Josh Heupel: Dont'e Thornton 'continuing to grow' in Tennessee's offense
After Thursday night’s Tennessee football scrimmage at Neyland Stadium, head coach Josh Heupel was asked about being more athletic at wide receiver entering the new season. Tulane’s Chris Brazzell headlined the transfer class while five-star prospect Mike Matthews was the biggest name in the 2024 recruiting class.
“Yeah,” Heupel said during his press conference after the scrimmage, “guys made some plays.”
Brazzell “made some really nice plays,” Heupel added, while Matthews “made some plays down the football field.”
Brazzell caught 44 passes for 711 yards and five touchdowns in 13 games as a sophomore at Tulane last season. Matthews, the Lilbrun, Georgia, native, was the No. 26 overall player and the No. 6 wide receiver in the country out of Parkview High School.
And then there’s Dont’e Thornton, who made some plays of his own during the scrimmage.
“(He) continues to grow,” Heupel said of Thornton.
‘He was so limited in spring ball and training camp, just got banged up’
The second-year Oregon transfer struggled to stay healthy in his first season at Tennessee, catching 13 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown in nine games with the Vols last year.
Heupel detailed that the issues Thornton dealt with last season, including moving from the slot to the outside receiver. The biggest problem started last spring, when Thornton missed valuable time due to injury.
“He was so limited in spring ball and training camp, just got banged up,” Heupel said. “He missed a lot of practices and missed opportunities to grow within what we’re doing.”
Thornton caught five passes for 89 yards in back-to-back wins over Kentucky and Connecticut late in the season, with a season-high three catches for 63 yards at Kentucky. The production came after no catches against Texas A&M and Alabama.
Before moving outside, his previous highs for the season was the three catches for 53 yards he had in the loss at Florida in September.
Dont’e Thornton was ‘playing his best football’ before season-ending injury at Missouri
Thornton was lost to a season-ending leg injury at Missouri on November 11 after catching a 46-yard touchdown pass.
“We moved him outside in the middle part of last year and (he) was playing his best football,” Heupel said, “got dinged up.”
Entering his senior season, Heupel described the 6-foot-5, 214-pound Thornton as someone continuing to become a bigger presence in Tennessee’s offense.
“It’s a guy that has great trust in the coaching staff,” Heupel said, “understands just how to operate and function within our offense and understands coverages in better ways. (He) is just continuing to grow out there. I really like what he’s done.”
