28 days until Texas Football: Jerrin Thompson commands the secondary
Inside Texas is putting a new twist on long-time photographer Will Gallagher’s time-honored countdown to Texas football kickoff. In addition to Will’s great pictures, the Inside Texas staff will go through every player on the roster by jersey number and offer a season outlook on each, from five-star to walk-on.
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We’ll also look back at other greats to wear that day’s number, with special reverence to some of Texas’ best.
Today is 28 days until kickoff. No. 28 for the Longhorns this season will be worn by Jerrin Thompson, a senior defensive back.
Jerrin Thompson season outlook
After starting 12 of 13 games at boundary safety last season, Thompson returns for his senior year as one of the elder statesmen in the secondary and as a leader of the team. The arrival of Jalen Catalon may move him to the field spot, but nonetheless Thompson will be a mainstay on the field for the 2023 Longhorns.
In 2020 he was a special teams standout, often showing a pure love for the game in the third phase other players don’t make visible regularly. Then in 2021, he took over playing time at safety in the second half of the season, setting himself up for a starting role in 2022.
He patrolled the secondary alongside Anthony Cook in 2022, but this year he is likely to move into Cook’s spot. Thompson’s quality play on the gridiron will have to be matched by his communication, plus a continued ability to make rangy plays in the passing game.
Thompson has played in 35 games with 20 starts in his three years on the 40 Acres and has amassed 138 tackles (86 of them solo), 3.5 tackles for a loss, two interceptions, 13 passes defended and a forced fumble.
Thompson was a 2022 honorable mention All-Big 12 selection by the league’s coaches, an Academic All-Big 12 Second Team member in 2021 and is a three-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll (spring 2020, fall 2020, spring 2021).
Jerrin Thompson as a recruit
Thompson was ranked as the No. 199 overall prospect, the No. 14 safety, and the No. 30 player in Texas in the 2020 On3 Industry Ranking.
Recent player to wear No. 28: Malcolm Brown
Brown played in 44 games with 25 starts in his highly decorated four seasons at Texas. He started the last 17 games of his career and left the 40 Acres at No. 9 on the Texas all-time rushing yards list (2,678).
Brown had 11 career 100-yard rushing games which ranked tied for seventh in school history at the end of his career and had 24 career rushing touchdowns, which was only three from the UT all-time top 10. He was a two-time All-Big 12 selection by the coaches (second team in both 2013 and 2014) and was a member of the preseason watch lists for the 2014 Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award.
Brown was a 2014 Academic All-Big 12 choice and was named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll each of the last two semesters.
In Memory of Freddie Steinmark
