Usage / Role
100%
Featured defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2019-2023West Virginia
Jalen Thornton
DL • 6'2" • 278 lbs • Cincinnati, OH, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Jalen Thornton shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 17.6 disruption score.
Impact Production
100
Top-tier box-score impact for a defensive lineman
lowelite
Reliability
100
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
87
Elite ceiling indicators
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2023 Postseason · West Virginia
19202121222323
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 5
- Program Path
- West Virginia
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: North Carolina
Player Story
Jalen Thornton built his college career from 2019 through 2023 as a defensive lineman from Cincinnati, OH wearing No. 97, spending time with West Virginia. The clearest part of Jalen Thornton's career was his...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- West Virginia
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2019
Jalen Thornton, DL. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2023 Postseason · West Virginia. Jalen Thornton shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 17.6 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 24
- TFL
- 5
- Sacks
- 3
- QB hurries
- 2
Quick Answers
Jalen Thornton quick answers
- Latest team and position
- West Virginia · DL
- Career Tackles
- 24
- Tracked sample
- 5 unique seasons · 7 entries · 17 games
- Best season
- 2023 Postseason · West Virginia
- Top game
- North Carolina
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Indian Hill · West Virginia
- High school pipeline
- Indian Hill · 4 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- Latest roster
- No. 97 · Junior
- 2023 Tackles rank
- 14 tackles · DL 486th (top 49%) · Big 12 254th (top 40%) · National 2,463rd (top 42%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Regular Season | West Virginia | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| 2020 Regular Season | West Virginia | 3 | 4 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 38.3 |
| 2021 Postseason | West Virginia | 3 | 1 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 37 |
| 2021 Regular Season | West Virginia | 3 | 2 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 37 |
| 2022 Regular Season | West Virginia | 2 | 3 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 38.5 |
| 2023 Postseason | West Virginia | 9 | 4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2 | - | 0 | 44.5 |
| 2023 Regular Season | West Virginia | 9 | 10 | 3.5 | 1.5 | - | - | 0 | 44.5 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Jalen Thornton
Jalen Thornton played DL for West Virginia. Across 5 tracked seasons, Jalen Thornton recorded 24 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2023 with West Virginia.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2023 Postseason
West Virginia paired 10 primary output with 17.6 efficiency.
Supporting note
2023 Postseason role shape
impact-led usage with 17.6 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value stayed steady
2023 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: North Carolina
Win with 5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2023 Postseason · West Virginia
Games
9
Havoc Plays / G
1.1
Efficiency
17.6
Usage
5.4
Consistency
14.8
Best Game by takeover score
North Carolina
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
Hover over a point
Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.
Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. North Carolina: 5. Pittsburgh: 0. TCU: 1. Oklahoma State: 0. UCF: 0. BYU: 0. Oklahoma: 3. Cincinnati: 0. Baylor: 1
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. North Carolina: 4 by 66.7. Pittsburgh: 1 by 4.2. TCU: 1 by 14.2. Oklahoma State: 2 by 8.3. BYU: 1 by 4.2. Oklahoma: 3 by 42.5. Cincinnati: 1 by 4.2. Baylor: 1 by 14.2
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins1 · Games = 7 · -0.5 vs Losses
Losses1.5 · Games = 2 · +0.5 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
9 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
North Carolina
Best efficiency game
66.7 vs North Carolina
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 12/27 | vs North CarolinaSplash game | W 30-10 | 4 | 1 | — | 1.50 | 1.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/26 | @ Baylor | W 34-31 | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/18 | vs Cincinnati | W 42-21 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/12 | @ OklahomaSplash game | L 20-59 | 3 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/4 | vs BYU | W 37-7 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/28 | @ UCF | W 41-28 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sat 10/21 | vs Oklahoma State | L 34-48 | 2 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 10/1 | @ TCU | W 24-21 | 1 | 0 | — | 0.50 | 0.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/16 | vs Pittsburgh | W 17-6 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Jalen Thornton story
Jalen Thornton built his college career from 2019 through 2023 as a defensive lineman from Cincinnati, OH wearing No. 97, spending time with West Virginia. The clearest part of Jalen Thornton's career was his defensive production: 24 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, and 3 sacks across 17 career games in the available record. That gives Jalen Thornton's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
West Virginia
2019-2023
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
2019202020212021202220232023
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Regular Season | West Virginia | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2020 Regular Season | West Virginia | 0 | 5.6 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 2021 Postseason | West Virginia | 0 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 0 |
| 2021 Regular Season | West Virginia | 0 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 0 |
| 2022 Regular Season | West Virginia | 0 | 6.3 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 2023 Postseason | West Virginia | 10 | 17.6 | 5.4 | 10 |
| 2023 Regular Season | West Virginia | 10 | 17.6 | 5.4 | 0 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs North Carolina
Week 1 · W 30-10 · Postseason
Win with 5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
5
Havoc Plays
88.9 takeover
5 disruption/tackle impact with 88.9 takeover score.
#2
@ Oklahoma
Week 11 · L 20-59 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
67.5 takeover
Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 67.5 takeover score.
#3
@ Baylor
Week 13 · W 34-31 · Conference game
1
Havoc Plays
31.4 takeover
Win with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1 disruption/tackle impact with 31.4 takeover score.
#4
@ TCU
Week 5 · W 24-21 · Conference game
1
Havoc Plays
20.6 takeover
Win with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1 disruption/tackle impact with 20.6 takeover score.
#5
vs Eastern Kentucky
Week 2 · W 56-10
0
Havoc Plays
7.8 takeover
Win with 0 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
0 disruption/tackle impact with 7.8 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2023 Postseason · West Virginia
10 primary output · 17.6 efficiency · 5.4 usage
44.5
#2
2023 Regular Season · West Virginia
44.5
10 primary · 17.6 efficiency · 5.4 usage
#3
2022 Regular Season · West Virginia
38.5
0 primary · 6.3 efficiency · 1.1 usage
Milestones
2
Impact games
2
Splash games
0
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Jalen Thornton
Move from the player story into the game log, career arc, team context, and video shelf.