On Friday, we introduced you to a talented wide receiver from Glades Central (Fla.) High School named Davonte Allen. The Mountaineers have already extended a scholarship offer to Allen for the 2011 season and now they have their sights ***** set on his former teammate.

J.T. Thornton is a speedy cornerback with good size out of Glades Day School where he is making a name for himself as a physical defensive back with a nose for the ball.

In the team’s state championship victory last season, it was Thornton who pulled in the game-clinching interception in overtime. His teammates carried him off the field as the hero in their championship effort, an experience he is not likely to forget any time soon.

“That’s the greatest feeling I’ve had in a long time,” Thornton told wvillustrated.com. “It was second or third down and I saw the receiver break, so I jumped it and when the quarterback threw it I knew it was over and we had won the game.”

Now Thornton has a new prize in his mind: a scholarship offer from West Virginia. He already holds offers from Marshall, Western Michigan, Illinois and Central Florida, but he would like to see that list grow.

At West Virginia, he has WVU’s Lonnie Galloway’s attention, but he needs cornerbacks coach Dave Lockwood to see his tape before the Mountaineers will be certain they want to offer him.

“[Galloway] said that I’m the premiere lockdown corner that West Virginia is looking for and that I’d be a good addition and would help out the defense a lot,” says Thornton. “He thinks I could play early and make an impact. I told him I plan on making an impact early, from the moment I step on campus.”

If Thornton were to step on campus at West Virginia, he would not be the first from his family to do so. About five years ago, Thornton’s cousin, Jetavious Best, committed to play for the Mountaineers. He came to WVU in the 2006 season after spending a year at New York’s Milford Academy and spent most of his time as a scout team rusher before leaving the team to return home to Florida.
 

If Best gives WVU good grades, it would just be the icing on the cake, because he already likes much of what he has seen from the Mountaineers and their staff.

“I’ve heard the DB coach is an excellent guy and he really understands what he’s doing,” he says. “The last DB he had, [Ellis] Lankster, I really like him.”

Thornton is also fond of the idea of renewing an old rivalry with his former Glades Day teammate Davonte Allen, whom Thornton says has expressed a great deal of interested in West Virginia through recent conversations.

“That’s my buddy. I talk to him a lot. We talk about picking the right school. He says the coaches like me and he wants me to go with him.”

Still, the two are each far from feeling ready to make a final decision on their futures, be they together or apart.

For now, Thornton is preparing for another season at Glades Day, though he says his father is looking into getting him a transfer that would put him at Dwyer, the same school where two WVU prospects attended last season. He says all that’s standing in his father’s way of making the switch is his mother, and you know how that goes.

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