Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Bryce Thornton stepped foot in an unknown world a season ago, a place he had heard about and even had a vague sense of what life was like for those who lived there.

Still, Thornton knew immediately it was not a place he was comfortable.

"My dream was to play as a true freshman,'' said Thornton, who has long checked that goal from his to-do list. "I'm glad I did it."

The brutal landscape Thornton discovered was a place most first-year players find themselves: on the outside looking in. Thornton played in all 12 games as a freshman, starting four, but there were times early in the season when he learned he was not a significant part of the defensive game plan.

The reasons were obvious, but that didn't make them easier to swallow. He had a lot to learn. He needed to be better at practice. You earn your playing time at this level one practice at a time, and he had to find a way to crack the door.

Thornton was rarely a player other teams failed to notice as a standout at Milton (Ga.) High. He blossomed as a running back/cornerback as a sophomore, and later moved to safety, which paid off with an array of offers from Power Five programs.

As Thornton navigated his first season with the Gators, he had resources stored on his iPhone that most college athletes can only imagine. His older brother Bruce, born 14 months before Bryce, is the starting point guard for Ohio State. Their father, Bruce Thornton Sr., is a former defensive back at Georgia who spent parts of four seasons in the NFL. And then there is Tiaunna Briggans, their mother and a former basketball player at Georgia. Whenever Bryce called Briggans after a bad practice or a performance that got underneath his skin — Tiaunna consoled him after Kentucky running back Ray Davis ran over Bryce and the Gators for 280 yards by reminding him that Davis was almost a 24-year-old man and he was an 18-year-old freshman — he tended to regain some perspective.

"My mom really helped me with this whole process,'' he said.

Briggans grew up in Denver and started her college career at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, where she caught the eye of former Georgia women's basketball coach Andy Landers. She signed with a talented Bulldogs team that featured sisters Kelly and Coco Miller. Briggans was a role player whose height and athleticism helped her rebound and play interior defense. There's a photo of her holding up the SEC Tournament championship trophy in Memphis in 2001 that was picked up by a lot of newspapers at the time, a role player in her shining moment.

Early in her first season at Georgia she learned a lesson she passed on to her boys when things might not be going the way they want. The Bulldogs beat Maine for the Dead River Classic title as the Miller sisters combined for 47 points. Landers used eight players in that game, but despite having scored six points in the previous contest, Briggans did not see the court that night in Orono, Maine.

"You're sitting there and you still got your shooting shirt on,'' Briggans said. "I had never not played. I just sat in it. I just accepted it. I never took off that shooting shirt. I told them, 'don't accept it. Don't get used to it.' That's the only thing I can tell you. Whoever is starting or whoever is the best receiver, that's who you go get. That's your target. I didn't know to do that. But I can tell them to not get comfortable with not playing."

Bruce Thornton summed up his straight-shooting parents this way earlier this season: "They didn't make it easy,'' he told the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. "They didn't allow me to win no games, nothing, so I had to earn it."

Reinforced by his family's understanding of high-stakes athletic battles, Bryce slowly began to play more as the season unfolded and the young Florida defense under first-year coordinator Austin Armstrong tried to develop players for the future. Thornton is on the two-deep at safety this spring and battling with a group that includes veteran transfers Asa Turner, Trikweze Bridges and DJ Douglas. Meanwhile, Thornton, fellow sophomore Jordan Castell and redshirt freshman Aaron Gates form a young nucleus at the position.

"Bryce Thornton and Jordan Castell, those guys have been in the fire now,'' Armstrong said. "And they have been out in third-and-five in the Swamp against Tennessee. Everybody thinks they know how to do it and it's time to do it. So, the balance of those players who played in those games and adding guys that have done it somewhere else, I think you can't put a price tag on it. They've done a great job."

The 5-foot-10, 206-pound Thornton has multi-tasked this spring to keep an eye on big brother Bruce, who helped the Buckeyes reach the NIT quarterfinals. Bruce led Ohio State in scoring (15.8) and assists (4.8), including a 29-point game in a win over Final Four Alabama in December at the Emerald Coast Classic. The Buckeyes' season ended last week with a home loss to their parents' alma mater and former UF coach Mike White.

Bryce watches his brother's games as often as he can. Meanwhile, he gets asked often about the obvious.

"My mom and dad never really pushed me to go to Georgia,'' he said. "My mom and dad were always making sure, 'Whatever is best for you.' So, I'm really glad that my two parents really led me that way. Florida just felt like home."

While their father pursued a professional career after college — he made headlines in 2003 with a interception return for a touchdown against Florida State in the Sugar Bowl matchup between then-Bulldogs coach Mark Richt and his mentor, late FSU coach Bobby Bowden — Briggans has settled into a job as a security guard at a private school in the Atlanta area. The career allows her time to visit Bruce at Ohio State, where she watched the Buckeyes face Georgia, and then make a trip to Florida last weekend to visit Bryce.

"I'm all over the place,'' she said.

The message to both remains the same. There are going to be ups and downs, everyday is not going to be great, but you have to keep working to improve and make your mark.

Briggans knows that has never been a problem for Bryce.
 

"Bryce is unique because Bryce is going to speak his mind,'' Briggans said. "He is going to do what Bryce wants to do, and not in a bad way, and sometimes not in a good way. He is just going to be gung-ho about what he wants to do and how he is going to do it. There is no peer pressure with Bryce.

"He knows what he wants out of every situation."

Thornton enrolled early in January 2023 and has a different outlook entering his second season. He has a better grasp of this new world he inhabits.

"Always be prepared,'' he said. "I feel like now, I'm just playing with instincts. We really want to change things and build Florida back to where we used to be. Winning is the most important thing to everybody."

Especially a win over Georgia.