He had a rough start to his redshirt sophomore season when he was arrested for taking a part in a brawl that he was later cleared of. Still, Deionte Thompson ended the season on the highest of notes when he stepped up in the wake of Ronnie Harrison’s injury and delivered in his first career starts.
On the year, Thompson posted 25 total tackles and an interception in mostly a backup role. In his two playoff starts he recorded four and three total tackles, respectively. While his stats were not particularly eye-popping, it was his physicality that helped him shine.
This dude Deionte Thompson (@playmaker_11) is going to be a stud next season. pic.twitter.com/v8IdXiDv7S
— Stephen M. Smith (@CoachingMSmith) October 22, 2017
Deionte Thompson came to hit! 💪🏽👊🏽 pic.twitter.com/IxABizPBVS
— West Coast Tide Fans (@WCTideFans) October 15, 2017
His length and ball skills are also something we can expect to see a lot of from Thompson in 2018:
Deionte Thompson’s range on this play from NCG is ridiculous … pic.twitter.com/umeHD7hYJU
— Bama Central (@BamaCentral) January 14, 2018
Plays like these are going to be a necessary component to next year’s secondary with the extensive list of losses including Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ronnie Harrison, Anthony Averett, Tony Brown, and Levi Wallace. The biggest difference between Thompson and the departing safety duo of Fitzpatrick and Harrison is his size. He is listed at a healthy 6’2″, but his weight – 194 pounds – is about 20 pounds lighter than Ronnie and 10 lighter than Fitzpatrick. His tape proves that not to be a huge problem, but a larger sample size may prove otherwise.
With so many departures, question marks make up almost all of Alabama’s secondary going into 2018, with Deionte Thompson being the sole known commodity. Whether he can anchor such a young group is yet to be seen, but his tape says he can be a key factor.
