. Now yes, Logan had some decision making and pocket awareness issues, but he also had a few mechanical issues, specifically with his release and footwork. That's the kind of stuff Lefty didn't necessarily have time to extensively drill Thomas on and that's the kind of stuff that Whitfield worked on, in addition to some other, more cerebral aspects of being a QB. That said, I consider Whitfield 100% a trainer/businessman. However, he can make a whole lot more money if he actually knows what the heck he's doing.
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I've not met Whitfield so this is just a guess. He is highly regarded for something. A position coach or trainer is a specialist, and yes he is not a coach. A coach deals with so much more. Whitfield has a reputation and success with getting big name clients prepared for and into the NFL. If it works for LT then great. Lefty can't commit the time to prepping just one guy who is already out of the program. I'm sure SL didn't prepare a workout and was not working out with LT prepping for the Pro Day. Salesmanship or not he believes in his clients and wants them to succeed because it means he succeeds. One more thing is that coaches do their job for the love of the game and a desire to help others succeed. They have a passion for it. Getting paid well for doing it is just a bonus. Whitfield has to have a passion for what he does.
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And I know people DON'T want to hear this, but check out his comparables to other TEs. THAT'S why there is so much talk about him potentially being a TE in the NFL. Yes, his comparables to other QBs is absurdly off the charts, but he also knocks it out of the park at TE, and compares well to guys like Grahame and Gronk, and now we have the stats to show. With the way the NFL is starting to lean HEAVILY on the TE position right now, I would not be surprised if there is a growing market for Logan as a TE project right now over being a QB prospect, and I would suspect his future earnings potential could be greater as a TE.
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Logan Thomas as a potential TE is only a factor among the chattering classes. It is a minor, minor factor in the decision process for pro teams -- especially those most inclined to take him as a QB.
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Actually, with all of the uncertainty on whether he can develop into an NFL quarterback, being an athlete with measurables comparable to the best TEs is a huge factor. It greatly improves a teams risk/reward outlook on LT.
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Comments
That's what I like to hear!
is George saying we sucked on O or something?
He was saying this offense had some challenges the last couple years. And Logan didn't necessarily have a ton of help.
I just wish more Hokies understood this, and I've argued it many times face-to-face.
Most hokies do understand that, but there were plenty of issues with his performances over the last two years that had nothing to do with anyone else as well. There were plenty of times when he wasn't getting any help just as there were plenty of times he wasn't helping himself. It was whatever the exact opposite of serendipity is.
Also, keep in mind, this is Whitfiled's job as a private QB coach to hype his clients.
I think the bigger point here is that no QB can be reasonably expected to be perfect, which was not the case for Logan. Shoot, even Andrew Luck only completed a measly 72% of his passes his final year. In the classroom, that's a C-. For Thomas, he had so little help that even some of his good decisions looked like mistakes. And if he actually did make a mistake, forget about it. There wasn't anyone there to bail him out, a la Winston or Manziel who fairly regularly made the highlight reel on throws that should never have left their hand, but turned out well because their receiver made a great play.
Yeah, too bad we won't get to see Manziel in college without Mike Williams to bail him out. Winston is another one. Kelvin Benjamin is a pretty good safety valve, and he's just one of how many guys from that receiving corps who will be getting drafted this year?
I didn't know that VT let other school's participate in their pro-day. Is that normal? I know QBs can't through to receivers that are still on roster, which was the debacle of Tyrod's pro-day, but I didn't know it was so open. It's a classy move in my opinion.
Also surprised to see Journell get a 3rd chance from Beamer.
Yes, it's extremely common, for the simple reason that very rarely do schools graduate their starting QB AND 3-4 WRs/TEs (and if they do, they're probably gonna be in a world of hurt on offense next season). And I'm not sure what to think about the Journell situation. But hey, I don't run the program and I'm not an NFL GM, so it's not really any of my concern.
No idea how Beamer can feel comfortable with letting a kid who got kicked off the team come back and represent the team. How many chances did he get 4-5, I'm sure we don't know the exact reasons but it mind blowing to see it happen.
