After losing a hotly contested quarterback battle in East Lansing, former two-year starter Payton Thorne sets sights for Auburn.
There’s a bit of a shakeup in East Lansing. After a deeply turbulent spring in the quarterback room for the Michigan State Spartans, two-year starter Payton Thorne entered the transfer portal on Sunday and has committed to Auburn. The move comes after fourth-year junior Noah Kim was expected to win the job over Thorne much to the elation of the Spartan fanbase.
Thorne was one of the key components of Michigan State’s 11-2 year in 2021, passing for 3,232 yards and 7 touchdowns in the process. While it may not have been earth-shattering stats, it was enough to create a balanced offense with now-Seahawks feature running back Kenneth Walker III.
Now, Payton Thorne looks to spruce up and bring light to an anemic quarterback situation in Alabama, with 2022 starter TJ Finley leaving by way of the portal earlier on in the week. Thorne entered the spring portal window just as it was about to close, wrapping up most of the spring departures.
Thorne is expected to be the starter for the Tigers, offering a much-needed veteran presence. The two quarterbacks the Tigers were left with after Finley left were Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner– both vastly unexperienced and leave much to be desired. Freshly hired head coach Hugh Freeze was on the hunt for a new quarterback, with possibly more of a passing skillset than what the Tigers have had in the past.
Thorne also was a starter for both years he started for the Spartans, and while he isn’t the five-star slam dunk some teams look for– he was a serviceable option for Michigan State throughout his time. Subpar might be too harsh, we’d level him somewhere around the “gets the job done” range.
Compared to 2021, 2022 was a much rougher year for Thorne. Battling the loss of RB Kenneth Walker III to the NFL Draft as well as seeing a drastic drop-off in performance, Thorne put up much less impressive stats. With 2,679 yards with 11 interceptions on only 19 touchdowns, the Spartan fanbase was eager to voice their displeasure for Thorne.
One Twitter put it quite harshly, “Auburn fans hyping up Payton Thorne, like they getting Peyton Manning or something.” — an ode to the fanbase’s detesting attitude of Payton Thorne.
On the other side, the Michigan State Spartans now bring in Sam Leavitt from Oregon as a potential successor for when Kim’s time is up.
Thorne completed 61% of his passes, a much better improvement than TJ Finley who didn’t complete over half of his passes during his time with the Tigers. Thorne also would’ve had to deal with the loss of his number one wide receiver Jayden Reed to the NFL Draft as well as another receiver in Keon Coleman to the transfer portal this year.
It wouldn’t have been the ideal situation for any quarterback already on thin ice with the program to be in. The transfer portal has changed quarterback play and attitudes, with the coming and going of players due to many more factors than in the past.
Thorne is just another example of that, creating a more connected NCAA than ever. At Auburn he meets up with Hugh Freeze, who has quite a reputation for being a quarterback guru. He’s coached Titans QB Malik Willis as well as Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly who came up from a JUCO route to be an NFL draft pick. Auburn’s overall outlook also gets better, coming from a 5-7 2022 season, for them to get a formidable quarterback who can pass the ball is a huge deal, especially as the SEC intends on getting stiffer with competition in the coming years.
