Auburn football finally landed a quarterback in the transfer portal in Payton Thorne and here are three takeaways for the Tigers.
Hugh Freeze has been searching for a quarterback and it looks like the new Auburn football head coach has found one in former Michigan State starter Payton Thorne.
Thorne surprised the college football world when he entered the transfer portal before the April 30th deadline. If you listen to the Michigan State side of things, it’s because Noah Kim had a strong spring and is looking like the new starter.
Michigan State fans have also been talking about tampering, but the bottom line is that nobody expected Thorne to be in the transfer portal.
Auburn football has been waiting for a quarterback this spring that would be a clear upgrade and Thorne is it. Here are three takeaways from his commitment to the Tigers.
Auburn football gets a legitimate starter
This isn’t an insult to Robby Ashford, but Auburn fans have to be breathing a sigh of relief. To his credit, Ashford responded by tweeting that “Iron sharpens Iron.”
Ashford did take a step forward this spring and it’s reasonable to assume that Freeze, who is known as being one of the better QB coaches in college football, could get more out of Ashford than the previous staff.
However, Ashford would have been more handed the job by default if the Tigers didn’t make an addition like Thorne. Now, if Ashford winds up being the starter, he will have earned it.
Thorne might be the favorite and logical pick to be the starter, but even if he doesn’t start, the Tigers upgraded their QB room and depth immediately.
Thorne will be an upgrade
I know that Michigan State fans want to believe that Noah Kim is going to be better than Thorne, but I just don’t see it and I don’t see how he wouldn’t have ended up as the starter.
It’s not like Auburn football didn’t have any other options. Casey Thompson, the former Nebraska and Texas starter just visited the plains last weekend. So that was another viable option.
But Freeze and the staff clearly viewed Thorne as an upgrade and I think they’re right. Over the past two seasons, Payton has tossed 46 touchdown passes compared to 21 interceptions.
Thorne needs to cut down on the interceptions. But in 2021, he ran for nearly 200 yards and four touchdowns to account for 31 total. If the Tigers can get that production from Thorne too, there’s a much better chance that the first season will be a success.
That doesn’t mean Auburn football is going to beat Alabama, but the Tigers aren’t going to be a pushover, especially if Thorne is the quarterback upgrade he appears to be.
Thorne can attract more talent too
Talented pass catchers want to play with talented quarterbacks and the addition of Thorne will help Auburn football attract more talent from the transfer portal which is needed.
Of course, one name Auburn fans would love to add to the roster for 2023 is Keon Coleman, who also shocked Michigan State football fans by entering the portal.
I don’t know if that was about NIL, or if his decision was connected to Thorne’s, but you have to think the QB is at least recruiting Coleman to Auburn.
Coleman has a bunch of interest though and the On3 prediction machine now projections the Tigers to land former Colorado wideout Montana Lemonious-Craig.
Lemonious-Craig went off for 154 yards in the Colorado spring game. He has 12 career starts under his belt and caught 23 passes for 359 yards and three touchdowns.
He looked like a piece that actually could have fit with the Buffs, but now it looks like he’ll be joining Auburn football and who knows, maybe the addition of Thorne will lead to another wideout like Coleman or someone else.
Either way, the addition of Thorne has multiple impacts and for the Tigers, they should all be positive at least compared to the QB room before.