Newcomer begins USC career with eye on family affected by Hurricane Harvey

Eldridge Thompson spent the past few weeks preparing for what he hoped was his first taste of Division I football in South Carolina’s opener.

The linebacker also would have had every right to be worried about his family. As he played in junior college in Kansas, they moved from his hometown of Memphis to Houston, where Hurricane Harvey delivered catastrophic damage.

Instead, he was upbeat while talking about it because they were lucky, or something more.

“They just got blessed, to be honest,” Thompson said. “Because they live in the complex area, the apartment didn’t have any water. The streets were flooded. They just got blessed.”

He said he talks to his mother and sister every day. They’d moved to the city in August, and Thompson lived there during the spring semester as he finished his junior college work online and rehabbed a shoulder injury that cost him the almost all of 2016 season.

“I’ve talked to him about his mom and sister,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “They’re doing OK. Obviously our thoughts and prayers are with that whole situation.”

Far removed from that, Thompson did get that first bit of action on the FBS level. He made it into the game against N.C. State, playing nine snaps, mostly on third downs or in the red zone. He made one tackle and covered N.C. State’s Jaylen Samuels on a crucial play.

He said he just looked at it as capitalizing on the chance at hand, answered when his number was called.

“Eldridge came in, he was ready to play,” middle linebacker T.J. Brunson said. “He wasn’t nervous or anything. He got lined up and did his job.”

Thompson earned praise from Muschamp, and considering the Gamecocks are set to face a pass-happy Missouri squad this week, his opportunities should only increase.

“He needs to play more Saturday and will,” Muschamp said.

Thompson said one of the best resources he’s had since he arrived on campus was the man playing in front of him: Skai Moore.

The senior linebacker is notably strong in coverage for his position, something that matches Thompson’s skillset. Before junior college, Thompson was a safety and receiver, and even as he came to Columbia, his coaches said he wasn’t yet a finished product.

So now he learns from a player whose game his could resemble, a fact not lost on him.

“People say that a lot,” Thompson said. “I’m not the only one that’s saying that. I get that a lot.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Newcomer begins USC career with eye on family affected by Hurricane Harvey."