On3 Roundtable: How Michigan State must adjust after losing Keon Coleman, Payton Thorne

This spring, Michigan State lost a couple of key offensive players, Keon Coleman and Payton Thorne, to the transfer portal. That’s not inherently unique to the Spartans — every team has lost some players to the portal. However, it has sparked concern about the team in 2023.

On3’s JD PicKell was joined by Jim Comparoni from SpartanMag. Together, they broke down how Michigan State needs to adjust after losing these two key players.

Recently, PicKell had argued that the transfer portal has been “tough” for Michigan State this offseason. This comes just two years after head coach Mel Tucker was praised for his use of the transfer portal, going 11-2 in the process.

“It was a surprise for Michigan State fans for that to happen with Keon Coleman,” Comparoni said on On3 Roundtable. “It’s Michigan State’s best player. You know, you talk to Michigan State fans, going back decades and decades and decades, it’s the first time in an offseason that Michigan State has lost its best player. Of course, the transfer portal has been a new thing, but there’s some adjusting going on of what Michigan State’s going to do offensively.”

Keon Coleman was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2021, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. Last season, he had 58 receptions for 798 yards for seven touchdowns.

“How the fans are interpreting it, so Keon Coleman’s a big loss. It comes in a year in which Michigan State does not have a ton of returning talent at the wide receiver position. You combine that with losing Payton Thorne at quarterback, would’ve been a third-year starter,” Comparoni said.

“But, I’ll tell you what guys, he [Thorne] was going to have a hard time retaining the 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 Paton 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.”

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 the likely starter.

“He goes elsewhere, maybe has a chance to start immediately at Auburn, but that was a competition, a true competition.”

So, in a way, Michigan State still has the quarterback it wanted. However, as Comparoni explained, this does still hurt the Spartans’ offense next season.

“But what you lose there is depth. Let’s say Payton Thorne had not beaten out Noah Kim for the starting job, you at least still have Payton Thorne as a backup in the worst-case scenario for Payton Thorne. As it stands now, Payton Thorne’s gone. Noah Kim sink or swim. Katin Houser is a redshirt freshman and not much else in terms of a backup situation, which as everyone knows, can become so important in a college football season.”