Texas Football: LB core gets upgrade with LSU transfer Ray Thornton

Positive news arrived for newly hired head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program to round out the holiday weekend. Texas figured out that it would be getting a commitment out of the NCAA Transfer Portal from the former LSU Tigers senior linebacker Ray Thornton (per Horns247 report).

Since the Longhorns eventually wound up losing the commitment of the former FCS McNeese State Cowboys senior cornerback Darion Dunn since the conclusion of the Early Signing Period, getting more experienced depth on this side of the ball is key. Dunn was the first get for the Longhorns out of the transfer portal heading into the 2021 offseason, but the firing of now former fourth-year head coach Tom Herman wound up in him re-opening his recruitment.

It was mostly the parting ways with now former cornerbacks coach Jay Valai and first-year defensive coordinator/safeties coach Chris Ash that apparently caused Dunn to rescind his commitment from Texas within the last few weeks. But there are more viable options in the transfer portal to try and patch up any depth holes on the defensive side of the ball that Sark and his coaching staff can still pursue this offseason.

This latest addition out of the portal is a really big one for the Longhorns. It will really help boost the depth at the linebacker position for the Longhorns, especially since former four-star recruit and redshirt sophomore Ayodele Adeoye put his name in the portal earlier this offseason. Texas will get another experienced senior linebacker in the mix alongside the likes of Juwan Mitchell and DeMarvion Overshown.

Both of those aforementioned Texas linebackers look to be set to return to the Forty Acres for the 2021 season.

Moreover, Thornton brings a plethora of valuable experience and flashes of promise from his four years playing at LSU. He played in just four games for head coach Ed Orgeron and the Tigers last season. In the process, he registered five combined tackles, two tackles for loss, two sacks, and one forced fumble.

For his career in total, Thornton registered 45 combined tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, one pass breakup, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery, in bits and pieces of 21 games played. His two most productive campaigns came when he was a sophomore (2018) and senior (2020).

In his college career thus far, Thornton also racked up 21 quarterback pressures, three additional quarterback hits, just six missed tackles, 17 stops, and had just one penalty called against him.

Thornton should be able to come in and right away challenge for playing time for the Longhorns at one of the linebacker positions. Texas is also losing their MVP on the defensive side of the ball from the last two years, in star junior linebacker/edge rusher Joseph Ossai, so bringing in more depth in the form of Thornton is a nice snag for Sark’s new look Texas coaching staff.

Under the direction of the former head coach Herman, the Longhorns rounded out the 2020 campaign with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12), including wins in five of their last six games. Their last game resulted in a dominant Alamo Bowl win over the Colorado Buffaloes back on Dec. 29, by the final score of 55-23.