South Carolina freshman named one of ESPN's best
With Week 1 of the college football season just 14 days away, ESPN’s Tom Luginbill is predicting the true freshmen who will make the greatest impact on their respective teams with his Preseason Freshman All-America team — and a South Carolina freshman made the list.
Gamecocks offensive tackle Josiah Thompson, a five-star prospect according to On3, checks in as one of the five offensive linemen on Luginbill’s team.
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Said ESPN:
Thompson is the highest-ranked offensive lineman South Carolina has ever signed. He is currently battling sophomore tackle Tree Babalade, redshirt sophomore Cason Henry and fellow freshman Kam Pringle. Thompson is massive and could play on either side at tackle or initially at guard. Babalade started as a freshman at left tackle last year, so some reshuffling could be in the mix.
To clear things up a bit, Thompson is primarily only battling Tree Babalade at this time at the left tackle position and hasn’t seen much, if any time, we’re aware of at guard. Cason Henry is locked in as the team’s right tackle.
But despite the inconsistencies, ESPN is right to project Thompson as a heavy contributor to the Gamecocks this year as the former Dillon (S.C.) High standout could very well end up being the starting left tackle in two weeks.
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Thompson finished as the top offensive tackle in the cycle and No. 16 overall prospect in On3’s rankings. The industry as a whole wasn’t quite as high on the 6-foot-7, 300-pound as the On3 Industry Ranking considered him the No. 3 offensive tackle and No. 36 overall prospect.
“Getting to see him at the All-American Bowl, I thought he was fantastic in his pass set,” On3’s Charles Power said. “If you watched him on film with Dillon, he wasn’t really taking a lot of deep pass sets, which is pretty typical for a high school offensive tackle. Someone with his ability, he’s not going to really have to make a deep set often, but he looked very natural doing that at the All-American Bowl.”
Thompson and the Gamecocks are working through their second and final scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday. They open up with Old Dominion on Aug. 31 with kickoff set for 4:15 at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Interestingly enough, consensus five-star EDGE Dylan Stewart did not make ESPN’s Preseason Freshman All-America team, though he projects to play a major role for South Carolina this season.
