The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 ■ 27 BY MATT CARTER f Thayer Thomas has proven one thing during his athletic career, it is to not bet against him. As he enters his redshirt junior season for the Wolfpack, Thomas is expected to carry a significant load, leading the way at slot receiver and also returning punts and potentially kickoffs. He is already accomplished at both wide- out and punt returner. In his first two seasons, Thomas caught a total of 65 passes for 717 yards and six touchdowns. He also has re- turned 26 punts for an average of 11.2 yards, including a 76-yarder for a score against Ball State in 2019 despite the fact that the Pack only had 10 players on the field. Thomas currently has the seventh-highest punt return average in school history, and he was named a preseason All-ACC choice by Athlon in that specialty. His average of 13.7 yards per punt return in 2019 tied the seventh- best mark for a single season at NC State. All that from a former walk-on who en- tered his senior year in high school at Heri- tage High in Wake Forest, N.C., perhaps more well known for his prowess on the baseball diamond and basketball court. "I just thought, I'm just going to play my senior year [of football] and be done with it," Thomas admitted upon reflection. Thomas was on his way to having a breakout junior year at Heritage after wait- ing his turn, catching 30 passes for 318 yards and two scores in the first seven games of the year. However, he broke his collarbone and it cost him the last half of the season. The following summer, he focused more on baseball and hoops. Fortune changed on Sept. 30, 2016. That Friday evening, Heritage was playing at Raleigh's Sanderson High. While Thomas was an unknown, his teammates were not. NC State was already deep into the recruit- ment of junior running back Ricky Per- son Jr. and sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas, Thayer's younger brother. On the other sideline, NC State was also very interested in a couple of Sanderson juniors: then-linebacker Alim McNeill and running back Trent Pennix. All four of those players ironically would also end up at NC State, and watching from the sideline was their future head coach, Dave Doeren. But the star of that evening, a 17-3 Heritage win, was Thayer Thomas, who caught seven passes for 104 yards. Doeren knew where to go to get the scoop on No. 5 for Heritage — the team's wide re- ceiver coach: NC State legend and College Football Hall of Famer Torry Holt. "I remember walking off the field into the locker room," Thomas recalled. "Coach Holt came up to me and said, 'I was getting texted about you. Coach Doeren was asking who's number five. He's the best player on the field.' Thomas' senior season ended with nine catches for 97 yards and a touchdown in a state playoff loss against Wake Forest (N.C.) High in front of former Pack assis- tant Des Kitchings. At this point, NC State wanted Thomas to walk on. The problem was Thomas had an offer from Davidson to play baseball and after an official visit there in January he decided he would pursue that route. His father, Trevor, persuaded him to check out NC State just to be sure, and the next weekend he did just that. Entering the visit, Thomas was not certain how much NC State wanted him. After the weekend, he felt sure. "It made me believe this is probably the best opportunity," Thomas recalled. "I couldn't really turn it down even though I wasn't getting any money. They wanted me to come here." Thomas felt that he could play football at NC State. He knew that his high school coaches — Holt, plus former NC State and longtime NFL cornerback Dewayne Wash- ington, Heritage's head coach at the time — would not lie to him, and both told Thomas he belonged. It was not easy for Thomas to turn down baseball at Davidson, and interestingly that summer the program stunned UNC in an NCAA Regional, but as it turned out his career on the diamond was not over. Finding Success At NC State Thomas credits his father for not making him focus on one sport. He was the star baseball player on a team that went 20-6 when he was a senior, and the starting point guard on Heritage's 25-5 hoops squad. Col- lectively, his teams went a combined 56-14 his senior year of high school. "My dad said to me growing up, 'Don't let someone tell you that you can't do it,'" Thomas noted. That approach carried Thomas well when he got to NC State. Life as a walk-on in col- lege football is not easy. Through scholar- ships, the football teams across the country have invested money in the players that sign letters of intent, and thus their opportunities are a given. "Here specifically, I feel like they do a good job of allowing everyone to get evalu- ated equally," Thomas noted. One area where Thomas felt he might have lucked out was that at receiver the Pack signed just two scholarship players in his class and added him as a walk-on, thus it was not as crowded. There was also going to be a need in the slot. While he was redshirting on the scout team, Thomas quickly gained the trust to be the one imitating the opponent's top wide- I " My dad said to me growing up, 'Don't let someone tell you that you can't do it.' " Thomas Thomas — a former walk-on — reeled in 65 receptions for 717 yards and six touchdowns, plus averaged 11.2 yards on 26 punt returns, in his first two seasons with the Wolfpack program. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN REFRESHED AND READY Two-Sport Athlete Thayer Thomas Used A Layoff This Offseason To Get Healthy