On The Road: Erroll Thompson
FLORENCE, Ala. - Ah, springtime. Flowers blooming, temperature warming, and… high school football? In the state of Alabama, that's the case. TheWolverine.com hit the Yellowhammer State for a pair of spring games this weekend, starting with Florence High School, featuring 2016 linebacker Erroll Thompson.
Thompson BreakdownThompson is a big, solid inside linebacker who excels at playing the run and coming forward. He's a thumper in the hole, and is plenty athletic enough to burst into the backfield and make tackles for loss. He's likely every bit of his listed 6-2, 255 pounds, and hardly any of it is bad weight. He can trim up and play at around 250 at the college level while maintaining his full athleticism.
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Thompson showed off that athleticism in a big way with a buzzer-beating pick-6 to end the first half of the team's scrimmage against Buckhorn that he took 70-plus yards to put his team up 10-7 at the break (the starters played sparingly after halftime, but Florence did hold on for the 17-13 win).
Thompson isn't a finished product, though. He's not yet comfortable playing in space. He missed a couple opportunities to break on the ball and disrupt passes, and had a tendency to misjudge plays to the perimeter, resulting in a missed tackle or two, and some good yardage for Buckhorn ball-carriers.
When Thompson does get a clean shot on the offensive player, he packs a major punch.
Will Ignont BreakdownOn the other sideline was yet another highly rated linebacker, 6-1, 230-pound 2017 prospect Will Ignont. The star for Buckhorn made his impact, especially early in the most competitive parts of game, when the Florence offense had major difficulty moving the ball. He strung out a quarterback sweep for a safety, and without a solid passing game, the Florence offense couldn't get past him in the middle, or beat him to the edge.
He's more of a lean, sideline-to-sideline player than Thompson, though not as physically imposing. He's also a running back for Buckhorn (though primarily a linebacker, so he got limited touches offensively), and as he transitions full-time to linebacker, he should build up physically and become even more game-aware than he already is.
Thompson Photos