Sooners await recruit’s decision

Michael Thompson, a four-star defensive lineman from St. Louis, will choose to attend either Missouri or Oklahoma on National Signing Day Wednesday.

When he started the recruiting process nearly three years ago, Michael Thompson told everyone he would make his decision on National Signing Day.

Even with the addition of the Early Signing Day in December, the fourstar defensive lineman from St. Louis was going to give himself all the way until the first Wednesday in February to make his college choice.

And that’s exactly what he’s done.

At a ceremony in Parkway North’s gymnasium on Wednesday, Thompson, ranked as Rivals’ No. 5 defensive tackle in the 2018 class, will choose either a Missouri or an Oklahoma hat and ink his name on a National Letter of Intent.

But he isn’t telling anyone where he’s going until that moment.

“We think we know,” Parkway North football coach Bob Bunton said, “but he’s taking this all the way to noon on Wednesday.”

Though he has a larger-than-life physical profile at 6-foot-4, 273 pounds, Thompson is as low key as they come. When recruiting letters were delivered to him in class, he would quickly hide them in a book and not talk about them.

“Talking to him, you’ll never know that he’s got all these coaches that are just hounding him, that are begging (him) to come to their excellent programs,” Parkway North defensive line coach Ali Ghasedi said. “He’s not that flamboyant kind of flashy guy.”

He’s always been one of the bigger kids in the Parkway North system, grabbing the attention of Ghasedi and Bunton during his middle school days.

But as he’s evolved into a dominant lineman, playing on both sides of the ball throughout his high school career, Thompson has remained a down-to-earth guy.

“As big as he is physically, he’s a pup,” Bunton said. “He’s a boy. Michael is a 17-year-old teddy bear. He’s not really an intimidating force around our school building. Everybody just knows him as Big Mike. He’s probably one of the biggest jokesters and pranksters around.”

Though Thompson isn’t spilling the beans early about his college decision, Bunton has a pretty good hunch that Thompson will end up in Norman — although a year ago, that hardly seemed likely.

During Thompson’s junior year, offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh made a trip to see the two-way lineman, Bunton said. But Thompson preferred defense to offense and wasn’t sold on OU’s pitch.

But after he bonded with fellow St. Louis native Ronnie Perkins, a defensive end Oklahoma signee, at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, Thompson began considering the Sooners again.

“I think they roomed together on the trip,” Bunton said of Perkins and Thompson. “Michael came back to St. Louis and it was OU this and OU that. He took a visit to Norman. He didn’t even have to tell me, I pretty much knew where he was going to go.”

With OU’s emphasis on defensive recruiting ahead of the February signing period, it was a perfect match.

Bunton figures he’s met the entire OU coaching staff in the last three weeks with recruiting coming down to the wire. Defensive ends coach Calvin Thibodeaux has been a couple of times and Lincoln Riley stopped by last week, Bunton said.

Though Thompson has handled the recruiting process with poise, Bunton said he can tell that his player is ready to make his announcement.

“It’s been truly 2½ years of nonstop recruiting, and I think he’s finally reached the end,” Bunton said. “I think he’s comfortable with what his decision is going to be, I really do.”