Despite the inevitable setbacks caused by a multi-month pause in practice due to the coronavirus pandemic, some NC State football players say they were able to take advantage of a rare opportunity to self-reflect on their personal skill sets.

“It was a good three months we had to ourselves to really focus on what we wanted to get better at individually,” redshirt junior wide receiver Thayer Thomas said. “I took advantage of that in my opinion.”

The Wolfpack slot receiver and kick returner entering his third playing season in Raleigh chose to focus on his speed by working out with some of his former high school teammates when he returned home to Wake Forest (N.C.) in the early stages of the pandemic.

“I really worked on my speed this offseason,” Thomas said. “Whenever Devin was in New Jersey, I would throw with my high school quarterback [Gunnar Holmberg], who's now competing for the job at Duke. I would do some one-on-ones with their DBs.”

NC State was already scheduled to face Duke in Carter-Finley Stadium this season and the game remained on the Pack’s opponents list when the ACC released its revamped 11-game model in late July. Assuming the schedule is played in its entirety, Thomas will get another opportunity to face the Blue Devils’ defensive backs later this fall.

The pass-catcher said he was also able to work on his fundamentals in the offseason with Ricky Proehl, who privately trains a number of college receivers. Proehl, a two-time Super Bowl champion, played 17 seasons and coached five in the NFL. He now owns Proehlific Park, a sports performance complex and training center in Greensboro (N.C.).

Holmberg wasn’t the only quarterback Thomas was able to catch passes from in workouts this summer. His college quarterback, redshirt sophomore Devin Leary, returned to Raleigh frequently from his home in New Jersey to get reps in.

“Devin was in New Jersey for most of the quarantine, but when he got back at the end of May, we made a weekly habit to throw three times a week to try and catch up for what we missed,” Thomas said. “Before that, he would come down for a week or two here and there, and we would go to local fields and throw, or even sometimes at a baseball field.

“We definitely got work in when we probably should have been in the house, but we had to make it happen.”

Leary will be tasked with the challenge of learning a new system in 2020 under offensive coordinator Tim Beck, who was hired at the beginning of the year. Although the quarterback wasn’t able to spend an ideal amount of time this offseason with his new coach and play-caller due to the pandemic, the redshirt sophomore felt the offense has done a good job picking up the system despite the inability to install in-person before this week.

“This summer has definitely been different for all of us,” Leary said. “It was something that we had to adjust to, but for the most part, I feel like we handled it very well.”

“We were all able to make a group chat with our whole team and we were also able to make a receiver, quarterback, tight end group as well. We were able to stay in contact with everyone, seeing where everyone's head was at, and just making sure everyone was understanding their playbooks was really key for this offseason.”

One of his primary targets has already noticed an increased confidence level in the second-year quarterback entering his first season as the team’s starter.

“I've seen a difference in Devin since he's played from last year,” Thomas said. “It was tough for him at first because he was a three going into last season. I just told him to stay positive because in my opinion, I felt like he could be the guy at any point in the season so I was trying to stay positive with him.

“Ever since he started playing last year, I feel like he's made it known that he's the guy now.”

For Leary, his five starts in the Wolfpack’s final five contests of 2019 made a world of difference.

“It was huge just getting those in game repetitions,” Leary said. “It really just helped me become more comfortable in the game, get more comfortable with the pace of the game as well.

“I'm just learning from everything that I can from last year and trying to take everything that I learned on and off the field to enhance my game even more for this upcoming season.”

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