Rested NC State receiver Thayer Thomas feeling fresher, more elusive than ever
This spring, Thayer Thomas got to be a regular college kid.
He took some trips with his brother and friends from high school — during spring break to Charleston and Myrtle Beach. He and his family also went to Washington D.C. to see his aunt and uncle, and then he got with his friends again to rent a cabin in the woods for a weekend.
Instead of lounging around in his off-campus apartment, the Wake Forest resident stayed at home, spending extra time around his family and taking advantage of his mom’s cooking.
Thomas, a junior wide receiver at N.C. State, needed the break — both physically and mentally.
Since high school , Thomas has played sports year-round. At Heritage High he was the starting wide receiver for the football team (all-time leader in catches), starting point guard for the basketball team (all-time leader in assists) and outfielder for the baseball team (single-season record for hits).
Not much changed once he enrolled at N.C. State. Thomas dropped basketball, but still played football and baseball, transitioning from the gridiron to the diamond each spring. He made enough of an impression on the baseball team that the Boston Red Sox selected him in the 33rd round of the 2019 MLB draft. Thomas hit .222 with one home run and two doubles in 14 games.
Thomas turned down the MLB offer and returned to the football program, catching 31 passes for 334 yards and three scores last fall.
He was productive, but he was tired.
A regular college kid
As tired as he was, Thomas was still practicing with the baseball team every day — until the opening weekend. That’s when he decided to redshirt the baseball season. Five days into spring football practice, COVID-19 hit and shut down all athletic activities.
For once, Thomas had a chance to do whatever he wanted.
So he did what college kids do, he spent time with friends and had some fun. While in Charleston with ECU wide receivers Blake Proehl and Tyler Sneed, two of his closest friends, Thomas got the news that they would not be returning to school because of COVID-19. That meant an extended spring break. So he took some trips with his brother, Drake, a sophomore linebacker at N.C. State. Thomas felt like a kid again, free to roam as he pleased, something he hadn’t experienced since before high school.
“The past year I didn’t have any time off in the spring or the summer,” Thomas said. “To have the quarantine stuff, it was good.”
Good for his mind, even better for his body. Thomas had suffered a nagging hamstring injury with five games remaining in the 2019 football season. He admitted the injury didn’t allow him to finish the year as strongly as he had hoped. But for the first time this spring and summer, he had time to prepare his body just for football.
Going from one sport to the other for so long, he wasn’t able to develop like he wanted. It was tough on his body when he was lifting for football and going to baseball practice the same day.
“In baseball it’s a lot more upper body stuff like my shoulders and back for swinging the bat,” Thomas said. “For football it’s mainly your wind and your legs, just trying to get that back. That’s basically the biggest difference.”
In an effort to catch up on all the at-bats he missed while catching passes, Thomas got extra reps in the batting cage. That did a number on his hands.
“My hands weren’t used to hitting,” Thomas said. “I would get a lot of blisters.”
This offseason, Thomas only used his hands to snag passes. Since players couldn’t be around coaches, he linked up with his former high school quarterback, Gunter Holmberg, who now plays at Duke.
“It was a good three months we had to ourselves, to focus on ourselves and get better,” Thomas said. “And I really took advantage of that, in my opinion.”
People around the Wolfpack program have taken notice. So far in preseason camp, head coach Dave Doeren has seen a fresher Thomas. On a Zoom call with the media on Wednesday, Doeren singled out a big play the 6-0, 195-pounder made to end practice.
Doeren noted that he felt like Thomas was wiped out from a mental standpoint, going from fall to spring, from spring to fall like he had done for so long. With some rest, Thomas has looked different on the practice field.
“He’s fresh right now, he’s got good stamina,” Doeren said. “He definitely has reaped the benefits of some recovery on his body and his mind.”
Home cooking
When he found out the rest of the spring semester would be online and players couldn’t work out on campus, Thomas packed his bags and moved back home. It was an uncharacteristic move for a college student with his own apartment.
His reasoning was pretty simple: home-cooked meals.
“I knew I would get better, healthy meals from my mom cooking,” Thomas said. “I felt like she could help that way. Also being around my parents and family was great. People asked me ‘you have an apartment why would you go home?’ I just took my nutrition very seriously.”
Passing up the fast food restaurants that most college kids feast on, Thomas was able to cut fat and feels faster and more elusive this camp. Eating home-cooked meals daily, passing up on CookOut and Chick-fil-A, made him feel fresher.
Most of the time when he left home he brought his own food, taking a lunchbox with him nearly everywhere he went. If he did eat out, he tried to get something healthy.
Towards the end of the summer he and other local college players started working out with former N.C. State linebacker Airius Moore, who trains athletes. Moore’s girlfriend does meal plans, so Thomas took advantage, selecting from a wide array of organic meals.
“I was really just trying to take advantage of the opportunities to eat clean and eat good, when you live on your own in college it’s hard to do,” Thomas said. “It’s tempting to go to CookOut at night, stuff like that.”
College graduate
Baseball wasn’t the only extra load Thomas took off his shoulders heading into the 2020 season. Over the summer he earned his degree in Business Administration. With his undergrad degree in hand, Thomas feels like that’s one less thing to worry about during the season.
“Less responsibility school-wise. I’m taking grad classes, but with them being online and stuff it’s easier to manage, in my opinion,” Thomas said. “You don’t have to leave practice in a hurry to go straight to campus. It’s a little easier to focus on football.”
The fact that he was able to balance two college sports and earn his degree ahead of schedule doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been around Thomas, on or off the field.
“Thayer is always a guy you can expect whatever you need out of him,” Wolfpack senior wide receiver Emeka Emezie said. “He’s just a solid competitor and a solid person, someone you can rely on. You can see that in his play. He came in as a walk-on and he just worked his butt off. Thayer is always going to be Thayer.”
Heading into the 2020 season, Thomas will be counted on to help break in a new starting quarterback, Devin Leary, and continue his consistent play. He’s caught 34 and 31 passes, respectively, the last two seasons with three touchdowns each year.
He hopes to build on that, and with a fresh body and healthy mental outlook, N.C. State fans might see the best version of Thomas yet.
This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Rested NC State receiver Thayer Thomas feeling fresher, more elusive than ever."
