Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Thompson at home at defensive tackle
8/10/2018 11:42:00 AM | Football, Word on the Herd
Redshirt senior primed for big season
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Malik Thompson has called Marshall home for going on five seasons. He has had to change rooms, though, and perhaps that has delayed the 6-foot-6, 282-pound redshirt senior from reaching his full potential.
"Changing positions set his development back a little bit," said J.C. Price, who coaches the Thundering Herd's defensive tackles. "He was making progress, and you get to a new position and there are different techniques and then you try to go back to your original position. It's different. It's tough."
Thompson was a highly regarded offensive line and defensive line prospect out of Edgewater High School in Winter Park, Florida. Recruiters felt Thompson had prototypical skills to be an offensive tackle, but Thompson preferred defense. He starred at defensive end in high school.
After a year at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, Thompson came to Marshall for the 2014 season and redshirted. Price, who recruited Thompson, wanted to slide the freshman to the interior of the defensive line. After missing the 2015 season because of a torn labrum and subsequent surgery, Thompson was ready to contribute in 2016.
But Marshall had needs. Thompson was no longer at home.
"I started on the defensive line, then I got moved to the offensive line," Thompson said. "I had to have faith in my coaches and wanted to help the team."
A lack of bodies on the offensive line necessitated the move. Thompson was willing, and moved to offensive tackle to give the Herd some more depth. He kept a positive attitude about the shift from one position room to another, but was not content.
"He struggled with it a little bit," Price said. "He was not happy about it. He wasn't happy about going back and forth. He really wanted to find a home. To his credit, even though he wasn't happy about it, he did it because it helped the team."
In the middle of the 2016 season, Thompson was converted back to the defensive line. He recorded three tackles and forced a fumble, and coaches made the decision to stick with Thompson at defensive tackle.
"Once he came back we told him there was no way we were moving him again," Price said. "He started progressing and he really came on at the end of last year, had a great bowl game, carried it through the spring and summer and now he's having a great camp."
Thompson recorded a tackle for a loss in Marshall's New Mexico Bowl win against Colorado State. Now he is a pivotal part of one of Conference USA's best defenses, playing inside on the defensive line.
"I feel really comfortable now," Thompson said. "I know my defensive plays and I know what to do and how to make myself better, and every day I'm getting better. I'm enjoying my last year with my brothers."
Prior to fall camp, which began Aug. 2, first-year defensive coordinator Adam Fuller highlighted Thompson as a player who had a strong offseason. The defensive tackle position has all-conference player Ryan Bee and bowl game MVP Channing Hames, among others, but Thompson's improvement will keep him in a prominent role at a position that needs plenty of bodies.
"He's a guy I've seen grow," Price said. "He's a guy who has come from immature kid to a guy who I don't have to worry about anymore. He has his degree. He's the reason you coach. You see a young guy who doesn't have a lot of organization in his life, doesn't have a lot of self-motivation when he first gets here … four years later he has his degree and he's playing the best football of his life going into his senior year. I don't know what else you can ask for in coaching."
