After talking with Thomas Hammock, Cam Thompson said he knew it was time to come home.

After Hammock left as Northern Illinois’ head coach for the NFL a couple of weeks later, he said he knew he wanted to stay after talking with Hammock and interim coach Rob Harley.

He had already left NIU after the 2024 season to go to Mississippi State. He wasn’t about to go anywhere else.

“Coach Hammock came to me and was like, we trust him,” Thompson said. “We’re still going to make sure you get what you need to get. We’re going to make sure you have all the trust in coach Harley. So I decided to stick it out.”

Thompson had a breakout 2024 season as a sophomore, making 28 catches for 391 yards and three touchdowns as the Huskies went 8-5, beat Notre Dame and won a bowl game for the second straight year.

Thompson entered the portal and chose Mississippi State. He only played in three games for the Bulldogs, the last one on Sept. 20, a win against NIU.

“It was weird,” Thompson said. “A lot of those people that played last year were my best friends. It was kind of like a high school game. That’s how I felt.”

Thompson didn’t record a catch last season. He said part of it was not adjusting to the veer and two offense, which he described as a straight tempo offense in which the receivers pretty much get open and get the ball.

It was also a very different environment, both in terms of the temperature for the Youngstown, Ohio, native and the way the community of Starkville consumed college football.

“I just felt like it wasn’t really me down there,” Thompson said. “I took a shot on myself, and it kind of didn’t really work out. I felt like it wasn’t really me. I feel like I probably just rushed my decision doing everything I did, so I kind of had to take a step back.”

When the portal opened, Hammock reached out to Thompson, and he decided to return to DeKalb. But in February, the seventh-year head coach made the sudden choice to join the staff of the Super Bowl champion Seahawks.

Huskie players, per NCAA rules, could enter the portal once again, but Thompson, like all but three of his teammates, stayed put with Harley.

Thompson said leaving Mississippi State and returning to NIU was a tough decision and took a lot of introspection. But he said it was the right choice for him.

“As a football player, you want to play football,” Thompson said. “Some things don’t work your way. I completely understand that. But you have to look at perspective of life, and especially since this is my last year and I want to go play football.”

Harley, who joined the NIU staff as defensive coordinator after Thompson left, said he’s glad the receiver is back in the fold.

The interim coach, who will helm the team through at least the end of the season, said Thompson’s plight shows the problem with the current portal system. There’s no real way for players to judge their market value.

During the last two-week window when the portal was open for the Huskie players, Harley said coaches were upfront about what roles players would have if they transferred. But those coaches didn’t have to be, and that makes an already difficult decision even tougher for a young person in their late teens or early 20s.

“How do you know what’s real when you go out there?” Harley said. “We had some schools be very upfront and honest about where those guys would fit, and it wasn’t what those guys wanted to hear. And I told those guys, thank God they were honest. They could have said, ‘Listen, you’re going to come in, be a starter,’ then you get there and you’re third string.”

Thompson said he’s excited for the season. The Huskies focused on a pro-style, ball-control offense under Hammock, but new offensive coordinator Tony Petersen – the fourth NIU OC in the last four years – said the Huskies are going to spread things out and try to get more vertical this year.

“I’ve been around a lot of different playbooks and a lot of different staffs,” Thompson said. “I would say this offense fits what we’re trying to do here. Coach Harley, once he got into the position, he was like we’re going to throw the ball. Him getting coach Petersen, we really emphasize throwing the ball.”