Sting Factor: LB Fred Thompkins
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1 to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Washington State has had tremendous success recruiting players from the City College of San Francisco.
The latest win was three-star linebacker Fred Thompkins, who committed to the Cougars in late July, but he backed off that pledge earlier this week. He’s the second recent de-commitment for Washington State after three-star cornerback Elisha Lloyd recently flipped to Utah.
The Pac-12 school has had success in the junior college ranks and recent players including quarterback Anthony Gordon, receiver Easop Winston, offensive lineman Robert Valencia and others have come from the City College of San Francisco.
In his first full recruiting class, Washington State coach Nick Rolovich looked to tap that well again for a talented three-star linebacker but Thompkins has decided to re-evaluate his recruitment.
Thompkins has other significant offers including UCF, Memphis, Liberty and others, but Washington State was his lone Power Five offer at this point.
LOCAL REACTION
“The loss of Thompkins hurts because Washington State has pulled a number of solid players out of CCSF in the past, including the quarterback and wide receiver combo of Gordon and Winston, who both played on CCSF's national championship team in 2015.
“So, how this decommit affects WSU's recruitment of CCSF players moving forward remains to be seen. Being a JUCO, though, the loss doesn't hurt as much because Thompkins likely wouldn't have stayed at WSU for more than a couple of years. It's also a strong signal that seniors Jahad Woods, Justus Rogers and Dillon Sherman have all elected to return to WSU in 2021.
"That trio, together with sophomore Travion Brown and redshirt freshman Peni Naulu, gives WSU a solid group at the two linebacker positions in WSU's 4-2-5 scheme. As a result, Thompkins could have found playing time hard to come by.” – Scott Hood, WazzuWatch.com
Sting Factor: 6
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NATIONAL REACTION
“Thompkins is a JUCO, so this doesn’t hurt that bad as he’d probably only be on the team for a couple of years and I doubt it affects Washington State’s ability to recruit CCSF. Depth at LB isn’t a huge issue, either. It’s just that the optics here aren’t great with a couple of decommits strung together. But overall this isn’t that bad.” – Mike Farrell, Rivals.com National Recruiting Director
Sting Factor: 4