During his most recent appearance with the media, Deonte Thompson wore a shirt proclaiming “99 Problems But My Kicks Ain’t One.”
This season, the redshirt junior hopes to add his hands into the same category as his flashy footwear.
Thompson came to Florida with hopes of being the first “next Percy Harvin.” And while his career hasn’t worked out that way so far, he’s the top returning receiver on a team that desperately needs playmakers to emerge at wideout.
And along the way, he hopes to dispel what he considers a baffling myth: that he can’t catch.
“I really don’t drop balls,” Thompson told the Gainesville Sun.
He picked up that tag in the 2009 season opener against Charleston Southern, when, one play after being flagged for a false start, he dropped a perfectly thrown deep ball that would have gone for a touchdown.
It wasn’t the first drop of his career and probably won’t be the last. But no matter what he did from then on, he couldn’t shed the label.
None of his four touchdown catches — one less than tight end Aaron Hernandez — did the trick.
Not the 77-yarder in the third quarter of a 23-20 win against Arkansas, and not the stretching sideline grab in the end zone during the Sugar Bowl.
Thompson said he was bothered by the questions about his hands, but luckily for him, those doubts don’t exist in the UF locker room.
“As long as the reputation is not from our coaching staff, I think that’s OK,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. “I know he dropped that one in the opener against Charleston Southern or whoever that was last year. A lot of people think he can’t catch, but he also made some great catches. We need him to be a ballplayer this year, and I think he will.”
Receivers coach Zach Azzanni called Thompson’s hands “fantastic,” and quarterback John Brantley has chimed in with similar praise.
So how to explain that glaring drop against Charleston Southern?
Meyer cites the position of Thompson’s hands on deep routes. Rather than keeping his arms raised to catch the ball above his shoulders, he dropped them to his chest or lower.
“‘Eye-level or higher’ is what we say to guys,” Meyer said. “People who catch balls [below eye level], their eyes can’t follow it into their hands.”
Meyer said that problem has been fixed this offseason, and if an improvement in Thompson’s technique shows up on the field this year, Azzanni — who was hired in the spring — is likely the reason why.
“He’s a really, really fundamental guy,” Thompson said. “That’s his main thing. He knows we can run fast and jump high, but he wanted to get us back to the basics of the game.”
One of Azzanni’s main focuses has been route-running, which he describes as painting a picture for Brantley.
“That means just make it easier for the quarterback by running good routes,” Thompson said. “That’s your artwork when you’re out there. That’s your craft.”
When Thompson begins working at his easel on Sept. 4 against Miami (Ohio), he hopes he’ll be starting a masterpiece that ends with the ball firmly planted in his hands.
