Mel Tucker discusses the progression and development of quarterback Noah Kim

Mel Tucker and the Michigan State Spartans enter the 2023 campaign having to answer questions at the quarterback position. They’ll have to figure out how to handle life after Payton Thorne, who moved onto the Auburn Tigers this offseason. That’s life with the transfer portal for a majority of college football programs across the country. Thorne was very good the past two seasons for the Spartans, throwing for over 2,600 yards in back-to-back seasons. He also tossed at least 19 touchdowns in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, including a single-season program record of 27 touchdowns in 2021. But, the Spartans have been spending the offseason searching for his replacement. One candidate who has grabbed the attention of Mel Tucker in the past few months is redshirt junior Noah Kim. On Wednesday evening, Tucker joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss how impressed he’s been with Kim’s development and progression in the past year.

“Well, we had an open competition in the spring, and he really started to come alive, you know, last season. He was doing a really good job in camp. And then, when he got in the games, he did a nice job. And so, in the spring, this past spring, he picked up where he left off. Along with Katin Houser. You know, all three of those guys [Houser, Noah Kim, and Sam Leavitt] are competing for the job. And he’s just gotten better and better. He’s been with us for a while. He knows the offense. He knows what we expect out of that position. He embraces the competition, which is critically important,” Tucker said on The Andy Staples podcast.

When Thorne struggled at times in 2022, it was Kim spelling him. He appeared in four games and threw just 19 passes, but he completed 14 of them for 174 yards and three touchdowns. Kim was a solid recruit out of high school, a three-star prospect from Virginia in the 2020 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking.

Noah Kim turned plenty of heads this spring for MSU

A few months ago, SpartanMag’s Jim Comparoni joined On3’s JD PicKell for a roundtable discussion on how the Spartans would handle life after Payton Thorne. Comparoni said that Noah Kim was impressive in spring practices and that sources close to the program revealed he outplayed Thorne.

“But, I’ll tell you what guys, he [Thorne] was going to have a hard time retaining the starting job with Noah Kim coming in as a redshirt junior. Noah Kim has three years of eligibility left, and according to a number of sources of mine, one or two of which have real good access to what’s going on, Noah Kim outplayed Payton Thorne this past spring. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be better in the fall than an experienced senior quarterback, but it was a real competition and Payton Thorne leaves ahead of that competition, maybe coming to fruition with him maybe not being the starter later in the season. Maybe at the beginning of the season,” Comparoni said.

Payton Thorne was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2019 and brought excellent experience to Michigan State. However, he entered the transfer portal at the end of April and shortly after announced his commitment to Auburn.

Now, Noah Kim, a three-star recruit in the Class of 2020, is firmly in the mix for the starting job this fall. It should be interesting to see how it shakes out.

On3’s Andrew Graham and Dan Morrison also contributed to this article.