Earlier this year, the Penn State Nittany Lion football team received a commitment from De’Andre Thompkins on April 20th. Since the 18 year old recruit has decided to enroll early this upcoming January, I decided to do an email interview with the 8th ranked athlete on ESPN’s Top 300 commitments with an 84 overall and ranked 66th in the ESPN 300.
Full Name: Deandre Lewis Thompkins
Birthday: October 1
Hometown: Hubert, NC (born in Pensacola, FL)
High School: Swansboro High School
Twitter account: @Calle_Alectia
Started playing football: When I was 5 years old for Pensacola Baby Rattlers
DC = Dylan Callaghan Croley (Me)
DT= De’Andre Thompkins
DC: You committed to Penn State on April 20th,2013. What factors played into you committing relatively early into the 2014 recruiting class season?
DT: Penn State was the right place for me being that it meet the three requirements I was looking for. (academic program and graduation rate, football program and how fast I could make it on the field
DC: When you committed, Penn State was still suffering from the scholarship sanction? Did knowing you were going to have 20 less scholarship players on your team have any impact on your decision?
DT: Yes, It was something that I thought about however it was not a deciding factor.
DC: Obviously, the bowl ban is not that big of a deal to you as you committed early as stated above. Why do you believe the bowl ban isn’t affecting recruits such as yourself decisions when committing to come to Penn state?
DT: In my opinion, the total success of the overall season is more important than winning a bowl game.
DC: What team in the Big Ten are you looking forward to play the most?
DT: All of them
DC: Which football players have the biggest influence on your game?
DT: Percy Harvin
DC: Besides Penn State what other schools were you seriously looking at?
DT: Clemson, Georgia, South Carolina
DC: Have you been able to become good friends with any fellow recruits yet?
DT: Yes
DC: How’s your senior season going so far?
DT: Good so far trying to end strong
DC: Favorite moment of your career so far?
DT: Winning a game when my team was the underdog
DC: Have any pre-game rituals?
DT: Pray
DC: What are two words you would use to describe your game?
DT: Explosive and unpredictable
DC: What are two things you are looking forward to improving the most coming into college?
DT: Reading defensive and catching the ball better
DC: Will you be trying to gain some knowledge and tips from Allen Robinson before he leaves for the NFL?
DT: Yes, I am going to try to absorb as much as I can before he leaves.
DC: What’s your biggest goal for your college football career?
DT:I haven’t really thought about that.
DC: What are you anticipating the most when it comes to next CFB season?
DT: Just the experience of playing at the next level.
Here are 10 questions I presented DeAndre just as “Fun” questions.
- Favorite Super Hero – Superman
- Favorite Color – Gray
- Favorite Meal – Lasagna
- Favorite CFB and NFL team growing up – Florida Gators & Oakland Raiders
- Favorite sport after football – Track
- Who’s going to win the National Championship – My mother said Roll Tide
- Who’s going to win the Heisman – Famous Jameis Winston
- Who’s going to win the Super Bowl – Raiders Babyyy!!! Lol, no but really the Chiefs
- Favorite Musical Artist – The Weeknd
- If you can have one super power what would it be ? – Teleport
Thompkins, if not redshirted next season will be part of a recruiting core that shows vast improvement over the current one. Christian Hackenberg‘s main target in Allen Robinson may be jumping to the NFL after this season which leaves Hackenberg’s #1 receiver spot in a wide open race. Thompkins will join a core that includes Adam Breneman , Kyle Carter , Brandon Felder , DeSean Hamilton , Jesse James and Eugene Lewis . Receiving which seems to be a little of a weakness this year surprisingly will be one of Penn State’s strengths next season as the depth at tight end got even deeper with the addition of commit Mike Gesicki who is ranked by one recruiting site as the top TE in the nation. Penn State is slowly but surely rebuilding the program from what people thought was going to be the equivilent to a D2 program but players and commits are truly standing by “We Are Penn State” more than ever.
[Featured Photo courtesy of 247sports.com]
Dylan Callaghan-Croley is a featured writer on thegreenpheed.com, Phielderschoice.com and TotalSportsLive.com . He is currently in his junior year of high school and is taking several high level classes (AP and Honors). He is hoping to go to college and major in business or sports management with a minor in journalism.
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