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20 CAVALIER CORNER BY SCOTT FITZGERALD N ot many can replicate the college journey that Cavaliers wide receiver Keytaon Thompson has gone through during the last six years. Well, techni- cally a pair of journeys when you talk about his exploits as a dual-threat quarterback in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) for Mississippi State and then becoming a guy that has done just about everything on the field for a Virginia program since arriving in Charlottesville in 2020. A highly decorated four-star recruit out of New Orleans, Thompson has seen it all over the span of six seasons in college football. He's affectionately known to his friends and family as "Trick Bag" as a tribute to his versatility as a football and basketball player in high school. Not even Thompson himself could have drawn up a path that resembles what he's gone through in his collegiate career, especially a path that has led him away from being a quarterback, a position he's played all his life and a position that was his original ticket to a college football scholarship. "I never would have thought that I would have been playing wide receiver at Virginia," Thompson said. If you watch a Virginia football practice or game for the first time, you wouldn't notice anything out of place, including the 6-foot-5 Thompson lined up on the outside, run- ning crisp routes and looking like a natural at hauling in passes. His size, stature and athleticism would be something any NFL general manager would fawn over. A KID FROM NOLA To tell Thompson's roundabout story to the University of Virginia, you must begin nearly 1,000 miles from Charlottesville in the Big Easy. Out of high school, Thompson was a sought-after recruit. He was the No. 1 quar- terback recruit from the state of Louisiana back in 2016 and an honorable mention pick on Parade magazine's All-America team. After an incredible senior season in which he threw for 3,825 yards and 46 touch- downs as well as amassing 1,434 yards and an additional 26 scores on the ground, he became the first Landry-Walker High School student-athlete to garner the presti- gious Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year award. He later became a finalist for the Gatorade National Player of the Year. He capped his prep career by winning the Louisiana 5A state championship at the then-Mercedes Benz Superdome. In the title game, he accounted for 457 yards and 6 touchdowns to help the Buccaneers to their first football state championship. His prep career numbers were staggering. More than 10,000 yards of total offense and 149 touchdowns. But football does not tell his whole athletic story. If it weren't for his limitless potential on the gridiron, you might have found Thompson on the basketball court. He starred alongside fellow Mississippi State commit Lamar Peters to help lead Landry-Walker to back-to-back state championships in basketball. To this day, Thompson is not shy about his basketball acumen and is a self-pro- claimed basketballer at heart. Among his current competition for the best basketball player on the UVA squad is Nick Jackson who still sports a twitter handle that reads "@nickjhoops" and often jokes with Thomp- son about giving him run for his money. COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUND 1 Thompson's second part of his journey dropped him in Starkville, Miss., to play in the SEC for the Bulldogs and head coach Dan Mullen. He joined the program in 2017 VERSATILE VERSATILE AND ELUSIVE AND ELUSIVE Keytaon Thompson Is All That And A Bag Of Tricks " He's just a battler. He loves football, everyone knows that. Everyone calls him the 'Football Player' — he's just that guy." QUARTERBACK BRENNAN ARMSTRONG ON THOMPSON