BOULDER – Colorado Buffaloes safety Tedric Thompson was all over the place Friday in the Buffs’ 44-7 win over their rival Rams. Unfortunately for Thompson, one of those places was with the trainers after suffering a blow to his head and shoulder.
“It was just a football injury.” the senior safety described. “I banged my head and shoulder on the ground at the same time, our trainers were just doing a good job and taking some precautions, but I was fine.”
Thompson was taken off the field in the second half with the help of the training staff. This also prevented him from participating in Monday’s practice.
“It was both (my shoulder and head), I’ll be back this week,” Thompson told BSN Denver. “I should’ve practiced today but I’m fine, I passed protocol they checked out my shoulder and I’m fine.”
“Tedric fell and kinda got whiplash and he’ll be back out tomorrow,” Head Coach Mike MacIntyre reiterated. “So far he’s passed all the concussion protocol and he looks like he’ll be fine… as of today it looks like he’ll play Saturday.”
Having Thompson healthy is huge for the Buffs. Sure, next week’s opponent (Idaho State) shouldn’t give the squad too much trouble, but this safety is a key cog for the team. In the Rocky Mountain Showdown, he had a pivotal pickoff and several tackles.
“If you look at the interception I got it was because of the defensive line,” Thompson deflected. “They got great pressure on the quarterback in the pocket and I was right there with the ball. It wasn’t really me, it was a team effort.”
Thompson and the secondary starred in some huge plays in the contest. The group is seemingly going to star a lot this season for CU as they are a veteran group with big names. But Thompson doesn’t think his group is as key as another group on the field.
“We’ve been telling our defensive and offensive line since January that our season was really gonna depend on them,” he said. “Our O-line did a good job of blocking for Sefo so he could get the ball to playmakers and on the defensive side (Josh) Tupou, Samson (Kafovalu), Leo (Jackson), KO (Kenneth Olugbode), Fo (Afolabi Laguda), everybody was able to get pressure on the quarterback when we were blitzing, it was a great team win overall.”
Indeed, Thompson and the Buffs played almost immaculately against the Rams. But how will this affect the rest of their season?
“I think it gives us more confidence and I think our confidence comes from holding each other accountable,” Thompson touted. “Because we did a lot of things but we never got down and our confidence comes from each other…I’m extremely excited, it’s always good to go 1-0.”
