Syd'quan Thompson

Syd'quan Thompson

Syd'quan Thompson (born February 7, 1987 in New Brunswick, New Jersey) is a cornerback for the California Golden Bears.

High School Career

Hailing from Sacramento, Thompson first displayed his talent at Grant Union High School his junior year as a cornerback/tailback, where he was able to score 18 touchdowns and snatch 5 interceptions. Despite battling several injuries his senior year, he was still able to record respectable numbers of 2 interceptions and 12 touchdowns. Thompson was also recognized as a formidable punt returner, scoring 6 touchdowns on returns. He was a three time All-State, first team all-league selection. He personally compares himself to Charles Woodson, a current Green Bay Packers cornerback.

Thompson has displayed mediocre academic achievement in high school, possessing a 2.8 GPA as well as a combined 850 SAT Score. The item to note concerning Thompson's rather subpar score was that he did not retake the test to pad his score, as do most other collegiate athletes.

College Career

After redshirting his freshman year, Thompson made his debut on September 2, 2006 against the Tennessee Volunteers offense. He was called up weeks before to replace Senior Tim Mixon, who tore knee ligaments in training camp and joined the injured reserve for the season. Because Mixon was such an integral part of the Cal Bears pass defense, many Golden Bears fans were expecting Thompson to perform brilliantly in lieu of Mixon. Unfortunately, Thompson was repeatedly attacked, torched, and discarded by a surprisingly reenergized Volunteers offense. Erik Ainge threw two passes for touchdowns to Robert Meachem, both times causing Thompson to miss a tackle and slip badly. Although announcers claimed that he could not handle tall wide receivers being only 5'11" in height, it is suspected by many that Thompson simply was not capable of handling a starting spot at cornerback. As of now, Thompson still has a lock on a job in the secondary. He is expected to be a role model as well as a leader of the Cal Bears' current defense, especially following the 2006-2007 graduation of fellow corner Daymeion Hughes.

In his second game, Thompson was highly effective despite playing with a broken hand, as he had in the previous week. He was able to key several defensive stops, including 2 solo tackles, 1 assist, and 1/2 tackle for a loss of one yard.

On the 23rd of September, Thompson recorded his first career interception off of Rudy Carpenter of the Arizona State Sun Devils with five and a half minutes to play in the game. This pick was instrumental in the Golden Bears' 49-21 drubbing of ASU.

Doubts as to Thompson's placement in the starting lineup were re-raised as the Washington Huskies were able to exploit the mismatch between Anthony Russo and Thompson, resulting in massive gains and a touchdown for the Huskies. Nonetheless, Thompson's heroics in the final minutes of the game eventually led to a narrow Bears victory and preserved their lengthy win streak.

Thompson scored his first career touchdown in the second quarter of The Big Game against Stanford on a 15 yard fumble recovery. The touchdown proved to be instrumental in the Bears 26-17 win to keep the Stanford Axe in Berkeley for a fifth straight year under coach Jeff Tedford. This helped the Bears end the year on a high note, as they had previously lost their last two games against the USC Trojans and Arizona Wildcats.

Thompson silenced his critics with a solid 6 tackle performance (including 1.5 for a loss) in a rematch against Tennessee, and is considered to have potential to become one of the best defensive backs in the conference.

Statistics

SEAS	AGE	GS	TACK	SACK	FR	INT	TD
2006	19	13	60	0	2	1	1