Ty Thompson decided to remove his name from the transfer portal and will instead continue his college football career at Tulane. However, he is not going to play quarterback for the Green Wave.
The rising redshirt senior is going to (try and) take a new path to the NFL.
Thompson, a native of Arizona, had 18 scholarship offers out of Mesquite High School in the recruiting Class of 2021. Some people considered him to be a four-star prospects. Others ranked him as a five-star. Oregon ultimately received his commitment over both in-state programs, Arizona and Arizona State.
The first three years of Thompson’s career did not go as he planned. He never cracked the starting lineup and completed 43 of his 66 pass attempts for less than 500 total yards and six touchdowns with four interceptions. That led him to enter the transfer portal last offseason.
Tulane added Thompson to its roster to compete with three-star freshman Darian Mensah and returning backup Kai Horton for the starting job. Mensah won. Thompson saw limited time in a run-first offensive package and threw 11 passes during the regular season.
Come Dec. 11, Mensah transferred to Duke on a record NIL deal. That left the Green Wave without its starting quarterback for the bowl game. That gave Thompson another shot— an audition, if you will.
It went as poorly as possible.
He completed 11 passes for 125 yards and three interceptions. Ty Thompson was trending on social media for all of the wrong reasons. His opportunity to earn the starting job for 2025 instead led him to enter the transfer portal for a second time in less than 18 months.
Although we don’t know what programs might’ve reached out to Thompson, they clearly were not what he expected. The former five-star quarterback is going to stay in New Orleans but will switch to tight end.
Ty Thompson is expected to make the move from quarterback to tight end for Tulane, a source tells @CBSSports/@247Sports https://t.co/b5YPMcfrBM
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 7, 2025
This kind of fall from grace is unfortunate, but not uncommon. Thompson’s career as a quarterback was ruined by the Gasparilla Bowl loss so he decided that his best chance of playing in the pros is at a completely different position. It will instead be a Swiss-Army Knife role similar to a Taysom Hill.