Going the Distance
The following story appears in our 2018 Penn State Football Season Preview magazine, printed and mailed to our Blue White Illustrated print subscribers this week and set to hit newsstands throughout Pennsylvania next week.
DeAndre Thompkins could have ended up playing football at any number of schools. He had been a Florida fan growing up, and the Gators made a play for him shortly after the coaching staff that had recruited him for Penn State abruptly left en masse for the NFL. Other schools even nearer to his home in Hubert, N.C., wanted him, too. If it had a football program and was located somewhere in the general vicinity of Tobacco Road, it probably was vying for his signature. North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, East Carolina, Clemson – all extended scholarship offers, as did Georgia, another school he seriously considered.
Penn State was a lot farther away than any of those places, but Thompkins knew that if he put geographic constraints on the schools he was willing to consider, he would also be putting constraints on his future. When he talked it over with his parents, they made sure he understood that distance wasn’t a factor that he ought to be weighing.
“We already had the idea: ‘You go wherever you feel like going, whether that’s right down the street or across the world,’ ” Thompkins recalled. “We had that discussion: ‘Don’t limit yourself to a location. Limit yourself to where you feel comfortable and happy.’ ”
That place was Penn State, where the players had already made him feel like family, even as a recruit. So even though the Nittany Lions changed coaching staffs late in the recruiting cycle, announcing James Franklin’s hiring only two days before Thompkins enrolled at University Park in January 2014, the young wideout prospect followed through on his commitment. “There was some heartbreak,” he admitted, recalling Bill O’Brien’s decision to leave for the Houston Texans. But Penn State had been the right choice when Thompkins committed to O’Brien the previous April, and it was still the right choice when he arrived on campus.
More than four years later, it still feels like the right choice.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he said. “It’s shaped me into the person I am now, and it’s still continuously shaping me in every aspect of my life. So I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Thompkins’ ambitions for his final season at Penn State are not modest. In addition to establishing himself as Trace McSorley’s go-to receiving target, he wants “to lead the Big Ten in all aspects of receiving. And not only that, but on special teams, with punt returning, to be the most explosive punt returner in our conference, leading in yards, yards per catch and touchdowns, and taking a couple of chances, not fair catching things that other guys would fair catch. Those are really my goals: to be the leading receiver in the Big Ten and the country, and the leading punt returner in the Big Ten and the country as well.”
To those assessing Penn State’s receiver corps heading into the season, Thompkins’ name might not be the first that comes to mind. In his three seasons of eligibility, he’s never finished higher than fifth on the team in catches. But entering the 2018 season, he has more career receptions (58), receiving yards (916) and receiving touchdowns (four) than anyone on the team.
That’s partly a reflection of Penn State’s youth. Six of the nine scholarship receivers on the roster hold freshman eligibility and have yet to see action in a real game. But it’s also a reflection of the role Thompkins has played in the offense. He has been a complementary threat, the kind of receiver who can create separation on deep routes, rather than the guy McSorley looks to first when things break down in the pocket and the ball needs to go somewhere fast.
As a redshirt sophomore, his first season as a frequent starter, Thompkins caught 27 passes for 440 yards and one touchdown. Last year, his numbers were nearly identical: 28 catches for 443 yards and three TDs.
This coming season, his statistical profile is likely to change substantially. Four of last season’s top six pass-catchers have departed, which means that Thompkins and Juwan Johnson, Penn State’s top returning wideout with 54 catches in 2017, will have to improve their productivity in order for Penn State to remain at or near the top of the Big Ten in passing yards per game.
They will also be expected to take the new receivers under their wing and help them acclimate quickly to the college game. Assistant coach David Corley could already see that process at work during spring practice. Said PSU’s first-year receivers coach, “Those two guys have played a lot of football here for us, and you can just see their experience kind of come through as they talk to different guys in the room and help guys along.”
Thompkins said he’s just paying it forward. He learned from older players like Chris Godwin and DaeSean Hamilton and is now focused on doing the same for redshirt freshmen K.J. Hamler, Mac Hippenhammer, Cam Sullivan-Brown and the three true freshmen who have joined the team this summer.
