I worked with someone that was in the same boat as you. By the time I met him he was with the company for 5 years, and at that time he was a lead developer. So it can happen. That persons coding skills weren't the biggest asset to the company either. He had a really good work ethic and could organize work and teams well.
Here is a tip. Get your hands dirty with code right away. You need to know if its something that you really like doing, because if you're not passionate about it you'll give up soon. Your nights and weekends need to be filled with research. So, pick a project, and start. See if you can find a mentor or maybe someone at slashdot can suggest a good project/tutorial to get you started.