Logan Thomas (Or How I Learned To Recognize Outliers And Accept Mediocrity)

Judging by the countless defenders Logan Thomas has on these boards, and the pitchforks and downvotes that accompany any sort of negative comments towards him, I decided to conduct a little analysis. This analysis does not begin to factor in his contributions in the running game, so please don't "YEAH BUT 3RD&LOGAN!!!" me.

As we all know, LT took over the reins of the offense in 2011. Against a largely cupcake early season schedule, he struggled out of the gate as any inexperienced QB is expected to. His numbers through the first five games of the season:

57% Comp --- 177 ypg --- 4 TD --- 5 INT

Certainly not good, but again, nothing too troubling given his inexperience. He followed this up with without a doubt his best performance by completely obliterating Miami. He followed this performance by dominating the rest of the ACC and a trip to the conference championship (38-0 bro?). His numbers during this span? Impressive:

61% Comp --- 236 ypg --- 15 TD --- 5 INT

This fantastic performance to finish the season led most fans to have high hopes that the offense could once again excel in 2012 despite losing a number of vital skill position players. As we all know, this was not the case.

51% Comp --- 229 ypg --- 18 TD --- 16 INT

Much of this decrease in performance was attributed to his poor surrounding cast. With Marcus Davis and Dyrell Roberts half-assing routes all over the field, and no running game to speak of, this was a fair assessment...to an extent. There were still numerous INT's that should have never left his hand, and just poor decision making in general. His accuracy fell off significantly as well, with plenty of balls uncatchable regardless of who the target was.

So far through 2013, it has been much the same. Admittedly, it's a small sample size that includes Alabama, but the overall results look familiar:

47% Comp --- 172 ypg --- 3 TD --- 4 INT

So for the crux of my blog post, if you were to remove the stretch of games in 2011 beginning with his legend-making Miami game through the Sugar Bowl from his career stats as a starter. You get this:

52% Comp --- 209 ypg --- 1.2 TD/game --- 1.2 TD/game

Just for the sake of argument, here are the career stats of a popular QB scapegoat who may or may not be the subject of my username (per game statistics not applicable due to a QB time share):

58% Comp --- 4867 yards --- 28 TD --- 21 INT

So my point is. Don't let a 9 game stretch of fantastic play with a fantastic supporting cast skew your judgement. I think the 21 other full games he has started are a truer indication of his abilities. Maybe you shouldn't downvote someone for mentioning the dreaded four letter word....Leal.