Payton Thorne named Auburn starting quarterback against Oklahoma

Auburn is returning to fifth-year senior Payton Thorne as the starting quarterback, according to Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson. Thorne began the year as the starting quarterback for the Tigers.

However, after a difficult beginning to the season, Auburn benched Thorne and turned to Hank Brown, who started the previous two games and also struggled. Now, with Oklahoma visiting, the Tigers are giving the offense back to Thorne in hopes stronger play emerges at the position.

Thorne, a Michigan State transfer, is in his second season at Auburn. He was the primary quarterback in 2023 but struggled to definitively take control of the job. He again won the starting job in 2024 but struggled heavily in his two starts and other action. He’s played in three of Auburn’s four games.

And in those games, Thorne has completed 57.1% of his passes for 700 yards and seven touchdowns with five interceptions. Four of those came in one game, a Week 2 loss to Cal that saw Thorne benched for Brown in the first place.

Brown, a redshirt freshman, got a pair of starts in relief. But his performances haven’t been markedly better. Brown appeared in three games, making two starts, and has completed 62.8% of his passes for 403 yards and six touchdowns and three interceptions. He threw all three of his interceptions in Week 4, his second start.

Both Thorne and Brown were 1-1 in their pair of starts, with each leading Auburn to wins over Group of 5 teams and losing games to Power 4 competition, including a loss to Arkansas in the SEC opener.

And after that loss, in which Brown threw his three picks and Thorne added another as he got in the game, Freeze made it known how he felt about his quarterback room at the moment.

The Auburn head coach actually criticized Brown and Thorne during his postgame press conference after throwing for a combined 285 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. Freeze says he knows receivers are open downfield but the Tigers need to find somebody to deliver the throws.

“I know that there’s people open and I know that we’re running the football,” Freeze said during his postgame press conference. “We’ve got to find a guy that won’t throw it to the other team and we’ve got to find running backs that hold on to it… The scheme is what most everybody in the country is running, some sort of. But you’ve got to have a good quarterback in whatever system you’re going to choose.”