College football transfer WR Dont'e Thornton commits to Tennessee Vols

Tennessee landed an important pledge out of the college football transfer portal as wide receiver Dont'e Thornton announced his commitment to the Volunteers for the 2023 season.

GO VOLS!!!!! @Vol_Football pic.twitter.com/3pEszxdiYo
— BigMacc🥷🏿 (@IamDTJ11) January 9, 2023

Thornton, who has multiple years of eligibility remaining, kept his redshirt in the 2021 season as a true freshman, but went on to appear in 11 games this past season with the Ducks.

He caught 17 passes for 366 yards and a touchdown in the 2022 season, and led Oregon with 21.5 yards per reception.

247Sports ranks Thornton as the No. 49 overall player in the college football transfer portal and the No. 10 ranked transfer wide receiver this year.

Tennessee wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope was active in helping the Volunteers land Thornton, who also visited with Arkansas, Auburn, and Miami.

Thornton was originally considered a consensus four-star prospect coming out of Mount St. Joseph (Md.), emerging as a top 75 overall recruit in the 2021 class.

Tennessee posted the No. 1 total offense in college football over most of this past season, but is losing several of the playmakers that made it go, including quarterback Hendon Hooker and wide receiver Jalin Hyatt.

College football transfer portal

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office. Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him. And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.

More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | All Teams

Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Facebook