The American Athletic Conference has been a showcase for some of the most prolific offenses in college football in its brief history, thanks in large part to the proliferation of the spread across the nation. The result has been eye-popping numbers in terms of points scored, yards gained, and plays executed.
Other teams, meanwhile, remain a bit more traditional in their offensive schemes, meaning that a six-minute scoring drive is just as important as a one-minute scoring drive.
You can count UConn senior Noel Thomas among the individuals who have delivered the eye-popping numbers. But Thomas has done so without the benefit of playing in an up-tempo system that sends statisticians to their calculators. The Huskies are as physical a team as there is in The American and go with a base offense with two tight ends, a running back and two wideouts. They’re not quite “three yards and a cloud of dust,” but they are a long way from “the Greatest Show on Turf.”
Thomas, in many ways, is the key to the Huskies’ offense, thanks to his both his consistency in making the routine play and his ability to come up with an explosive play when it’s needed. He enters this week’s game at USF with 55 catches for 631 yards and three touchdowns, accounting for nearly half (47.8 percent) of the Huskies’ completed passes. He ranks fourth among NCAA FBS players in receptions (9.2 per game) and is 15th in receiving yards (105.2 ypg).
Thomas enjoyed one of his best games in what might have been UConn’s signature win of the last two years. He had seven catches for 108 yards and two TDs as UConn stunned No. 13 Houston last season, and he has four 100-yard games in 2016, putting him on track for all-conference honors.