Well, Beamer's the one who kicked him off, so if he's ok with Journell coming back and kicking in front of/talking to a few scouts, more power to him.
Yea it just seems weird when all year we/hokienation knew his days were numbered.. he must have meet with CJ and decided it was a good thing to do .
It's like when your parents say you're the best player on the team. If he said anything else, he would be a terrible business man.
I don't know how I feel about this. What is Logan saying about Loeffler? In my opinion, which is wothless, you got a QB coach (Loeffler) and a salesman (Whitfield), and the salesman ran the show while the QB expert watched.
I don't think it's a knock on Loeffler. Logan isn't in the program anymore and his personal coach in Whitfield so it's on Whitfield to run the show. As much as I like Loeffler, Whitfield knows how to sell Logan to the pro scouts and LT is better off having him run the show.
Agreed. Lefty's job is run an offense and teach the QB how to lead the offense.
Whitfield job is to get Logan drafted. There's overlap between the two, but definitely a difference.
I agree with that. But it is Loeffler's job to ensure his QBs get drafted well so he can recruit HS QBs that want to be NFL prospects. Maybe this is a smart move by Loeffler. Why not let Whitfield work the scouts to get Logan drafted high, making VT and Loeffler still look good.
I have to believe Loeffler is involved in the process. NFL guys respect him. Isn't it also part of the scouts' jobs to do background on any player they're interested in? That would involve talking to Beamer and Loeffler, I would have to think.
There's also the fact that Logan has been working with Whitfield a lot more than Lefty since the season ended. That comes down to the fact that Loeffler has enough going on with guys already in, or that he's trying to get into, the program. He's got to recruit, watch film, plan out spring practices, etc. On the other hand, Whitfield has nothing but time to help Thomas work out any issues with his mechanics, footwork, etc. It was pretty much the same issue Lefty had in the spring/fall. He was too buys trying to install a new offense and make sure Logan had the mental stuff down that they didn't really have too much time to overhaul his throwing motion.
Lefty probably works 50 hours/week during the off season, and 60-80 during the season (film study, practice, meeting with players/coaches, designing playbook, recruiting, etc.). He doesn't have time to spend an additional 6-10 hours a day mentoring Logan. I'm sure he's willing to support Logan in anyway, but it's simply not his job to provide individual, in depth tutelage to a player after he's left the program.
I'm not talking about in depth tutelage (which I doubt Whitfield provides, but I digress...) I'm talking about setting up a Pro-Day. I thought the VT coaches were responsible to set this up, but I have no actual idea. I mean, if VT isn't running the pro-day, then why not have the pro-day at University of San Diego, where Whitfield does his training?
Good point. I interpreted it to mean that Whitfield ran Logan's workout. There was a video on hokiesports.com that showed Gray running drills for Exum and Fuller.
I was under the impression that Whitfield is training a small handful of QBs across the nation, and Logan is one of them. Hasn't he been living somewhere (not home or BBurg) for training purposes?
Grey probably has less responsibility than Lefty (more time to plan a pro day) and has multiple players to plan around. I was under the impression that Logan was seeking 'full-time' tutelage from Whitfield (please correct me if I'm wrong). Since Whitfield has been training Logan, it only makes sense that he would know how to best display Logan's abilities to pros. Curious if Whitfield is also organizing/running Johnny's 'pro day'.
Logan was in San Diego for only a week or two with Whitfield. FWIW, Whitfield ran Andrew Luck's pro-day, and that's really where he made his claim to fame. Manziel didn't workout at Texas A&M's pro-day, he'll have his own private pro-day on March 27. I imagine Whitfield will run Manziel's pro-day as well. Maybe this will be the new trend for the hottest quarterbacks, and I guess that's ok. But, I still argue that Whitfield is a salesman and marketer and not a coach, which is actually pretty smart for Logan as he heads into the draft.
He made his name with Cam Newton, not Andrew Luck. NOBODY had Newton as a #1 pick at season's end in 2011. Two months later, he emerged from his workouts with Whitfield as the #1 pick.
