Is this kid a good athlete or what? I think he had a really good game on Thursday night vs. USF and hope to see more and more of him on defense. He seems to have been worth the wait so far.

Also, how awesome is it to not see him rotting away on the bench due to inexperience? I mentioned in my recent thread about timeout management that Thomas lined up wrong on a 3rd down on Thursday and Graham had to burn a timeout to fix it before it turned into a big play. I understand the frustration with this and can see why Wannstedt didn't want to play freshman, however, Thomas came back and nearly had a big interception (it was a big pass deflection anyway). He also has played a role in getting pressure on the opposing QB and the more I see of him the more I like.

I think there is tremendous benefit to playing young players in college when they are great athletes. At this level you can still out-athlete people. Thomas is an example of that.

Originally I thought he was going to be a WR or a safety. I'm not sure if it's a stretch to play him at linebacker, but we can't disagree with the results so far. My concern is that he may be an undersized linebacker that may get us in trouble in the running game. We'll see.

He's listed as 6-2 - 220. On our team, that's about average LB size. Dan Mason is listed as 6-0 - 220 and Gruder and Gordon are shorter and only listed as 230 lbs.

To further put that in comparison, one of Tampa Bay's linebackers that played on MNF last night is 6-1 - 226.

So he's not really undersized to play LB at all. In fact, at his height he could probably add more to his frame than some of the other guys mentioned.

(10-04-2011 02:42 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  He's listed as 6-2 - 220. On our team, that's about average LB size. Dan Mason is listed as 6-0 - 220 and Gruder and Gordon are shorter and only listed as 230 lbs.

To further put that in comparison, one of Tampa Bay's linebackers that played on MNF last night is 6-1 - 226.

So he's not really undersized to play LB at all. In fact, at his height he could probably add more to his frame than some of the other guys mentioned.

More likely his actual measurements are 6' 0.5", 205. Pitt appears to be one of those schools that inflates a player's height and weight, so I take his reported numbers with a grain of salt.

Buster Davis of FSU was like 5-10 205 and was a very good MLB. I was surprised when the kid was recruited out of Daytona Mainland because he his size. Who knows, maybe Todd Thomas follows a similar career path as Buster Davis.