Inside The Huskies

UW's Thompson Accepts Invite to New All-Star Game

The defensive tackle becomes the fourth Husky to agree to a postseason event.
Dan Raley|
Anterio Thompson (54) is shown at WSU with Buddah Al-Uqdah (3), Bryce Butler (92) and Jacob Lane (48).
Anterio Thompson (54) is shown at WSU with Buddah Al-Uqdah (3), Bryce Butler (92) and Jacob Lane (48). | Dave Sizer photo

Anterio Thompson, after a lone season as a University of Washington defensive tackle, has accepted an invitation to play in the American Bowl, the newest college football all-star game and an opportunity to mix with NFL scouts.

Thompson will head for Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, not far from Orlando, to play in a January 22 event with a 5 p.m. PT kickoff and will be televised by the NFL Network. The game is a culmination of five days of scout interactions.

He becomes the fourth Huskies football player to agree to a postseason game appearance, joining cornerbacks Ephesians Prysock and Tacario Davis and running back Jonah Coleman, all of whom will take part in the Senior Bowl on January 31 in Mobile, Alabama.

The well-traveled Thompson is a 6-foot-4, 310-pound defender originally from Dubuque, Iowa, who transferred to the UW from Western Michigan after earlier playing for Iowa and Iowa Western Community College.

This past season, Thompson appeared in all 13 games with starts against Colorado State and Illinois. He was the Huskies' ninth-best tackler with 30, including 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, and had a pair of pass break-ups.

He had a season-best 6 tackles at Michigan and 4 tackles and a sack against Illinois.

Thompson proved to be a fairly effective and physical player for the UW inside, plugging up gaps and helping limit UW opponents to 100.1 yards per game rushing.

"I felt like I just really got to work on my technique this summer and having a coach like [Jason] Kaufusi who's really into the details has just helped my game so much. ... I'm just night and day better than I was before," he said at the season's end.

While he goes through the all-star game experience, the defensive tackle conceivably could return to the Huskies should the NCAA offer eligibility waivers for those who have played junior-college football as proposed.

Near the end of the season, Thompson expressed a willingness to go that route and keep building momentum in a football career that has required great patience on his behalf.

Anterio Thompson emerges from a pile after tackling Rutgers' Antwan Raymond.
Anterio Thompson emerges from a pile after tackling Rutgers' Antwan Raymond. | Dave Sizer photo

After a year at Iowa Western, he spent the 2023 season as a special-teams player for Iowa, showing off his athleticism with a pair of blocked punts. Yet the Big Ten team didn't use him much on defense.

Thompson next transferred to Western Michigan, where he started 12 games on the defensive front and finished with 34 tackles.

For the Huskies, he started the season opener, then gave way to then-sophomore Elinneus Davis as the first-teamer before opening another game against Illinois.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football