The Nittany Lions have verbal commitments from two defensive tackle prospects: Evan Hailes and DaQuan Jones. But the Penn State staff would like to add at least one more top prospect at the position and a player they are interested in is Stone Mountain (Ga.) Stephenson star Mike Thornton.
In late August, Thornton told NittanyNetwork.com he planned to make an official visit to Penn State.
“I’m still trying to get up to Penn State,” Thornton said on Tuesday night. “I hope I can get up there sometime in November. That’s the only time I see available to get up there.”
Thornton is hoping to graduate early so he will need to get his official visits in soon.
Thornton has approximately 30 scholarship offers including Penn State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Alabama, South Carolina, Auburn, LSU, West Virginia, Miami, Michigan State and Michigan.
“Hopefully I can get up to Michigan and Michigan State, too,” Thornton said. “Those two have been recruiting me pretty hard.”
While Thornton has not yet begun to schedule his official visits, he has taken some unofficial visits.
“I went to an Auburn game and a Georgia game,” Thornton said. “I went to the Auburn-West Virginia game last Saturday and the Saturday before that I went to the Georgia-South Carolina game.
“They were both great games. I have offers from all four so basically I was looking at all four teams.”
The 6-foot-1 and 273-pound Thornton made 95 tackles during his junior season. He had 49 solo tackles, 46 assists and three sacks.
Thornton and his teammates are currently 3-0. He has 16 tackles and four sacks in those three games.
Kurelic’s Comment: In addition to Thornton, the Nittany Lions are also pursuing defensive tackles Sharrif Floyd and James Carmon. If they can land at least one of those three, Joe Pa will be in great shape with interior defensive line prospects in his 2010 recruiting class.
Thornton remains on radar