But while he’s a veteran in terms of seniority, Thompkins is a newbie in one respect: He’ll be playing a new position this season. The 5-foot-11, 188-pounder practiced primarily at slot receiver in the spring, the spot where Hamilton thrived the past two years. He described the transition as “a big learning curve,” noting that he gleaned as much insight as he could from his predecessor.
“The slot receiver is going in-between linebackers and having to read coverages,” he said. “Reading coverages in the slot is a little more difficult and kind of tricky. Other than that, they’re both the same as far as technique and route running, stuff like that. But it’s a different view of the field and you’re trying weave in and out of the ’backers at that spot.”
Academically, Thompkins is moving just as fast as he does on the field. He graduated in December with a degree in psychology and is now working on a second degree in criminology. After picking that up, he intends to enroll in graduate school, a plan that will leave him with three degrees in five and a half years.
Thompkins’ objective, which was inspired by his family, is to do investigative work, possibly for the Secret Service or some other federal agency. His grandfather was an Army colonel who worked in the Pentagon, and his father was in the Marine Corps doing work that he wasn’t always at liberty to talk about. “We also had family friends who worked in the Secret Service,” Thompkins said. “That’s something that intrigued me since I was little.”
For now, though, he’s focused on the upcoming season. As with the decision to attend college in the snowy Northeast, he’s embracing his other, more recent move, the one to a new position on offense.
“It’s a different technique, it’s a different mindset, but it’s still receiver,” Thompkins said. “So I’m just trying to work that position [and learn] the fine details I need, and also to stay in contact with Ham and get a feel for how he developed as a receiver on the inside. I think the spring was a big learning curve to humble myself and make sure that I knew to stay in my place and work hard.”
Blue White Illustrated is thrilled to present its 2018 Penn State Football Preview magazine, featuring 112 pages of the most in-depth features, news and coverage of the Nittany Lions as they prepare for the upcoming season! It's our biggest preseason issue ever, and it's mailing next week to our print subscribers, pre-orders, and will be on newsstands throughout Pennsylvania beginning the week of July 14.
Don't miss your chance to grab a copy - ORDER HERE!
What else is in our preseason preview magazine this year?
Phil's Corner - BWI publisher Phil Grosz kicks off yet another year in his decades-long coverage of the Penn State football program with a detailed look at the biggest questions this program will need to answer if it wants to achieve even better results than the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Coaches Interviews - BWI editor Nate Bauer sat down with Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin as he gets set to embark on his fifth season at the helm, as well as his three coordinators on offense, defense and special teams. Don't miss the full Q&As running with Franklin, Ricky Rahne, Brent Pry and new special teams coordinator Phil Galiano.
Player Features - Like our exclusive one-on-one interviews with Penn State's coaching staff, these are the stories you won't see anywhere else this summer. We sat down with the biggest names and faces that will determine the Nittany Lions' fate as a program this season, including McSorley, wideout DeAndre Thompkins, running back Miles Sanders, guard Michal Menet, end Shareef Miller, linebacker Koa Farmer, safety Nick Scott, and captain punter Blake Gillikin.
Position-By-Position Analysis - BWI publisher Phil Grosz takes on each of Penn State's positions across the field as we break down the entirety of the Nittany Lions' depth chart. From quarterback through special teams, we've got it all covered.
2018 Opponent Previews - BWI editor Matt Herb tackled each of Penn State's 12 opponents in the upcoming season. What will the Nittany Lions have to overcome in order to produce the dream season their hoping for? Kicking off with Appalachian State and working all the way through the regular season finale against Maryland, each of Penn State's upcoming foes are broken down here!
These stories, along with our 2017-18 Penn State Year in Review, plus all of our usual fare including comprehensive recruiting coverage, men's basketball, a monthly historical retrospective, columns from each of our staff of writers, and more, are all included in our 2018 Penn State Football Preview edition.