Saturday is a homecoming for the Wolfpack's Thomas brothers
Each player on the NC State football team gets four tickets to Saturday’s game at West Virginia. For the Thomas brothers — redshirt sophomore receiver Thayer and freshman linebacker Drake — they are going to need a lot more than that.
The two are listed on the Wolfpack roster as being from the Raleigh suburb of Wake Forest, and they played their high school football there at Heritage High. But the truth is the Thomas family is West Virginia in its core.
Their father, Trevor Thomas, was a star player at Marshall. Their mother, Shelly, is a West Virginia grad. Both of the parents grew up 15 miles from Morgantown, home of WVU’s campus.
There are still many family members who make their home in the state, including a cousin in Rhett Heston, a former star football player at Fairmont High and now a walk-on freshman defensive end for the Mountaineers.
“Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and obviously friends that live in West Virginia are all going to make the game,” Thayer Thomas noted.
The family is familiar with the drive from Raleigh to Morgantown. Drake noted every Thanksgiving, Christmas or break they got, the Thomases were heading up to West Virginia.
“It’s like seven hours,” Thayer added. “I hate that drive with a passion. It’s a terrible drive. That’s why I only want to go up there once or twice a year."
Thayer was actually born in West Virginia, while Drake's birthplace is neighboring Ohio. That does not necessarily make Drake any less appreciative of West Virginia.
“Growing up watching West Virginia, everybody in West Virginia is a WVU fan,” Drake said. “That’s what things revolve around: WVU football. Playing against them in that stadium is pretty exciting.”
The two have plenty of experiences making the trip to Milan Puskar Stadium. And both shared a similar sentiment about what to expect.
“There would be occasions when Marshall played at West Virginia. … We would be wearing green,” Thayer remembered. “I was probably like a third-grader, my brother was a first-grader. They didn’t even care. They’re pretty ruthless fans.”
Drake remembered a time they were taking a friend with them to a game, and his father felt the need to give a notice of what they might see.
“The people there, they’re crazy,” Drake added. “They don’t have any filter. They are going to say what they are going to say to you no matter who you are. They don’t care. They are going to say what they say and go about their business.”
Playing at West Virginia never proved to be a viable option for either Thomas brother, but for different reasons. Thayer is a former walk-on at NC State who quickly has proven that he was sorely underrated coming out of high school. He caught 34 passes for 383 yards and three touchdowns during his rookie campaign, and two games into this year he has hauled in eight passes for 96 yards.
Thomas last year got to play at Marshall in front of many of his family and friends at the same university his father starred at, but after making two receptions for 45 yards he was knocked out of the game by a hard hit.
“I felt like I was going to have a really good game if I didn’t get hurt,” Thayer noted. “I started off pretty hot, and unfortunately I got hurt. Luckily, I have a second chance to go up there and hopefully get a full game.”
Thayer understood that it would have been unlikely for him to have landed on West Virginia’s recruiting radar. He was actually more upset that Marshall did not give him an opportunity.
“I took it more personal when Marshall didn’t look at me more,” he said. “It’s not a Power Five school. West Virginia is a little bit more higher up there.”
Drake, however, did have the chance to potentially play for the Mountaineers. He was considered one of the top players in the state of North Carolina in the 2019 class, and Rivals.com rated him at No. 19 in its rankings for the state.
But Drake chose NC State over Clemson in the final decision, and he admitted that WVU was not a serious option for him, even though the Mountaineers had offered.
“Not really, honestly,” Drake said when asked about how much he considered West Virginia. “I never got a chance to visit. I really didn’t talk to them much. There wasn’t really much communication going back and forth.”
But the respect for West Virginia is there.
“We were West Virginia fans for the most part when they weren’t playing Marshall,” Drake said. “When we didn’t have football and could get up there to watch a game, we would.”
Thayer said that he has seen double-digit games in Morgantown. He rattled off former West Virginia stars like Pat White, Steve Slaton, Geno Smith and Tavon Austin as among those he admired watching in person.
“It’s a really loud stadium,” Thayer said. “We would go up there for Thanksgiving usually. We would be up there and we would always go to the Pitt rivalry game, and that game was crazy. It was always cold.”
Drake admitted that this is an opponent that has been circled on his calendar.
“That’s home,” he said.
Thayer said in a way it will be fulfilling a dream.
“With all of my family and my friends being around and being able to watch us play, it’s going to be a cool experience,” Thayer concluded.
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