Meet John and Eric Thornton: two brothers, two varsity football players at Virginia.
The similarities between them are apparent. Both put on orange and blue every Saturday. Both follow the instruction of Virginia coach Al Groh. Both call the same two people at home for a little extra spending money every now and again.
And, as if there weren’t enough parallels already, both walked on to the football team. Though the Thornton brothers both fall under the umbrella of “walk-ons,” their paths onto the Virginia roster couldn’t be much more different.
John Thornton, a senior punter, came to Virginia with football at the back of his mind. At his Richmond high school, John participated in six sports but only played one year of football.
As a freshman at Virginia, John didn’t go to tryouts. He didn’t make any contacts with coaches to try and get on the roster. He, like thousands of other students each week, watched the Cavaliers from the stands.
Then, in the early part of the 2006 football season, John Garrett, the assistant coach for offense and wide receivers at the time, traveled to Richmond to recruit Thornton’s younger brother Eric, then a senior receiver at Henrico High School. After it came to Garrett’s attention that the elder Thornton was already a student at Virginia and that he had been a standout punter and kicker in high school, Garrett e-mailed him an invitation to try out for the team.
The rest was history.
The following week, John Thornton went to a private tryout where he was asked by Garrett and special teams coordinator Bob Diaco to kick 15 field goals, punt 15 balls and show them 10 kick-offs. After the brief kicking and punting try-out, Thornton had his uniform embroidered and his name etched into a locker. No shuttle runs and no suicides.
Eric Thornton’s path onto the football team was of a different variety. Though he was recruited to play both football and baseball at U.Va., he was never officially offered a spot on either team. Unlike his older brother, the younger Thornton had his eyes set on a spot on the Virginia football roster before he even arrived in Charlottesville.
Throughout the summer preceding his first year, Thornton maintained a training regimen in preparation for his walk-on attempt.
Instead of a private look, however, Eric Thornton was surrounded by 10 other hopefuls participating in an open tryout.
After about 45 minutes of basic drills, a 40-yard dash and a shuttle run, the coaching staff picked four players, including Thornton, to join the squad; Groh said this year’s tryout “produced one of the better groups.”
“They’re not really expecting anyone to play right away,” John Thornton said. “They’re really looking at raw talent.”
And so, the Thornton brothers made their way onto the team through slightly different processes. John was recognized by Virginia coaches after they recruited other players at high school games in which he played; Eric was more actively sought out, receiving invitations to both baseball and football recruiting events.
Therefore, when both players arrived at their football tryouts, the coaches already had a vague idea of who they were looking at.
And so they should have. Some of Virginia’s most productive players have been walk-ons. Byron Glaspy and Jon Copper are recent examples. Al Groh is an older one.
Yes, even Groh himself worked his way onto the team after an open tryout. Likely as a result of his own experience, the player-turned-coach now gives all walk-ons a fair shake. One of the most tangible ways he does that is with financial help: If a walk-on begins to make an impact on the field, Groh will award him scholarship money.
Perhaps even more importantly, Groh recognizes that walk-ons have the ability to make a difference. And in many situations he provides them with an opportunity to do so.
In his third year on the team, John has found his biggest impact as one of the leaders of “team kick” — the punters, kickers and long snappers.
“I don’t have a cannon leg, but I can give advice,” he said. “I can help some of our other talented players with form and technique. That’s how I can make the biggest difference.”
And, when John isn’t helping other punters or kickers improve their form in practice, he’s keeping an eye on Eric — just as an older brother should.
“I make sure that he’s going full-force all the time,” John Thornton said. “I’ve told him that there are times when you might get far down the depth chart and you want to take plays off. But you can always stand out if you work harder than everyone else does. Coaches notice that.
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