FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (July 13, 2021) – No job on a college football coaching staff is easy, but Northern Arizona head coach
Chris Ball knows exactly which is one of the hardest to do.
Leading the position group the head coach spent years with before making the move up to defensive coordinator and eventually his current position. For
Jesse Thompson, that's where he found himself as he followed defensive coordinator
Jerry Partridge to Flagstaff from Delta State.
"It's a tough position to coach, especially when the head coach is an old secondary coach," Ball said. "He's done a tremendous job of developing these younger players."
During Thompson's two seasons in Flagstaff, cornerback Khalil Dorsey earned his second career All-Big Sky First Team honor in 2019 and safety
Morgan Vest landed on the All-Big Sky Unanimous First Team following the five-game spring season.
The Lumberjacks also sent out multiple true freshmen at cornerback, granting them their first collegiate experience while looking to build toward this fall, and rotated a few players in and out at safety next to Vest.
"Our players played together, they bought into what we're coaching defensively. And they made it a pleasure to go out there every day," Thompson said. "They competed hard out there. Not just during the games, but turn on the practice tape too."
Naturally, Thompson's confident the Lumberjacks are headed in the right direction and feels the underclassmen at the position are going to be "remarkable" one day.
Freshman
Kamdan Hightower scored the first touchdown of the spring season for NAU, picking off a pass against Southern Utah and returning it 58 yards for a touchdown in his first career game. A week later, freshman
Devontae Ingram picked off Eastern Washington's Eric Barriere, who went on to finish second in the Walter Payton Award voting. In the season finale, freshman
Colby Humphrey broke up a pass in the end zone to prevent an Idaho touchdown.
Coupled with the play of Vest as a steady presence and one of the Big Sky's best defenders, the secondary is poised to continue its improvement going into its fall schedule.
The work, with just 213 passing yards allowed in the season finale against the Vandals, is helped by Thompson's history with Partridge. The two worked together to produce a Delta State defense that ranked fourth in red zone defense and 19th in third-down defense during the 2017 season.
"I know how Coach P operates and what he wants, and he knows how I operate and my body of work at Delta State. We had some really good defenses," Thompson said. "I'd say relationships are very important in football, that should be the key."
With the defensive backs position open as Ball put together his staff back in 2018, Partridge requested to bring Thompson along with him from Mississippi.
Thompson spent two seasons alongside Partridge at Delta State after coaching for a season at Virginia Union in 2016. He was on the staff at Oklahoma Panhandle State for the eight years prior to that, including holding the title of defensive coordinator.
"I trust Jesse, so there's a trust factor," Partridge said. "He knew kind of the language I spoke and again, it's always good as an older coach to be able to help younger coaches advance in the profession.
Ball's coaching history with a handful of NAU's assistants has benefitted the program through its first two seasons together, so has Thompson and Partridge's past work together.
"It's been really good, especially the opportunity to come with him here and be around some other guys that he's known," Thompson said. "That's really the foundation of our staff, the relationships. We're all here because of pre-existing relationships, and that's been really good."
