NC State Football: Thayer Thomas named ACC Rookie of the Week

The NC State football team was without one of their top receiving options but got a big performance from his replacement.

The NC State football team knew coming into their game against Georgia State that they would be without their top receiver from the first game of the season. Jakobi Meyer had an impressive 14 reception, 161 receiving yard against James Madison University but suffered an ankle injury during the course of the game.

However, this Wolfpack offense is incredibly deep at wide receiver as evident by Thayer Thomas’ performance in place of Meyers against Georgia State. He finished the game with nine receptions, a team-high, 114 receiving yards and one touchdown. He also had a 56-yard completion on a trick play and was named the ACC Rookie of the Week.

"ROOKIE – Thayer Thomas, NC State, R-Fr., WR, Wake Forest, N.C.Playing in just his second career game, Thomas had nine receptions for 114 yards in the Wolfpack’s 41-7 win over Georgia State • It marked the highest receiving total by a Wolfpack freshman since 2011 and the earliest that a freshman has posted a 100-yard game • He added a 56-yard pass completion on a trick play."

He had the Wolfpack’s first touchdown of the 2018 season when he caught a 16-yard pass from Ryan Finley in the game against James Madison.

The depth of the wide receiver position has been tested in the early stages of this year. The Wolfpack’s starting wide receiver trio of Kelvin Harmon, Stephen Louis and Jakobi Meyers were expected to be one of the best groups in the ACC. Last season, these three wide receivers combined for 2,327 receiving yards.

However, this team has yet to have all three on the field at the same time. This hasn’t slowed down this offense though as the Wolfpack have 735 passing yards through the first two games.

The NC State football team will likely have to wait at least one more week until they have their top three wide receivers. Stephen Louis was forced to leave the game against Georgia State early and was placed in the concussion protocol after the game. Head coach Dave Doeren however did say he was progressing.

The NC State Wolfpack will face their toughest challenge of the season as they face the 14th ranked West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday in front of their home crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium.