Interest is rising for emerging DE

Due to any injury marred junior season, one defensive end in the Commonwealth is still without scholarships. However, plenty of schools are keeping a close watch on the 6-foot-4, 221-pounder.

"After I went to the Under Armor combine and ran a 4.59, things started to roll in," Richmond (Va.) St. Christopher's defensive end Thompson Brown said. "A lot of schools have stopped by since and I'm getting more and more interest, so I guess this summer I'm going to a lot of camps."

Who's interested?

"Right now Virginia, Boston College, Maryland, Duke and Connecticut have talked about offers," he said. "Then, other schools like Virginia Tech, Alabama, Georgia Tech and some I-AA's are looking at me.

"Jim Reid from Virginia said he wants to offer, but he has to let the staff see me, so I have to come to camp. Maryland's Coach Brattan really liked my film and he passed it on to the defensive line coach who is either going to offer or want to see me at camp and then Connecticut wants to get it out by the end of spring."

It appears a lot of colleges want to see Brown this summer for camp. Does he have anything planned?

"That'll be the next thing at the end of the month with my parents and coach," he said. "I don't think I'm going to do a ton of camps because I still want to get ready for the season.

"I'm thinking probably about Virginia, Boston College, Maryland and Duke. I'm probably not going to go too far from the areas of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland."

Obviously interest is high in Brown and he claims to have at least one school sticking out.

"I like Virginia a lot," he said. "My whole family grew up being Virginia fans, but I'm really open to a lot of ACC schools."

With plenty of interest coming in, what does Brown want in a college?

"I'm looking for a place I can get on campus and immediately like it," he said. "I went to Boston College and it's definitely different from Richmond. I kind of hope for a bit more rural place and football wise, I hopefully will like all the coaches. I'd like to play defensive end if I can. If not, tight end is alright. I hope to play pretty early too."

Brown played in just six games last year due to two injuries that marred his season.

"I actually broke my arm in the second week of two-a-days," he said. "I missed three games from that and played one with a cast on my arm. Then, I messed up my hamstrings and played through that all season. The season didn't go as well as planned, as I couldn't use my hands as much. I finished with about 30 tackles and four sacks."

A versatile athlete, Brown is also a talent lacrosse player that earned all-conference as a junior.