Thompson Hopes to Make More People Disappear at UW

Anterio Thompson, looking sort of scholarly behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses, is a new defensive tackle for the University of Washington football team, an Iowa native who has been nothing short of wide-eyed since arriving in Seattle.

The city looks nothing like where he's from, which is Dubuque, a compact community located on the Iowa-Illinois state line with the Mississippi River running through it.

"It' s just different," Thompson said of his new surroundings. "It's my first time being on the West Coast. It's a way different experience. One thing I like about out here is just how diverse it is. Being in the Midwest, you pretty much see the same type of person. Out here, I've seen a lot of races and different things like that."

Lately, that observation about sameness would seem to hold true for the UW defensive tackle position, which is what brought Thompson to Seattle. In recent seasons, everyone coming out of a stance there has been indistinguishable, sort of ordinary in their skill set, all blended together.

The Huskies are hoping that the 6-foot-3, 305-pound Thompson, a transfer from Western Michigan and Iowa before that, and Iowa Western Community College even before that, gives them a litlte something different up front -- such as a playmaker they've been lacking for a number of seasons now.

Thompson is aware of this, yet he's not about to make big promises that he's the answer to the Husky defense's biggest need, that he's the second coming of UW defensive lineman greats Steve Emtman or Vita Vea. He's confident yet cautious, knowing he has work to do.

"I know what I'm able to do and I know what I'm capable of doing," he said. "I just want to take the coaching. I know a little bit about the history here, but I'm still learning a lot of things. I know I have a lot to bring to the table. If I take the coaching and take advantage of all the resources they have, I can be in those conversations."

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— 𝑻𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐 (@ThompsonAnterio) February 4, 2025

Thompson will jump into the mix at defensive tackle with fellow transfer Simote Pepa; coming in from Utah; the Parker brothers, Jayvon and Armon, once both of the twins are healthy; sophomore Elinneus Davis; sixth-year senior Logan Sagapolu, who came to the UW from Miami last year; one-time JC transfer Bryce Butler; redshirt freshman Omar Khan; and freshmen Caleb Smith and Dominic Macon.

While he caught the Huskies' eye after starting a dozen games for Western Michigan and coming up with 34 tackles in 2024, Thompson spent the previous season at Iowa, where he got buried in the rotation. He appeared in just seven games and played mostly on special teams, but he blocked a pair of punts for the Big Ten team. At least his time with the Hawkeyes got him noticed and wanted elsewhere.

"The coaching, they believed in those guys -- I guess I wasn't one of those guys," he said. "There's no shame in that. I still have love for those people. I'm glad that I was able to make a name for myself when I was doing it."

If anything, Thompson needs to do to opposing ball carriers what's happened with him and now former UW linebackers coach Robert Bala -- make them disappear.

New Husky defensive tackle Anterio Thompson (54) is shown at Iowa in 2023. | Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

When the defensive tackle was new to Western Michigan, Bala was the defensive coordinator of the Mid-American Conference team for just a few days before leaving abruptly for the UW, but not before meeting the defensive tackle one day laboring through offseason drills.

"That was actually a funny thing," Thompson recalled of their first meeting. "At the time, we were going through conditioning. He was out there. He had kind of seen me breathing hard. It was hard out there. Al of a sudden, he sort of vanished."

The coach and the player laughed about their brief Western Michigan encounter once Thompson arrived at the UW. Yet this week, it happened again.

While the big transfer was retelling his Bala story on Monday, the linebackers coach had been in the room earlier answering questions. Two days later, Bala was headed to Florida to interview and reportedly has landed a new job with the SEC team.

Thompson probably shouldn't take it personal, but he can't be faulted for wondering why this keeps happening.

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