Texas football gaining on 4-Star 2021 Oregon WR target Dont’e Thornton

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class appears to be getting more traction of late with highly touted 4-Star WR Dont’e Thornton.

There appears to be a new top tier wide receiver target in sight for head coach Tom Herman and his 2021 Texas football recruiting class. Texas is yet to land a four or five-star commit commit at wide receiver or tight end in the 2021 recruiting class, but there’s one that they appear to be getting more and more traction with.

The talented 6-foot-5 and 185 pound Mount Saint Joseph wide receiver Dont’e Thornton is apparently having the Longhorns and Georgia Bulldogs emerge among his finalist schools. Texas and Georgia reportedly (247Sports paid content) joined up with the front runners: Oregon Ducks, USC Trojans, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish, among the finalists to get a commitment from Thornton.

Thornton remains as one of the best uncommitted high school prospects in the nation for the 2021 recruiting cycle. He ranks as the nation’s No. 52 2021 high school prospect, No. 6 wide receiver, and No. 2 prospect out of Maryland (247Sports Composite). And Thornton is one of the few remaining uncommitted blue chip wide receiver prospects that looks to wait until after the Early Signing Period to announced his pledge decision. He’s set to announce on Jan. 9, 2021.

That will give Herman and recently promoted wide receivers coach Andre Coleman a good while to win over the interests of Thornton away from the other four finalist schools mentioned in that piece.

He has more than 25 schools on his lengthy offer sheet too. The highlighting schools on Thornton’s offer sheet (outside of those already mentioned) include the Arizona State Sun Devils, Florida State Seminoles, Virginia Cavaliers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Baylor Bears, Florida Gators, LSU Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Ohio State Buckeyes, Tennessee Volunteers, and Wisconsin Badgers.

But the 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions are slanted pretty heavily in favor of head coach Mario Cristobal and the Ducks at the moment. The other four finalists might still be chasing down Oregon, and they look to have a ways to go.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2021 Texas recruiting class ranks at No. 16 in the nation, and remains behind the Oklahoma Sooners for the second spot in the Big 12. They hold 18 commits in the 2021 class, with the highest rated of the wide receivers being three-star Monarch product Jaden Alexis.

Texas needs to land a blue chip prospect like that of Thornton to make some headway in the national class rankings. This would be the first full recruiting class that Herman signed since his time on the Forty Acres began that he finished outside of the top 10 in the nation if they stay put where they are now.