Longhorns Add Key SEC Defender Through Transfer Portal

The Texas Longhorns got some SEC defensive help on Sunday night, adding a talented linebacker through the grad transfer market

Matt Galatzan | Jan 18, 2021

The 2021 Texas Longhorns defense got some much-needed help on Sunday night when LSU grad transfer linebacker Ray Thornton chose to come to 40 Acres to play his final college season.

Thorton joins a defense that is still in search of their new defensive coordinator but has plenty of talent to succeed in the upcoming season.

Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 225 pounds, Thornton is a solid athlete who excels at rushing the quarterback, Thornton played a key reserve role with the Tigers and saw action in all four of his seasons in Baton Rouge.

After spending his first three seasons as an outside linebacker and a pass rusher with the Tigers, Thornton moved to inside linebacker in the 2020 season under new defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, where he finished the year with five tackles, two sacks, and a forced fumble.

For his career, Thornton has amassed 45 total tackles, three sacks, one pass deflection, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery, with his most productive year coming during the 2018 season when he totaled 21 tackles.

A Killeen Shoemaker native, Thornton was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, ranking as the 32nd recruit in the state of Texas, and the 205th overall prospect in the country. He received offers from the Longhorns and Tigers, as well as Michigan, California, TCU, Kansas, and North Texas.

Thornton will join a linebacker group that features Demario Overshown, Juwan Mitchell, David Gbenda, and Jaylan Ford, among others, and showed signs of promise after a rough start to 2020.

Published Jan 18, 2021

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.