Trent Thompson readily accepted the invitation to jump into the driver’s seat of the rented Ford Fusion to show a visitor around his hometown of Albany. Only getting through the doorway and behind the steering wheel of the vehicle proves to be problematic.
Thompson literally has to squeeze into the car. Pushing back the seat to its farthest setting, he searches frantically for a steering-column adjustment, only to find it’s already as high as it will go. Thompson’s left shoulder presses against the interior door panel while his right one invades the passenger’s space. The accelerator pedal that was there just a second ago disappears under the eclipse of his size-15 EE Timberlands.
Everything about Thompson is big and wide. He is listed at 6-foot-4, 311 pounds and, if the car test is any indication, it’s accurate.
The conversation during the ride starts off light. Thompson talks about where to eat and complains about graduation practice being too long and largely unnecessary. And when the conversation turns to the mountain of expectations being heaped on him as he prepares to begin his Georgia career, he insists that is of no concern at all.
“Football,” the 247Sports composite No. 1 prospect in America said matter-of-factly, “is going to come easy.”
But then Thompson turns serious. The academics at Georgia, he acknowledges, have him worried.
“I’m going to have to work hard at it,” he said.
Asked to expound, Thompson throws out the truth like an anvil from a third-floor window.
“I have a reading disability,” Thompson confessed. “There’s a lot to it. I can read, but I struggle with it.”
Thompson explained that he has made decent grades at Westover High and actually excels at math and in some other subjects. But reading, he said, always has been difficult.
“I can read to myself and I pick up on the words, but I don’t really know it,” he says. “You can tell it to me or show it to me in pictures, and I’ll get it fine. I’m a visual learner, I guess. That’s why I learn football plays easily. You show it to me and have me do it more than once, it comes easy to me.”
UGA and Thompson believe they can help each other.
Georgia vows to assist Thompson in every way it is allowed as far as tackling his reading problems. Because of his medically validated condition, Thompson said he will be allowed to take tests untimed and can even be accompanied to class by a tutor when needed.
In the meantime, Thompson said he has been working on his vocabulary harder than football. He carries a dictionary everywhere he goes and refers to it every time he encounters a word he doesn’t recognize. He gets special instruction at Georgia.
Still, it’s enough to make a mama fret.
“That’s my No. 1 worry,” Bridgette Flewellen, Trent’s mother, said of the academic challenges her son will face. “I hope he achieves and studies hard. I know they’ll give him the help that he needs. We got all this paperwork that he had to fill out so that they know he’s got to have more time for tests and things like that when they give it to him. So I’m just praying on that.”
The expectation is that the football part will be a little easier to manage. It certainly comes more naturally to Thompson.
His mere presence helps an immediate need for Georgia. The Bulldogs are desperate for depth on the defensive line, not to mention a player of the ilk who could make a significant impact. The belief is that Thompson has the tools not only to contribute his first season, but possibly to start — if not star.
“He’s as naturally strong of a guy, hands and upper body, as I’ve ever covered,” said Rusty Mansell, a recruiting analyst for 247Sports. “He’s molded a little bit differently than (Ole Miss defensive lineman Robert) Nkemdiche, but he’s got freaky strength like him. I don’t know if he’s as quick off the ball, but both of them were No. 1 players from Georgia and, 10 years from now, both of them will be playing in the NFL.”
Thompson is not spending a lot of time contemplating his potential.
“They’re telling me I’m going to play early,” Thompson said shortly before reporting for summer semester. “They’re telling me to be ready because they’re going to be on me when I get there. They’re going to be hands-on, showing the tough-love.”
As for individual goals and expectations, he doesn’t really have any.
“It really doesn’t matter as long as I get on the field my first year,” Thompson said. “I just want to produce so I can help my team out and help us win an SEC championship and a national championship. I’m just coming to help.”
Georgia plans to return the favor.
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