Foley 2024 wide receiver Perry Thompson committed to Alabama on Friday while visiting Tuscaloosa.
The football and track star announced earlier this month that the Crimson Tide had offered him. The 6-foot-3, 202-pound rising junior also had offers from Alabama A&M, Austin Peay, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Troy and UAB.
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“He’s a phenomenal young man first and foremost,” Foley head coach Deric Scott said. “He obviously has tremendous athletic skills and wide receiver skills. We felt like he would eventually have this type of future. He’s a tremendous talent and a hard worker. He’s put in a lot of work to be good, and he has more to go. We think he is just brushing the ceiling. His upside is tremendous.”
Thompson started for Foley as a freshman and then flourished during his sophomore year.
He caught 53 passes for 661 yards and 5 TDs for the Lions and finished with 814 all-purpose yards. He also had a pair of interceptions.
“Last year, he really started to show the skills we were thinking he had,” Scott said. “He developed this past year and has put a lot of work in during the offseason. He was able to go to some camps this summer and show what he could do. He also had a tremendous track and field season, so that no doubt helped.”
Thompson is Alabama’s first commitment for the 2024 class.
“You commit before your junior season (to Bama) -- you’re an elite dude in Nick Saban’s eyes,” Andrew Bone of BamaInsider.com tweeted. “Alabama LOVED Perrry Thompson in camp.”
Thompson already has been compared to another Foley and Alabama great wide receiver.
“Perry is a big framed wide receiver from Foley, so he’s going to automatically draw comparisons to Julio Jones,” said Jimmy Stein, who works for On3 as an analyst on the Alabama team site. “That’s a little much to put on a prospect who just completed the 10th grade. But he does share qualities with the hometown hero — exceptional frame and length, uses his physicality to make plays. Beats defenders in contested catches like he is rebounding a basketball. And, like Julio, for a ‘big’ receiver he has surprising athleticism, speed and ball skills. He’s raw but the ceiling is very high.”
Stein said Thompson “has a chance to be special.”
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