Football: UL’s Thompson faces familiar foe

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, December 17, 2012

None of the Football Bowl Subdivision in his home state offered UL junior tight end Ian Thompson a football scholarship.

Not North Carolina. Not Duke. Not Wake Forest. Not North Carolina State.

Not even East Carolina, the Conference USA team the Ragin’ Cajuns will face in Saturday’s New Orleans Bowl.

So Thompson took it upon himself to seek offers elsewhere, even if it meant leaving a land where basketball is king but — in one Cajuns’ estimation — football isn’t far behind.

"A lot of people would say (basketball rules in North Carolina), and I do feel like there are more passionate fans for the basketball in college," he said. "But I feel football is right up there.

"People don’t really know it, just because (the state) has North Carolina, Duke, Tobacco Road. They have such a prominent basketball history. But people are really passionate about their football also."

The proof — at least when it comes to East Carolina, a school about 180 miles from Thompson’s home in Kernersville, N.C., and one a number of his friends attend — is packed into the stands at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, N.C.

With a population at just under 90,000 (but another 100,000 in the metropolitan area), Greenville is just the 10th-largest city in North Carolina. The student population is large at just under 28,000 — including almost 21,000 undergrads — but not enormous. And it’s almost a 30-mile drive west to find the closest interstate.

Yet the 8-4 Pirates drew more than 45,000 for each of their six home games this season, including 49,023 for their season-opening win over FCS Appalachian State.

"They have a good fan base," Thompson said. "They’re really similar to our team — they have a good fan base, some passionate fans. "» They’re real proud of their team.

"They always field a competitive team "» and they have their fans just like the ACC teams have theirs."

But none of the FBS schools in North Carolina — ACC, or even C-USA — were big-enough fans of Thompson to offer him a scholarship deal.

So he set out to find one his own, no matter where in the country he had to go — over the Rockies, up into the Pacific Northwest, even down to Cajun country.

"At the end of my high school season," Thompson said, "I wanted to get to an FBS team. So I sent my film to every single D1 team in America, no matter if it was FBS or FCS.

"I’d play anywhere. Wherever. I didn’t care."

But FBS — old NCAA Division 1A, as opposed to 1AA — was what he wanted most.

Thompson wound up receiving some bona fide interest and even offers from FCS programs in North Carolina, and had some positive feedback from a number of out-of-state FBS programs as well.

He even was issued a few FBS visit invites, including one from the Cajuns and the former staff of ex-head coach Rickey Bustle.

He had no ties to the school — no relatives who attended UL, no family who lived who near Lafayette, no real clue what he was in for.

But he made the visit — it was his first — and wound up taking a leap of faith.

Now he is UL’s starting tight end under Mark Hudspeth — replacing NFLer Ladarius Green, drafted earlier this year by the San Diego Chargers, and sharing time with fellow junior Jake Maxwell.

"I liked it so much," Thompson said, "I just committed right after (visiting).

"I really liked the coaches. I liked the offensive system. And just the friendliness of the people — just how they welcome you in, just a down-home (feel). It felt like home to me."