Peoria (Ill.) sophomore offensive guard prospect Deuce Thornton (6-foot-3, 251 pounds) is a name to watch out for this coming season for the Peoria Lions and head coach Tim Thornton. Thornton, who plays on both sides of the line of scrimmage for Peoria discusses his summer plans along with his latest football recruiting news in this recruiting update.

"I've been pretty focused on my team camp this summer and it's been going really well so far," Thornton said. "I was able to get out to Iowa earlier this summer for a one day camp, and that's really the only camp I have planned for this summer."

Thornton, who is indeed the son of Peoria head coach Tim Thornton discussed his one day camp experience earlier this summer at Iowa.

"I went to Iowa in early June for a one day camp and overall I thought it went pretty well. I was able to learn a lot at the Iowa camp and the Iowa coaches really worked with me and helped me with my technique. This was the second time I've been to Iowa and it's just a great school. The feedback from the Iowa coaches was positive. They want me to just keep working hard and Coach (George) Barnett really coached me up at the camp and wants me to stay in touch with him this season."

Has Thornton, who is also a strong student in the classroom (4.0 GPA) drawn any additional college recruiting attention?

"I received camp invited from Central Michigan, Iowa, Louisville and also Illinois and I know the coaches from those schools made in school visits during the winter and the spring. Unfortunately I'm done with the college camps this summer but hopefully those schools will continue to stay interested in me this fall."

So how has Thornton improved on his overall game this off-season and what will be different about his play this fall?

"I'm going to be just a lot more focused and also have less penalties this season. I'm planning to just do more flying around and playing just much more aggressive football. I'm also working on being a much more vocal leader for my team this summer. Last season it was a big jump up for me in competition and it took me the first few games to get really comfortable on varsity. I had some great teammates on that team who really helped me and encouraged me to believe more in myself."

Does Thornton have a specific dream school?

"I really don;'t have one school in particular. My goal is to play at the Power 5 level in college, but the focus is to just get the opportunity to play in college."

So how has playing for his Dad (Tim Thornton) been so far for Deuce Thornton?

"Playing for my dad has been great. He doesn't play any favorites and has no bias towards me at all. He does a great job of coaching us up and we are always talking about football whether it's at home or at school."