ASU Football: Linebacker Abraham Thompson reflects on his JUCO career

ASU football linebacker Abraham Thompson was on that Arizona Western team from a year ago that fell short, 25-23, in the National Championship game.

Junior College football has been shown in a new light and a new platform recently. Netflix’s documentary series, “Last Chance U”, shows the journey of players at East Mississippi Community College as they try to get out and into bigger programs.

As the players work to get recognized by coaches and big-time schools, the team itself is trying to compete for, and win, a National Championship.

In 2016, EMCC didn’t get a chance to play for the that NJCAA Championship.

Without a playoff system, rankings decided on the two teams that got the opportunity to play in the championship.

An opening loss was the only flaw on EMCC’s resume, but undefeated seasons from Arizona Western (AZ) and Garden City (KS) left East Mississippi out of the title game.

ASU linebacker Abraham Thompson was on that Arizona Western team from a year ago that fell short, 25-23, in the championship game.

Like many around the country, Thompson, and his teammates, watched and were well-aware of EMCC and “Last Chance U.”

“Nobody really knows about Junior College,” Thompson said. “I mean you hear about it, and if you’re a football player or football fan, you know about it — but kids in our generation, our age group really didn’t know about it. So it was like that show comes out and it kind of shows what it’s like.”

Most kids that decide to go to a community college to further their football career usually do so for two reasons.

Either they didn’t have many offers coming out of high school and junior college gave them their best opportunity to keep playing.

Or, off-the-field issues at a bigger school took them down the JUCO path in hopes of getting back to DI or DII.

For Thompson, the latter applies.

After getting into trouble at NAU, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Thompson transferred to Arizona Western in his hometown of Yuma, AZ.

“[Going back home] was nice because my support system was there,” Thompson said. “But it was tough, it was a different level. It took me a little while to get used to it. You wouldn’t think that it would be that good because it’s JUCO, but there were some kids there . . .that are now playing at different FBS teams.”

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East Mississippi and Arizona Western, along with other big JUCO programs, seem to have one thing in common — they aren’t in the most glamorous of places.

Yuma sits near the southwest border of California and Mexico, while Scooba, MS, where EMCC plays, is home to just 697 people. That lack of atmosphere, Thompson believes, helps the football players focus on football and their academics.

“A lot of times those guys are either there because they were non-qualifiers or they’re there because they got in trouble at their previous school,” Thompson said. “So I feel like if they’re in the middle of nowhere that just limits the distractions and they’re just able to focus on football and school.”

But even with the distractions limited in a somewhat remote environment, Thompson says kids would still find ways to get in trouble off the field.

He said the show didn’t quite capture some of the stuff that happened away from football.

“It’s a lot rougher, they couldn’t show like how bad it would get sometimes,” Thompson said. “I feel like they weren’t able to show the rough parts. There were a lot more fights, a lot more off the field stuff going on.

“There’s always something, some kid getting in trouble for this, getting in trouble for that.”

Away from the “rough parts” and away from the football, players have to handle their business in the classroom.

Academic struggles are a constant on the Netflix show — and in Thompson’s experience, those struggles can hold back great talents from seeing those D-I offers.

“Yeah, like really good athletes that just kind of didn’t go to class and then the end of the semester comes around and they’re behind on credits and they’re like ‘oh, what do I do now,’” Thompson said.

One difference however between the two junior college powers is the facilities and equipment EMCC had compared to Arizona Western.

The drastic differences may be most noticeable by the stadium quality, but the little stuff like Thompson buying his own cleats and washing his own uniform seemed to stick out most to him.

“They had things a little bit better, I’m not gonna lie,” the junior Sun Devil said. “They had much nicer equipment and uniforms; I mean it was a little bit more organized. Ours wasn’t quite like that, ours was little rougher.”

The equipment situation is just another example of why junior college kids don’t want to stay in their situation for too long.

Practically every JUCO player doesn’t want to be playing JUCO football. They’re just ready to move on to bigger schools and better places.

That feeling of trying to get out creates an odd locker room and team dynamic. Players are usually more concerned about what coaches are watching them and what offers they have rather then the team success.

But at Arizona Western last season, the team success was at the forefront of their individual opportunities.

“What was cool about last year is like the guys they all came together and they understood that if we won that would bring up our chances of actually getting out,” Thompson said. “The team was really tight and they were really focused on going one week at a time.

“They would always say that if we win the National Championship then we’re all getting out – and that was kind of our motivation to keep working.”

Thompson’s chance to get out came when ASU defensive coordinator Phil Bennett stopped by Yuma.

A conversation between the two was the catalyst for the Yuma native to receive a scholarship from ASU and “get out.”

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And after a fall camp with the team, Thompson looks like he will get plenty of time on the field. Throughout fall camp, he has taken most of his reps at linebacker with the second-team defense.

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