Former Michigan State QB Payton Thorne commits to Auburn out of transfer portal

Auburn has a quarterback to helm the offense in the first year of the Hugh Freeze regime with former Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne committing to the Tigers on Friday. Thorne has multiple years of eligibility remaining if he chooses to use them.

Upon taking the job in late November, Freeze inherited a number of quarterbacks with experience at Auburn, namely TJ Finley and Robby Ashford. However, neither apparently did enough to win the job this spring as the Tigers head coach pulled Thorne out of the transfer portal to help compete for the starting quarterback job. Finley recently entered the transfer portal as a graduate transfer.

The Tigers also opted to bring in Thorne over another experienced quarterback transferring from a Big Ten school: Nebraska’s Casey Thompson.

And Thorne comes to Auburn with about as accomplished a resume as transfer quarterbacks have.

Thorne played in 29 games for the Spartans and was the starting quarterback the past two seasons, including helming the Michigan State offense during an 11-2 campaign in 2021. Thorne tossed 27 touchdown passes that season. On his career, he has 6496 passing yards and 49 passing touchdowns to 24 interceptions and went 16-9 as the starter for Michigan State. Thorne left Michigan State ranking fourth all-time in program history in passing touchdowns, 22 shy of tying Connor Cook for the career program mark.

Thorne played high school football at Naperville (Ill.) High School, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 1126 overall recruit in the 2019 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

 AuburnLive’s Justin Hokanson thinks his fit with the Tigers makes a lot of sense.

Thorne has proven his mettle against Power 5 competition, for one. And, as Hokanson noted in an On3 Roundtable with J.D. PicKell, he’s not destined to be a one-and-done at Auburn.

“I think the other aspect of him that’s intriguing and I wrote about at AuburnLive, in my opinion, was the fact that he has multiple years of eligibility. Now, he could be draft eligible next year, he could be one-and-done, but I think based on what he’s done so far, unless he showed up at Auburn and balled out, I think he’d be there for two years,” Hokanson said.

“Seems like an efficient player, an efficient quarterback that’s got some good potential to distribute the football and make good decisions. And honestly, that’s what Auburn needs right now. He’s got some mobility. He’s not some super athlete, but if you watched him at Michigan State, he showed some signs of being able to escape pressure and take off and run.

“And so he’s at least enough of a threat that, in that RPO game, if you don’t respect him, he can pull and run around the other side. He’s not Robby Ashford out there, but he’s mobile enough that you have to respect that, I think. He can pull it a couple times and make some good runs. And then you’ll have to worry about it,” Hokanson said.

Ultimately, with the point in the calendar and considering the options Auburn has at quarterback, Thorne is a pretty decent upgrade to the room.

“So, I think he’s a good fit. Based on where things are, based on who’s available, I think he’s a really good fit. I think he’d be a really good get for Auburn if they can get him,” Hokanson said.