>> Logan was in San Diego for only a week or two with Whitfield.
That doesn't seem to be true. Guy tweeted quite a bit with LT3 working out in SD, pictures and dates, evidence type stuff... maybe he falsified the stream of pics and tweets?
Think someone needs a restraining order. What did Whitfield do to you?
The notion that he isn't adding value beyond sales and marketing is laughable. As a sales and marketing guy he seems like he could use some refinement at best, to be modestly out of his league at worst.
Yeah I thought Whitfield was also a coach.
I don't think he's ever coached. He has been a graduate assistant for 1 year at Iowa and an intern for San Diego Chargers.
But he's working on and (apparently) helping with Thomas' mechanics.
I seem to recall that he played the position and started working as a QB coach. I'd say he realized he could probably just make more money running a QB camp than he could as a position coach, not to mention live in San Diego and have a stable job, as opposed to entering one of the most unstable professions on the planet.
Whitfield sounds like a smart businessman, not a coach. Props to Whitfield for building his brand, but a guy that runs a camp is not a coach to me. He's a trainer. Sure, several great quarterbacks have trained with Whitfield. All them were already good QBs. How much coaching did Logan get in the few weeks he's worked with Whitfield? Loeffler worked with Logan a full year and said he still didn't have enough time to coach him into the QB he could be. Could Whitfield really be that good that he could coach Logan into a superstar in a few weeks? Considering one of Logan's biggest weakness was decision making and pocket awarness, how beneficial is it to have Logan throw the ball in the ocean to increase his strength? Consider me cynical about what Whitfield can truly provide...
Part of Lefty's problem, as stated before, was that he had to design an offense. He couldn't just coach mechanics. Now yes, Logan had some decision making and pocket awareness issues, but he also had a few mechanical issues, specifically with his release and footwork. That's the kind of stuff Lefty didn't necessarily have time to extensively drill Thomas on and that's the kind of stuff that Whitfield worked on, in addition to some other, more cerebral aspects of being a QB. That said, I consider Whitfield 100% a trainer/businessman. However, he can make a whole lot more money if he actually knows what the heck he's doing.
I've not met Whitfield so this is just a guess. He is highly regarded for something. A position coach or trainer is a specialist, and yes he is not a coach. A coach deals with so much more. Whitfield has a reputation and success with getting big name clients prepared for and into the NFL. If it works for LT then great. Lefty can't commit the time to prepping just one guy who is already out of the program. I'm sure SL didn't prepare a workout and was not working out with LT prepping for the Pro Day. Salesmanship or not he believes in his clients and wants them to succeed because it means he succeeds. One more thing is that coaches do their job for the love of the game and a desire to help others succeed. They have a passion for it. Getting paid well for doing it is just a bonus. Whitfield has to have a passion for what he does.
From Bleeding Green Nation (Eagles Blog)
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2014/3/20/5529208/2014-nfl-draft-chip-kelly-virginia-tech-pro-day-kyle-fuller
Check out the Spider graphs for Logan. lol thats just comical
And I know people DON'T want to hear this, but check out his comparables to other TEs. THAT'S why there is so much talk about him potentially being a TE in the NFL. Yes, his comparables to other QBs is absurdly off the charts, but he also knocks it out of the park at TE, and compares well to guys like Grahame and Gronk, and now we have the stats to show. With the way the NFL is starting to lean HEAVILY on the TE position right now, I would not be surprised if there is a growing market for Logan as a TE project right now over being a QB prospect, and I would suspect his future earnings potential could be greater as a TE.
Logan Thomas as a potential TE is only a factor among the chattering classes. It is a minor, minor factor in the decision process for pro teams -- especially those most inclined to take him as a QB.
Actually, with all of the uncertainty on whether he can develop into an NFL quarterback, being an athlete with measurables comparable to the best TEs is a huge factor. It greatly improves a teams risk/reward outlook on LT.
A huge factor? Exactly what factors are less important than his measurables compared to other TEs?
Any team(s) for which it's a huge factor won't be drafting him.