By Keenan Cummings
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia made the cut for a pair of top Maryland wide receivers.
Baltimore pass catcher Dont’e Thornton and Germantown athlete Kaden Prather are two of the top options on the board for the Mountaineers and they are still in the picture.
Thornton, at 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, is one of the top wide receivers in the 2021 class, coming in as the No. 52 overall prospect nationally. A one-time Penn State commitment, the Rivals.com 4-star prospect backed off that pledge and is considering a 12-pack of some of the nation’s elite programs.
Those schools are WVU, LSU, Penn State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Southern California, Florida State, Tennessee, Arizona State, South Carolina and Virginia. Thornton visited Morgantown multiple times throughout the process, and while he was already interested in the school, the hiring of Gerad Parker from Penn State is a significant boost for the Mountaineers’ efforts.
Parker handled the recruitment of Thornton with the Nittany Lions and the two have picked up right where they left off since he assumed the offensive coordinator role with WVU.
Thornton isn’t looking to make a decision any time soon and hanging in the race will be the challenge, but for now, the Mountaineers are in the 12-pack of finalists.
On the other hand, Prather has trimmed his list even further cutting things down to a final five. Those schools are WVU, Penn State, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Maryland. Prather, at 6-foot-3 and 198 pounds, also has been to Morgantown on multiple occasions, including most recently for the March 7 junior day.
Like Thornton, newly minted WVU assistant Parker handled his recruitment while at Penn State and the two are very close at this stage of the process.
“Coach Parker has been there for me since the beginning,” he said. “He offered me when he was at Penn State early in the process and ever since then, he’s been on me hard. Whether it’s about football, stuff off the field, school, he’ll check in. We have a great relationship.”
Couple that connection with his familiarity of the school and his interest level in the offensive system that head coach Neal Brown will use in Morgantown, the Mountaineers are high on his list.
A decision from Prather is expected to come in the summer as he expects to take official visits to his five finalists once the dead period ends. The Mountaineers are certainly very much in the race.
“Coach Neal Brown is a great guy, a great coach. He definitely has a plan to take West Virginia back to the top,” Prather said.
