Thomas: ‘I think we’ve got just as much talent’

Georgia Tech quarterback Justin Thomas has spent the summer teaching, tweaking and training alongside his new set of skill-position players on offense. Thomas struck an encouraging tone about the passing workouts he has been leading in the offseason.

“Just trying to get on the same page, making sure that they’re kind of thinking the way that I’m thinking, so once we get on the field together, it kind of gels,” Thomas said Monday at the ACC Kickoff.

Thomas said he has been arranging workouts at least twice a week, on top of the team’s strength and conditioning sessions conducted five mornings a week. Much of the time has been spent with Thomas having backs and receivers run different routes and make adjustments based on different defensive alignments the Jackets will face.

“I would say I’m teaching more, because the guys right now don’t know what the guys before them (did),” Thomas said.

A year ago, in advance of the Yellow Jackets’ Orange Bowl championship season, Thomas prepared over the summer with a cast of veterans, such as wide receivers Darren Waller and DeAndre Smelter, A-backs Deon Hill and Charles Perkins and B-back Zach Laskey. He has several incoming freshmen with him now, as well as a number of redshirt freshmen and sophomores.

“I think we’ve got just as much talent,” Thomas said. “Young talent, but I think they can grow into their own.”

B-back Patrick Skov, who is a graduate transfer from Stanford, is another. Thomas called him a “physical specimen” and offered assurance his adjustment will not be problematic.

“He’s a pretty smart kid, especially coming from the type of things they used to do over there (at Stanford),” he said. “He can come in and pick it up pretty quick.”