What Josh Heupel said Monday about Tennessee WR Dont'e Thornton's injury
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said during his press conference on Monday that wide receiver Dont’e Thornton will miss the final two weeks of the regular season after suffering a lower-leg injury in the loss at Missouri on Saturday.
Heupel added that the Vols will reevaluate Thornton’s injury during the postseason.
“Dont’e will be out for the remainder of the regular season,” Heupel said during his weekly press conference to start Georgia week. “We’ll see where we’re at as we get into postseason play.
“Young guys (at wide receiver), there were some real positive things that they did during the course of the game. Chas (Nimrod), Kaleb (Webb), all in all, like a majority of what they did.”
Tennessee (7-3, 3-3 SEC) hosts No. 1 Georgia (10-0, 7-0) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS) at Neyland Stadium.
Thornton hauled in a 46-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter against Missouri, sliding to make the grab in the corner of the end zone, but immediately signaled for medical attention after his right leg got caught underneath him on the slide.
The Oregon transfer receiver thrived for the Vols the last couple weeks after moving from the slot to the outside receiver position. He entered Saturday with five catches for 89 yards since moving to the outside two weeks ago. He had seven catches for 89 yards in his previous six games.
“I think we’ve just been able to get him confident and comfortable,” Tennessee wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope said of Thornton this week. “I think early on a lot of that meant that he’s a kid that he wants to do so well, and he kind of toed that line of like pressing and being aggressive. And just getting him to calm down and not press so much and just go play football.
“I think now you’re seeing a confidence in him, which is why he’s able to go and make plays. So he’s playing in practice, continuing to do that, continuing keep be confident that way you can see him relax and play ball Saturday.”
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Thornton had two catches for 17 yards in the season-opening win over Vanderbilt on September 2 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. He didn’t record a catch the following weeks against Austin Peay, then had three catches for 53 yards in the loss at Florida.
He had two catches for 24 yards against UTSA, but didn’t record his next reception until at Kentucky. He didn’t have a catch against Texas A&M or Alabama after missing the South Carolina game with a hamstring injury.
He caught two passes three passes for 63 yards in the win at Kentucky and two passes for 26 yards last week against UConn.
Tennessee lost redshirt senior Bru McCoy to a season-ending leg injury against South Carolina on September 30. Pope said last week that McCoy’s mentorship been one of the most important pieces of the development of Thornton and Tennessee’s other receivers.
“I think Bru has been awesome for all of the guys,” Pope said. “He’s always in the building. He’s in meetings, he’s in team meetings. And as devastating as it was having him go down, I think it gave him clear voice.
“He was already a leader of that group, but his voice, I think being able to speak to those guys, he’s helped each and every one of those guys tremendously.”
