Thompson happy with a year under his belt

The noted philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Suffice it to say that Santayana would have made a horrible cornerback. Fortunately, the Spanish philosopher is listed nowhere on the Cal's two-deep, but the Bears do have the substantially more talented Syd'Quan Thompson.

Thompson suffered the cruelest of baptisms last season, starting his first collegiate game in Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, where a raucous 106,009 crowd threw off the Golden Bears. Cal never got untracked while falling behind 35-0, before losing 35-18. Thompson had a particularly tough game, as did the rest of the Bear secondary, which surrendered four touchdown passes including three of 42 yards or more.

It was the type of game that could destroy a young player's psyche.  But not Thompson's.

"To play cornerback, you have to have a short memory," said Thompson, who stepped into a starting role when Tim Mixon went down with an injury in the preseason. "To be a good defender you have to put the previous play past you and get ready to make the next play. When you start making plays, that's when you feel more comfortable.

Out of most mouths, those sentences might be a mere cliche, but the 5-10 cornerback lived up to those words, bouncing back to have a fabulous season, being named to The Sporting News Pac-10 all-freshman team, and winning the team's Bob Simmons Award for being the Most Valuable Freshman.

"Last year helped me to mature a little bit and get a better understanding of what I'm facing on a weekly basis," said Thompson who finished 2006 with 60 tackles, two fumble recoveries and an interception.  "As the year went on I got a better understandng of the defensive calls, a better understanding of my defensive assignments, and was more ready to face different kinds of offenses."

A few minutes with Thompson and it's clear that his laid-back and even-keel demeanor will ever keep him from getting too wound up on the field.  During fall camp match-ups, he's gone up against the Bears' talented receiving trio of DeSean Jackson, Lavelle Hawkins, and Robert Jordan and has held his own. Even if somebody catches a pass on him, he doesn't get down on himself and goes right back to work.  As Thompson's comfort level increases, the cushions that he's giving receivers is getting smaller and smaller.

"Camp's been going real good," said Thompson. "We've made it through the first half and so far everything feels real good. It's been competitive and we've had a chance to work on different aspects of the game plan. We're all competing for spots."

While Thompson appears secure at one cornerback position, but at the other position there's Brandon Hampton and a cast comprising quite a few talented redshirt freshmen and true freshmen all vying for playing time.

"It's a young secondary,"  said Thompson, who had a remarkable junior year at Sacramento's Grant High School, where he ran for 18 touchdowns, caught four more, returned six kicks for touchdown and had five interceptions. " I'm just in my second year of playing, but I'm kind of a veteran here. I tell them to be relaxed, have fun, know your assignment, play well, and maintain your technique."

Thompson had several strong games last year, tallying eight tackles against USC, having four tackles and returning a fumble for a touchdown in last year's Big Game, and having six tackles against Washington State.  But ask him about a favorite game and he gives a nod to the Holiday Bowl victory over Texas A&M.

"When the offense, defense, and special teams are all playing with high intensity, it's great to be on the field," said Thompson.

Talking to different players throughout the fall, the sentiment has been the same. While last season was good, it could have been better, and if a team's going  set a goal, it might has well set the highest one.

"We talk about getting to the national championship game," said Thompson. "We have to take one game after the other."

During the recent Women's Huddle, Thompson turned out to be one of the event's most popular players as he helped participants learn about defensive back play as they tried to guard him while he played the role of receiver.

"It was a lot of fun," said Thompson.  "We really got a chance to know our fans, they got a chance to see what we're like, and it was great to meet a lot of people who come out and support us."

After helping lead people through drills for a few hours, and seeing people try to pick up something that he's been diligently working on for years, Thompson did come to a conclusion.

"God blessed us with a lot of talent."

Notes...The team had two practices on Wednesday. The morning session consisted of a two-hour session in shells, the afternoon was a helmet-only session...Extensive work was done on kick and punt coverages with a lot of time spent on anticipating a wide range of scenarios, and we mean a wide range...There were no 11-on-11s or 7-on-7s during the afternoon session, mostly work on formations and positioning...The team will go back to one practice on Thursday and Friday, with Thursday's being a practice/scrimmage.

This is not an indication of the first or second strings, merely a listing of which players appeared with which units. Keep in mind that the coaches also want to look at how different player play with each other. Also, since there was no contact in the afternoon, these lists might look a little different than they have the past few days...Also note that there were substitutions in and out of each unit throughout the afternoon:   First unit offense: Longshore, Forsett, Jackson, Hawkins, Jordan, Gibson, De La Puente, Mack, N. Malele, Tepper, and Stevens. First unit defense: Jones, Alualu, Kane, T. Smith, Follett, Williams, Felder, Hicks, Hampton, DeCoud, Thompson...

Second unit offense: Reed, Montgomery, Ross, Young, Cunningham, Morrah, Prueitt, Boskovich, Guarnero, Gray, Laird; second unit defense: Davis, C. Jordan, Costanzo, Allen, Moye, Mohamed, Van Hoesen, Hagan, Conte, Johnson, Ezeff...

Third unit offense: Riley, Z. Smith, Best, Eselu, Calvin, Graffort, Schwartz, Cheadle, Guarnero, Fisher, DeMartinis...Third unit defense: Owusu, Gates, Karacozoff, S. Smith, Johnson, McIntyre, Russi, Amadi, Jones, Campbell, Doxy...

Per Calbears.com, season football ticket sales have reached a new all-time high as 2007 sales have surpassed last year's mark of 40,262.  Currently 500 to 600 season tickets are being sold on a weekly basis.

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