Payton Thorne reacts to being named Auburn's starting quarterback

Former Michigan State star Payton Thorne hit the transfer portal this offseason in search of a new place where he could be the starting quarterback. He found his new home in the Auburn Tigers and recently he was named the starting quarterback by Hugh Freeze. Thorne shared his reaction to being named the new trigger man on The Plains.

“Yeah, I’m very excited to get going,” Thorne began. “You know, it’s been a good summer. A good fall so far. So, excited to get out there with the guys and truly get out there for our first test and see what we’ve got. Week 1 you get to get a real feel for it. You know, me as a quarterback, I get to actually get tackled. Which will be nice to be live. But, it’ll be exciting and I’m excited to see what happens with the work we put in.”

Hugh Freeze explained the decision to pick Payton Thorne

Auburn’s quarterback competition is over with Payton Thorne taking the starting job with the Tigers. Even so, Hugh Freeze wants everyone to know just how much went into this decision down on The Plains.

Freeze explained his choice in Thorne during a press conference on Thursday. He said as far as timing that his trust in all three contenders is still present but that, at this point, his gut told him that it was time to make a call.

“I believe in all three of those guys. There are days where there has been very little separation,” said Freeze. “I just believe, man, my gut is usually right and usually when I follow my gut? And I’m not saying my gut is right that Payton is the guy for all 12 games. But my gut is saying it’s the time to do this, to get us best prepared for the opening of the season.”

However, to get to Thorne individually, Freeze believes he’s the furthest along with the offense and from a leadership standpoint. He also has the pro of having more significant experience after transferring in from Michigan State than either Robby Ashford or Holden Geriner.

“To this point, I think the separation? The reason Payton is getting the nod is just the leadership ability and the understanding of the offense,” said Freeze. “He’s been in some really good battles. It just seems like he was more efficient in the decision-making to this point. Not that the others were terrible by any means. It was not just a slam dunk.”

Over the past two seasons as the Spartan’s starter, Thorne has completed 61.5% of his passes for over 5,900 yards and 46 touchdowns. His 25 games as the starting quarterback in those pair of campaigns are more than Ashford or Grenier have appeared in combined as college football players.

Freeze felt as though the time had come to have a starter named in order to best prep for kickoff against UMass. That played in Thorne’s favor as the leader in the battle has officially won the nod, at least for now, down at Auburn.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater also contributed to this article.