Thomas could see considerable playing time

On the KPAX sports tonight.

Sorry you Griz/Packer fans. Thomas is impressing the coaches in Mini Camp and they have waived Westbrook and one of the starting corners is demanding a trade. This could be a golden opportunity for Joey.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing Thomas in yellow 'n' green. Mike McKenzie is awesome, but he's sworn he'll never play for the Pack again, and I'd be surprised if he doesn't get his trade. Ahmad Carroll is good too, but he seems to be wilting under the training camp heat lamps, while Joey is flourishing. Carroll gets a lot of the press because he went to a more prestigious school, but Joey has been turning heads at the mini-camp.
Actually, Thomas has made nothing but good impressions with the Packers mgmt since well before draft day. Here's a recounting of the first meeting between the Packers' former safety LeRoy Butler and Thomas way back in February:

Thomas certainly made a memorable first impression. Most of the guys at the Combine go to all their interviews in their workout shorts and a Combine T-Shirt. Thomas wore dress slacks and a tie.

You could tell right away that he was confident in his ability. He talked about how he was eager to become a professional football player and how he thought he could come in and compete with the league's top receivers right out of the box.

As a former defensive back, I love to see that kind of mentality in a kid.

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I think he's gonna get it done. I'm a die-hard SeaChickens fan, but I'm still looking forward to seeing JT opposite Al Harris this coming season. Hopefully, Hasselbeck will have a chance for redemption against those clowns in the playoffs once again.

Thomas is the next Bruce Pickens. Great combine numbers made Pickens the eighth pick in the first round of the NFL draft but he couldn't cover a chef's salad.

GrizBear said:

Thomas is the next Bruce Pickens. Great combine numbers made Pickens the eighth pick in the first round of the NFL draft but he couldn't cover a chef's salad.

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This is just amazing... I've intensely disliked the G* for my whole life, but I've never had a problem rooting for former frizzies when they have made it to the "bigs". I love Dave Dickenson, Scott Gragg was the only reason I'd ever watch the 9'ers until last year...

I'm sorry, but nothing can change the outcome of the last two C/G games, so you may as well bury the hatchet and let the hatred go... Joey is on to better things, and whether he was a cat or a griz doesn't matter to me... I'm rooting for the Big Sky boys no matter what "spirit colors" they wore in college.

Lets just see how Thomas does on the field. I hope he does well except for when the Pack play the Vikings. Mel Kiper Jr. is all over this guy raving about him so he must be special. But then again weren't Todd Marinovich, Ryan Leaf, and Chuck Long supposed to be special back in their days.

GavinDonuts said:

This is just amazing... I've intensely disliked the G* for my whole life, but ...

I'm sorry, but nothing can change the outcome of the last two C/G games, so you may as well bury the hatchet and let the hatred go...

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Intensely dislike = hatred.

Gavin-Da-Nut said:

This is just amazing... I've intensely disliked the G* for my whole life

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Openly admitting your lifetime ailment of GRIZ ENVY is the first step toward adjustment. My congratulations!

All we know for sure is that Thomas is off to a good start. I think the biggest concern with him is the injury bug. He had quite a few at MSU. What would be real nice is if makes it big and shows what a stubborn crew the Big Sky officials might be. My opinion is that they just didn't like the guy, so they flagged him on anything that looked close to being holding or pass interference. He was a smack talker and I don't care for that, but I would think the Big Sky officials could handle that a little better. However they are just "part-time" employees and most have other jobs, so I can cut them some slack, but the way they handled Thomas wasn't fair.
One other thing about the Big Sky officials that I was told the other day is that one of them (John Maloney of Helena) is Bobby Hauck's uncle. I was also told he's not too bashful about sporting his Griz gear around. I guess he can't ref UM games, but the Big Sky administration folks haven't realized he could affect the outcome of other games that factor in to how sits in the standings. From what I've seen Mahoney is just as good as the other officials and he is a referee (boss ref), which speaks to his abilities and standing with the other officials and Big Sky adminstration.
It isn't fair to anyone as it's just as likely that he over-corrects by making calls against the Griz as he does for them. It's also just as likely that he is completely fair. Point is that he's the only one who knows for sure, while the players, coaches, fans are just supposed to have blind faith.
Mike Saia was a basketball official in the PAC-10 and when his brother became an asst. coach at UCLA under Lavin, he couldn't officiate any PAC 10 league games. His brother just got on at USC recently with Bibby's staff and I believe Mike has discontinued officiating all together.

iaafan,

Did you ever see Joey play? He has always been, how shall I put this, aggressive! Many times overly so!

