Colorado University Athletics
CU Safety Thompson Eyes Special Season For Buffaloes
August 19, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
CU senior says Buffs want to do 'what nobody in country thinks we can do'
BOULDER — For the last three seasons, Tedric Thompson has been one of the most consistent and productive players on Colorado's defense.
He has 24 career starts to his credit, including all 13 games a year ago. In 2014 he led the Buffs in interceptions with three — the only three the Buffs produced all season — and he added three more last year, tying for the team lead. He also finished with 80 tackles (third best), five tackles for loss, six third-down stops and nine pass breakups.
For his efforts, he was a third-team all-Pac-12 pick by Phil Steele while the conference's coaches made him an honorable mention selection. Heading into this season, he was a preseason third-team all-conference pick.
But numbers and accolades really don't register on Thompson's radar. What does get his attention, though, is the fact that he's playing in a secondary that he and his coaches believe could be among one of the best in the Pac-12 — and one, they believe, that could help the Buffs produce one of their best seasons in recent memory.
"I think he's going to be one of the better DBs in the conference," said CU safeties coach Joe Tumpkin. "He's made huge strides in everything — his mental game, his knowledge, his technique. This being his second year in this defensive scheme, he has a better understanding of it. It's allowed him this camp and last spring to really kind of refine his skills, his tools. He's done an unbelievable job in that, and he's also taken on more of a leadership role, too."
But what Thompson has that can't really be taught is an instinct for the game, what the NFL scouts who visit practice call "ball skills." Thompson simply sees the game through a prism that not all players have, one that puts him in the right place at the right time on a regular basis.
"He has that natural instinct as a football player," Tumpkin said. "He sees things and dissects things. He might not always truly understand it, but when you watch him in game film, he's always around the ball. Now that he has the opportunity to refine some of his skills, it's just making that understanding of what he does even sharper. It makes him a quicker, better, faster player."
Thompson just shrugs and grins when asked about that instinct.
"I don't know how you really define it," he said. "I just remember growing up, my coaches always said, 'See ball, get ball.' I guess I just live off of that. When I see the ball, I try to get there."
But Thompson doesn't live off of his instinct alone. He's done his best to improve his pass cover skills, something coaches told him he needed to work on. The result has been a camp when he's been extremely effective in those situations, to the point that the defensive scheme now relies on him regularly in that area.
"He's really improved his cover skills," head coach Mike MacIntyre said. "We've put him in a lot of coverage situations, not just filling the alley. He worked on that hard in spring and in the offseason and I've seen a big difference out here in that."
The fact that the player who has led the Buffs in interceptions the last two seasons wanted to work on his pass cover skills is a strong statement about Thompson's dedication to the game. The fact that he turned to a teammate known for his cover skills is a testament to his willingness to go to the source when he seeks answers.
"I tell people all the time the people I have to credit are obviously my coaches," Thompson said. "But I also have to credit Chido (Buffs cornerback Chidobe Awuzie). Since I was a freshman, I've always been in his ear. In my eyes, he's a first-round pick. I think he's the best corner in the Pac-12, so I'm always asking him questions about man coverage, things like that, and it's helped."
Thompson has the prototype body for a safety. At 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, he is a fearless tackler, has good speed and can jump. He's been a terrific run stopper for the Buffs and his improved cover skills could make the Buffs' secondary one of the surprise positions in the Pac-12 this season (ESPN recently ranked CU's defensive backs as only the eighth-best group in the conference).
"Hands down, I think we could be the best secondary in the Pac-12," Thompson said quietly. "We believe that."
Tumpkin — never a coach to hand out empty praise — believes the group has that potential.
"We have opportunity to have one of the better secondaries in this conference, especially when you have guys like Chido and Tedric and (Ryan) Moeller and Fo (Afolabi Laguda). Isaiah Oliver is coming along, Witherspoon is growing — and we've got some good young guys, too. Our focus is going to be on getting our skills better, getting this defense locked down and making sure that we're one of the better secondaries if not the best secondary in this conference."
And if that happens, if the Buffs live up to their potential, the reward will be what they all want to see.
"We don't worry about accolades," Tumpkin said. "The one thing we know about those is that as the team improves and the more games we win as a football team, the more recognition people get. One of the things we talk about as a secondary is that we can only control the things we can control — and we can control the wins. We get more wins, all the other stuff will come."
Thompson has the same goal in mind. After three years of going through the rebuilding process, the CU senior wants to leave behind a legacy that fans will remember.
"Our confidence is different," Thompson said at CU's Media Day early in camp. "We're not worried about things anymore. We want our legacy to be something that nobody in the country thought we could do — that's go to the Pac-12 Championship. We don't think anybody is better than us. That's what we want our legacy to be."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
