Paul Johnson says Justin Thomas is frustrated

ATLANTA -- A year ago, Georgia Tech quarterback Justin Thomas was the talk of the town. He seemed to be the perfect fit for head coach Paul Johnson's option offense and proved adept at pulling the right strings at the right time to put the offense into high gear.

This year, Thomas has suffered from an underachieving offensive line, lack of numbers at receiver, inconsistency at B-back and inexperience at A-back. As a result, Thomas has been visibly frazzled at time by the lack of productivity experienced by the offense -- especially in light of how effective things were a year ago.

"I think he's frustrated like everybody else," Johnson said. "I think it would be fair to say that everybody is frustrated, especially if you're not used to this. I don't think he is. I'm not, and I doubt many of our guys are."

Through the first 10 games, Thomas has rushed for 473 yards and six touchdowns and thrown for 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns. Through 10 games last year, he had rushed for 801 yards and four touchdowns and thrown for 1,386 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Thomas also has taken some physical abuse he didn't absorb last year. The loss of guard Shaq Mason, who is now starting for the New England Patriots, has been underrated. Thomas has been sacked 13 times and hounded by rushers since the team's game against Notre Dame.

"I think he's beat up physically," Johnson said. "He's really a tough guy. I mean's he's physically a tough guy."

It didn't help that the Yellow Jackets lost backup Tim Byerly with a season-ending knee injury early in the campaign. Byerly, a big, physical player, could have taken some of the pressure off Thomas by providing some relief in short-yardage situations.

"I think that was a crucial injury when Tim Byerly got hurt," Johnson said. "It took away, for lack of a better term, a package that we like to run with him, like goal line and follow plays and stuff he was really good at. It kind of took that away."

Johnson was hoping to use backup quarterback Matthew Jordan to spell Thomas last week against Virginia Tech. But that plan was foiled when the Yellow Jackets lost three fumbles and the offense was limited to 60 plays.

"I fully intended to play Matthew Jordan, and the situation never presented itself that I felt like there was a time to put him in," Johnson said. "Again, there weren't very many possessions and especially when you fumble them away on the first play.

"I'd like to get him in the game at some point, but I hesitate to say, 'OK, I'm going to put a guy in in the third series.' Because as soon as you do, the ball will be on your 1-yard line or something happens. And I don't want to put him in a bad spot when he goes out there to play. Hopefully, he can play. Justin has been taking a lot of physical shots. It would help him, I think."

Georgia kickoff: ESPN has used its six-day option for the season-ending game between Georgia Tech and Georgia on Nov. 28. The game will either be at noon or 3:30 p.m. and could be shown on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. The time will be announced no later than Sunday afternoon.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Paul Johnson says Justin Thomas is frustrated ."