The Pro's like that kind of style and play. My opinion of his college career is that for every play he got flagged for they (officials) let one go! No doubt he was good, just overly aggressive as well. Maybe that's why he was good?

Anyway, I hope he does well in GB.

This is just amazing... I've intensely disliked the G* for my whole life, but I've never had a problem rooting for former frizzies when they have made it to the "bigs". I love Dave Dickenson, Scott Gragg was the only reason I'd ever watch the 9'ers until last year...

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Well, gee wiz, I'm sorry too. I just think Thomas is one of the most overhyped players I've seen for a while. He has the physical tools the NFL scouts are looking for but he plays sloppy. His "physical" play is grabbing and holding. If anything, the Big Sky refs let him get away with far too much. The NFL refs won't hesitate to shower him with yellow hankies.

Yes, I've seen him play and, yes, he is very aggressive. I just think he got a raw deal, because the refs didn't like him. I can't imagine Kramer sending the videos of the calls in for another opinion helped, especially when that opinion came back in Thomas's favor.
As you can tell I'm not real high on the Big Sky officials and how the league conducts its business in regards to having a relative of a head coach working games. Whenever there is a controversial call the Conference doesn't get an explanation from the officials. I don't know that the BSC has been real up front with the Maloney-Hauck situation. Maybe they announced this, but if they did I missed it. It has the potential to be a real black eye for the league.
What happens when, for instance, UM needs NAU to lose to ISU on the last game of the year and Maloney refs the NAU/ISU game? ISU wins and somehow Maloney is involved in a questionable call in ISU's favor. The NAU coaches, fans, players find out who Maloney is and then how do they feel about all of this? How do the UM players feel about it?
I just think the BSC needs to tighten things up in those areas. Or at least explain itself.

Victor G,
I disagree that the BSC officials ever "let one go" for Thomas. Why would they? I believe they miss calls on a fairly regular basis and I can live with that, but my point is that they had a problem with Thomas and he was treated with less tolerance than the other players. In the end it'd be nice to see him do well in the NFL just to show up the BSC refs.
Thomas was flagged 30+ times during a career that spanned about 40 games. Lets see how it all goes in the NFL. If he makes it as a starter at some point we can compare the numbers.

the big sky refs let thomas hold and mcfarland chop block all the time. they would hold meetings days before hand to make sure these two players got special treatment in the games. it was a mandate by fullerton.

guys, come on! I am a Griz fan but I have to think that the Packers COACHES are going to teach him the technique that they want him to use. He played one way in college and it got him drafted. Now the Pack will mold him into the type of player they want him to be. I am sure he can learn the system. Lets give him some credit

I didn't like Joey as a 'Cat either -- but I'll definitely root for him in the NFL. The success of any player from the Big Sky sheds good light on all the rest of the conference.

When did Fullerton give this 'mandate' to the officials regarding McFarland and Thomas? I have trouble with that and even if its true it appears that the officials didn't follow it.
Why would an NFL team draft a guy with 30+ penalties? They probably reviewed tape and thought the calls were incorrect.

1aa fan: i hope you were joking with that last comment. please read extreme sarcasm in my last post. anyway, thomas and mcfarland cheated,
it's all a conspiracy.....the refs...the big sky....the commish....

Sorry Hokeyfine. Should've known, but thanks for the explanation. As mentioned I'm none too impressed with the officiating in the BSC, but it's likely I'm way off on all this.
Just wonder what others think of the whole Thomas/BSC officials and Hauck/Maloney situations. Does it hurt UM? Help UM?
Seems like the BSC should come clean and send out a press release regarding Maloney being Hauck's uncle. I think fans would appreciate the BSC being up front about it.