Corey Thompson to LSU over Texas A&M: Was It the Right Decision?

Corey Thompson is a defensive back that hails from Lawrence E Elkins High School in Missouri City, Texas. Thompson was a longtime Texas A&M commitment when he gave his pledge to the Aggies shortly after signing day in 2011.

Thompson has played on both sides of the ball in high school but projects to the defense in college. He has spent a lot of time at the safety position defensively. Thompson has good size and range, ringing in at 6’2”, 205. Scout.com ranks him as the No. 15 outside linebacker in the country, while Rivals.com has him as the No. 18 safety in the class.  

When the coaching change occurred at Texas A&M, it appeared that Thompson would begin to look around at other schools to see if he may fit better both athletically and academically. According to this article by Tigerbait.com, the LSU Rivals.com affiliate, civil engineering is the goal for his academic pursuit.

Thompson will be served well at both schools in that field. Looking at the football side of things, where does Thompson fit into the defensive scheme for these two schools?

At LSU, the role is clear. The safety is a position that plays zone coverage well, helping the man coverage on the outside on fly routes and keeping quarterbacks honest across the middle by lighting up crossing routes and jumping the ball on slants.

At LSU, the safety must also be able to play comfortably inside the box. The Bayou Bengals bring a lot of blitz packages from the secondary and the safeties make a lot of plays in the run game. Thompson has proven that he is comfortable in the box and has good ball recognition skills.

Placing Thompson in the LSU zone could fit well, as his size could assist in his muscling past the receivers for the jump ball. Thompson is aggressive enough to play close to the line, as the Scout.com rating indicates with him being projected as a possible outside linebacker.

Texas A&M just went through coaching change that saw the hiring of Kevin Sumlin and the addition of Mark Snyder to the defensive coordinator position. Snyder comes from a long background of success, even taking time to be a head coach for five years at his alma mater, Marshall.

Snyder has been known to be a linebacker developer and has trained some of the game’s best in years past. While at Ohio State, he coached All-Americans A.J. Hawk and Matt Wilhelm and went on to develop players like DeDe Lattimore and Sam Barrington at South Florida.

Snyder runs a 4-3 zone blitz style defense that will be a change from the 3-4 ran previously at A&M. This would likely leave Thompson at the safety position so that he could be utilized in Aggieland much the same way as LSU would like to enroll his services. Zone coverage and blitz packages with solid run support.

Thompson made the switch in his commitment to LSU after taking his official visit on January 20. The Tigers have a wealth of returning talent in the secondary and most of those guys will fill in at the safety and nickel position.

Unless Thompson jumps out and becomes a star, he likely won’t see the field for quite some time in Baton Rouge.

The Aggies are less developed in the secondary, although they also return talent in Steven Campbell and Howard Matthews. Thompson’s skills and size could have placed him in great position for immediate playing time, however, especially with the recent coaching change.

Thompson and his family have to make the best decision for them at the time of signing, but at this point it seems that at LSU he will be a part of great teams that could win championships but he may never actually be on the field to win one.

At A&M, the ability to play and play early appears to be there.

Thompson is a talent that may be raw, but over time could be a great defender. This may be a battle until tomorrow, but LSU looks to have it locked. 

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