Once consumed by hoop dreams, USC’s Devan Thompkins has found his fit at defensive tackle

LOS ANGELES – In the winter of 2021, a few minutes before tip-off, a contingent of Sacramento State coaches approached Devan Thompkins’ high school basketball coach. They wanted to offer then-senior Thompkins a Division I scholarship, they told Diondre Hawthorne, the longtime program head up at Edison High in Stockton.

Hawthorne never told Thompkins or his family.

Well – he did, eventually. But by then, the sudden two-sport Stockton stud was out of sight, officially having put pen to paper to play football for USC. Too late. Intentionally.

“See, he already knew,” Thompkins smiled after USC’s practice, eyes glinting towards a memory of a different life. “He already knew that I was, like, really leaning to basketball.”

If Hawthorne had called Thompkins that Saturday to deliver the scholarship news, perhaps, he’d be in a different uniform in a wholly different sport 400 miles north. If Hawthorne had called Thompkins that Saturday, perhaps, he’d be a Hornet instead of a Trojan, and USC’s defensive line would be in even tougher straits.

He did not call Thompkins, as the kid wasn’t even playing in that Saturday’s game because Lincoln Riley had come up for a home visit. And Hawthorne wanted no part of messing that up.

“I didn’t flirt with the idea,” Hawthorne reflected, “because I wanted to protect Devan. Like, I’m not a guy that – I wanted what’s best for him.”

“And what’s best for him was him going to USC.”

Four years later, the decision has certainly proven best for USC, too, as redshirt-sophomore Thompkins has suddenly emerged as one of the roster’s most important defensive pieces. After two years buried on the depth chart, he had received a steadily increasing diet of reps before being tabbed a starter at defensive tackle against Penn State, recording a team-high four pressures and four quarterback hurries.

His room at USC has struggled to consistently generate any pressure on opposing quarterbacks, entering a matchup with Maryland Saturday currently tied for 121st among 133 FBS schools in team sacks (six). And with starting defensive end Anthony Lucas out for the year, as Riley announced Tuesday, Thompkins’ versatility at a variety of defensive-line spots will be integral to any second-half run for USC’s season.

“It’s going to be huge,” Lynn said Wednesday, of Thompkins stepping up in Lucas’ absence. “Because again, he gives us pass-rush from the inside, but then he can also spare those guys on the outside. So he’s going to be out there a lot for us.”

It’s a remarkable reality for a kid who’s going on his fourth year – ever – of actual organized football.

Thompkins stood 6-foot-6 coming out of high school, a kid who held hoop dreams at heart and never quite woke up from them. He grew up, though, with an uncle in Larry Grant and a mentor in Lavelle Hawkins who had both played in the NFL. And before his senior year of high school, Grant and Hawkins’ consistent pleas for his future finally struck home, persuading Thompkins to transfer from Saint Mary’s High in Stockton to Edison and try football.

“I understand basketball is cool,” Hawkins, now a coach at Edison, reflected on his message. “But you on the football field, you a Lamborghini. And on a basketball court, you’re like a Honda.”

Edison head coach Booker Guyton, when he first saw Thompkins’ massive frame, saw a Lamborghini, sure. He expected a Honda, though, once the pads came on. Guyton had coached basketball-turned-football players before. He’d never had much luck in his 30 years coaching. So he dismissed Thompkins, thinking of him as a tight end, thinking of the aversion to physicality he’d seen plenty of times before.

Is he going to finish? Is the contact too much for him? 

He stuck the kid at rush-end, though, in Edison’s first game of Thompkins’ senior season. They played Lincoln High that Friday night, featuring running back Jonah Coleman, a future stud at Washington.

For 48 minutes, Thompkins dove through blocks and chased Coleman sideline-to-sideline.

“Coach, we got us something,” Hawkins grinned, Guyton remembered. The head coach had to agree.

Hawkins sent Thompkins’ tape, from one game, to a coach he knew at Arizona. By that Monday, they’d offered Thompkins a scholarship. By Tuesday, UNLV called. By that Friday, Michigan called.

For two years after he’d eventually signed with USC, though, Thompkins couldn’t quite believe it was where he should be, as Hawthorne said. He played basketball because he’d wanted to. He played football because he was told to.

One day this past offseason, though, Thompkins called Hawthorne.

Thompkins was in his own way, once, Hawthorne reflected. A year later, he is in the opposing quarterback’s way, a kid who has ballooned up from 220 pounds his senior year of high school to 285 now, a former hooper who’s become a game-changer for USC at defensive tackle.

“I look at him now,” Hawkins chuckled, “he looks like a damn superhero.”