National Signing Day 2012: Why Shaq Thompson Must Pick Oregon Ducks

Shaq Thompson, the nation’s top safety recruit, is putting Oregon Ducks fans on pins and needles with anticipation over whether or not he will attend the University of Oregon.

Luckily for Oregon fans, however, the team is in the best position to land one of the most coveted players in the class of west coast recruits. Thompson, who decommitted from Cal with news of the departure of Tosh Lupoi, has begun the charade of deciding where he will spend the next few years of his life. After deciding not to visit UCLA, the current front-runners to land Thompson are the University of Washington Huskies and the University of Oregon Ducks. There is no indication of where he will sign, but the University of Oregon offers Thompson the best of both worlds and should be considered the best place for Thompson to choose to play football.

Let me open this with a brief anecdote. This time last year, the tolls of January had been crashing down upon Eugene and the skies were full of rain for over a week. This, of course, is very typical to the Oregon climate and is a solid indication of what to expect of the Eugene weather.

For an entire week, it rained and rained and rained. On that Friday, Oregon received a visit from a certain USC verbal commit. He was in town to simply check out the school before making his final decision. He had already helped bring in multiple others players to USC, and his security to the school seemed locked.

As the legend goes, the day that the recruit arrived in Eugene last year the skies cleared up for the weekend and all of the folks in Oregon were able to experience one of the most beautiful weekends of the year.

That recruit, so impressed with the campus and the culture of football that surrounds the university in Eugene, shifted his plans entirely and decided to attend the University of Oregon instead of USC. That recruit: De’Anthony Thomas. Thomas went on to average 159.6 all-purpose yards per game, record 18 touchdowns in his freshman season, and set the record for longest run in Rose Bowl history.

Like Thomas, Thompson is a California kid used to the bigger city life and faster paced nature of living. Citing that as one of his bigger draws away from the school and perhaps at a bigger nod towards the University of Washington (located in Seattle, one of the biggest cities on the west coast), Thompson may follow the history of De’Anthony Thomas and instead elect for the small town perks of Eugene, Oregon.

This weekend has been one of the best all year for the weather in Eugene, and it came at the perfect time for the recruits still on the fence before national signing day.

If Thompson decides on Oregon, he will be joining an elite class of defensive players ready for success on the opposite side of the ball. In the backfield would be hard-hitting safety John Boyett, second team All Pac-12, returning for his senior year of play.

Also returning to the Oregon Ducks is the Rose Bowl Defensive MVP, incoming senior linebacker Kiko Alonso. The defense is young, and features returning names like Michael Clay, Taylor Hart, Dion Jordan, Bo Lokombo, Terrence Mitchell and Avery Patterson.

With the graduation of rover Eddie Pleasant, however, there is a hole in the defensive back position that is only more glaring with Cliff Harris no longer on the Oregon Ducks roster.

If Oregon is able to bring in a big name safety like Thompson, they will be able to stay infinitely more competitive in a division that has been dominated by QBs over the last few years of play.

This will be especially telling in the Oregon-USC game on November 3^rd, as Oregon will try their luck against a favorite for the national title led by soon-to-be Heisman Candidate, quarterback Matt Barkley.

Of all players, however, Thompson would be best suited to cover the elite quarterback.

Regarded as the best safety in this year’s recruit class, Thompson is seen as the best player out of California and the fourth best player overall in this class of high school stars.

With a 40-yard dash of 4.57 and a vertical of 30 inches, Thompson is a 5-star recruit on Rivals.com and would have an immediate chance at competing for a starting job for the Oregon Ducks.

When Lupoi left for Washington, Thompson called his odds “50-50” between Washington and Cal (his brother went to Cal), but Oregon is still sweeping in as one of three teams to be a final contender to land Thompson after a nice in-home visit by Chip Kelly on Friday.

Thompson is clearly showing his interest. A few days ago, he took to Twitter to pick the brain of a recent Oregon Ducks star: LaMichael James.

“It’s a place that will always be family and I think you’ll have a huge impact,” said James of Thompson.

This was a convincing sale, indeed, from the Oregon legend. James went on to describe how impressive the academics of the university were (“the jaqua is a really nice place for athletes trust me”) and how big of an impact Chip Kelly will have on a player (“he’s by far the best/smartest coach I’ve ever been around I can’t think of 1 person who’s a close second”).

Luckily for Thompson—and Oregon fans from across the country—Kelly will be staying in Oregon and not leaving for the Tampa Bay NFL gig that so many thought that he had officially accepted.

If Shaq decides to pick the University of Oregon, he will be picking the chance to play for a National Title. Game after game, he will be playing in one of the loudest stadiums (Autzen Stadium) in the country, and geared up by the world’s best athletic company (Nike) because of the alliance with the school.

Perhaps most interesting is that there is a growing rumor that Arik Armstead and Shaq Thompson may be seen as a package deal. Armstead, another west coast recruiting piece of gold, is the number sixteen recruit in the nation and will announce his decision on Wednesday.

MaxPreps has said that they think that both will attend either Cal or Oregon, and there will be much thought put into whatever Armstead does announce today.

For Thompson, attending the University of Oregon would be one of the best decisions that he could make when Wednesday creeps up and national signing day is in full swing.

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