Former Oregon football QB Ty Thompson scores 2 TDs in Tulane opener
Shortly before Thursday night's season opener, Tulane announce that former Oregon football quarterback Ty Thompson wouldn't start and instead play the role of backup.
It was shocking news because Thompson transferred from Oregon to land a starting job in the Group of Five and he instead lost to redshirt freshman Darian Mensah who completed 10-of-12 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns on Thursday night.
Thompson's bid for a starting job looked dead in the water with how well Mensah performed against SE Louisiana but there's still plenty of time left in the season.
Either way, it was a tough blow for the former Duck quarterback.
The Green Wave won 52-0 and that meant that Thompson would get some extended playing time and while he didn't exactly set the stage on fire, he did light up the scoreboard a bit. He only passed the ball four times, completing two of them for 17 yards, but he rushed four times for 23 yards and two touchdowns.
After Tulane had 6 different players score the first 6 TDs, Ty Thompson runs in his 2nd score in a Tulane uniform. Surprisingly, he never rushed for a TD at Oregon in his 3 seasons, 2 of which behind Denver’s heralded rookie QB Bo Nix. pic.twitter.com/8ClpAzG1R3
— Isaac Popper 🟦 (@ipopStats) August 30, 2024
This wasn't the performance that Thompson expected when he transferred to Tulane, but he still has a long fight ahead of him if he truly wants to take over at quarterback. He's not just going to roll over -- he never did at Oregon -- but he's going to have to showcase his arm more if he wants to upend Mensah.
The former five-star quarterback has had a tough road, going from Anthony Brown's backup to Bo Nix's backup to the second option to Dillon Gabriel for Dan Lanning this past offseason.
Now it's time for him to live up to his potential.