Dan Fleser
After enduring a season he’d rather forget, Dont’e Thornton Jr. made a point of remembering why he embraced football in the first place.
“I know at a young age my whole reason for playing was to have fun; it was for me to have fun,” Tennessee’s wide receiver said. “So, knowing now that I got to college there’s a lot more aspects that make the game stressful, I have to bring myself back to the old way of thinking. At the end of the day, it’s just football.”
Last Saturday brought Thornton back to his good old days. The 6-foot-5, 214-pound senior caught three passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns in a season-opening 69-3 victory over Chattanooga. The yardage and the TDs with single-game highs for Thornton as a Vol. Afterward, he said it was “crazy” how much the game reminded him of one he played in high school.
“In my first game back, I felt like this was the game I expected to have,” Thornton said. “It felt really good.”
His performance previewed greater possibilities for Tennessee’s offense this season. The Vols had eight plays of 20-or-more yards against the Mocs. Five were pass plays. They had 71 such plays in 13 games last season. Adding more entries to the big-play file figures to be more challenging this week when the Vols face No. 24 North Carolina State on Saturday night in Charlotte, N.C.
“As a competitor, you can live in what everybody is talking about last week,” UT coach Josh Heupel said on Monday. “But the reality is you’re only as good as your next performance.”
While Heupel’s sentiment is understandable and, frankly, predictable, Thornton needed last week after his initial year at UT. The transfer from Oregon caught only 13 passes in nine games last season. He began by playing out of position in the slot because UT’s ranks were thin at the position. He eventually moved back outside and strung together two promising games before suffering a season-ending leg injury on his lone score - a 46-yard touchdown reception against Missouri.
Thornton delivered the blows with his TD catches against the Mocs. The scoring plays covered 36 and 10 yards respectively. His other catch was a 59-yarder on a fly pattern down the left sideline in the first quarter. The catch helped set up a field goal. Of Thornton’s receiving yards, 37 were gained after the catches.
“You can just see how much more comfortable Dont’e got with this offense,” quarterback Nico Iamaleava said. “It was his first year last year and he was still figuring things out. I feel like he was dialed in this whole fall camp, spring camp and he has put great work in. It showed on the field (Saturday).”
Along with Thornton, fellow receivers Chris Brazzell II and Bru McCoy also had big catches in the opener. Brazzell caught a 23-yarder in the first quarter. McCoy, who was returning from a fracture-dislocation of his right ankle last season, went deep across the middle a quarter later to haul in a 37-yard reception.
McCoy’s cathartic-like reaction to the catch was inspired by his late grandfather, who died in December.
“This was my first game since I lost my grandfather,” McCoy said. “I made a very similar catch in the last game he saw me play. That came to mind and it jazzed me up.”
The 6-5 Brazzell had opportunities for more big plays. Iamaleava overthrew the Tulane transfer deep down the right side in the second quarter. Brazzell may have throttled down on the route. Matt Stinchcomb, who was the game analyst for the SEC Network telecast, speculated that Brazzell might not have expected the pass.
After halftime, backup QB Gaston Moore and Brazzell didn’t have enough end zone in which to complete two potential TD receptions on deep throws.
As much fun as Thornton and the other receivers had, they could’ve had more. Just a passing thought: They will have more chances.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters and the U.S. Basketball Writers Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.