Khyri Jerome Thornton (born November 21, 1989) is an American football defensive tackle for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Southern Miss, and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He has also been a member of the New England Patriots, Detroit Lions, New York Giants, and St. Louis BattleHawks. High school career Thornton was born in Panama City, Florida and attended Bay High School there, where he made 49 tackles including 46 solo stops, two sacks, three forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery as a senior. He also played fullback, recording 678 yards rushing with 10 touchdowns. He did not qualify academically for the NCAA standards, leading him to spend one year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia. He was considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com. He was ranked 16th among prep school prospects, and the 20th best prospect at defensive tackle in 2008 by ESPN. He was named to the Orlando Sentinel Top 100 and played in the North-South Football All-Star Classic. He worked construction while he was in high school. College career Thornton was well recruited coming out of school and had received interest in a number of schools including Arkansas, Clemson, Florida State, and South Florida. After originally committing to South Florida, he had not been approved by USF's academic committee, despite meeting the NCAA standard. He enrolled instead at Southern Miss, and was given a redshirt designation in 2009. Thornton started his career with the Golden Eagles by playing in all 13 games in 2010 and recording 17 tackles, five tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks. He had his best game of the season against Prairie View A&M where he recorded three tackles. At the end of the season, he was selected to the Conference USA All-Freshman team as voted on by the league's head football coaches. In 2011, he appeared in 14 games, starting seven at defensive tackle, and tallied 24 tackles, nine tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks with one pass batted, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. During the 2011 Hawaii Bowl, Thornton had two tackles and one half-sack. Thornton was Southern Miss's primary defensive tackle in 2012, playing in 12 games and starting 11 of them. During the game against Western Kentucky, He intercepted a pass and returned it 12 yards. He