NoCal DT fills up dance card

The ever fast rising defensive tackle prospect Fred Thompson (6-4.5, 296, 4.96) from Oakland (Calif.) Tech knew that colleges were sleeping on him, but they certainly aren't anymore as he now has offers from every Pac 10 school except Oregon, Stanford and USC. Oregon is talking with Thompson and could end up joining the fray, but he doesn't have an offer from the Ducks yet.

The Thompson household was a busy place before the holiday's and it looks like once the dead period is over, things will be getting amped up at the Thompson's once again.

"I had Arizona, Arizona State, and UDub (Washington) attempted, but my mom became sick and went to the hospital," Thompson said. "She's fine now so I'll have Oregon State coming down and also UCLA coming on the same day, I believe. I'm going to have a couple of same day home visits."

Thompson has already visited Arizona, Arizona State and Washington. He had a great time at all three. He has visits set to Oregon State on January 15th and Washington State on January 22nd.

Does the lack of an official visit to Cal and UCLA mean they are out of the running?

"I'm actually going to take an unofficial visit to UCLA on January 8th," Thompson said. "I'm going to drive down and make it an unofficial.

Thompson will be at UCLA when his teammate, Ryan Murphy, will be taking his official visit to the Westwood campus.

"I will probably make my decision after I take all my official visits," Thompson said. "I plan to take all five visits."

Did Thompson have any favorite schools that he watched growing up?

"The two schools I enjoyed growing up were the U (Miami) and Cal," Thompson said. "Cal could have been tough to beat, but not really.

"Cal came into the picture really late and Cal had the first opportunity to offer me a scholarship," Thompson said. "We used to go up there on Saturday's and run the stadium bleachers. We used to work out there and that they waited until the end of my senior season to offer me, kind of pushed them back a little.

"I don't have to visit Cal," Thompson said. "I grew up on that campus because my mother, she used to work there when I was younger. That's kind of why I grew up watching them. So taking an official to Cal would be pointless since I have seen everything.

"I don't have any leaders right now," Thompson said. "I just kind of feeling my way through this thing."

Thompson participated in an All-Star game on December 26th that had the best of East Bay play against the best Sacramento area that ended up in a draw. He played well at his defensive tackle spot racking up a sack and two tackles for loss in the game.