Here's a little off season piece from Bryan Matthews at Rivals. I right clicked on the article and hit copy. Then I came in here and right clicked again and hit pastey.
Hugh Freeze knew what he was getting in Payton Thorne.
So it came as no surprise that Thorne reported to Auburn early and is already digging into the offensive playbook.
But still, you can see the gleam in Freeze's eye when he talks about his transfer quarterback.
“Man, he didn't wait,” said Freeze. “He's already in there watching film on his own and learning stuff. He's anxious to get with the team and start working out.”
Thorne, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, comes to Auburn after starting 26 games over the last couple of seasons at Michigan State. He completed 524 of 860 passes (60.9 percent) for 6,494 yards with 49 touchdowns and 24 interceptions.
But the numbers Freeze might appreciate the most were Thorne twice being voted a team captain by his teammates.
“Leadership, No. 1,” said Freeze of what stands out about Thorne. “I know that everybody -- we talk more about his stats or whatever -- but I think that this football team at Auburn right now has missed some leadership, particularly on the offensive side. To get that in that room, I think only elevates everybody. The more good leaders you put around them, the more you get them to model that.
“He's obviously played Power 5 football in a really good conference. He won a lot of games in two years, really -- 17 or 18 I guess it is. I think that just elevates that room. And he's tough. He stood in there and got beat up pretty good last year. He took it and kept competing.”
Thorne will be competing with sophomore Robby Ashford along with redshirt freshman Holden Geriner and true freshman Hank Brown for the starting job this fall.
Ashford started the final nine games of the season last year completing 123 of 250 passes (49.2 percent) for 1,613 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 710 yards and seven touchdowns on 153 carries.
“I had a really good talk with Robby today about everything,” said Freeze. “Robby's handling things extremely well. I'm proud of him for that. Every team at this level is going to have competition at every position if you want to be good. You're going to have four quarterbacks; we're not the only ones.
“Everybody's going to have them, and we've got to go compete and figure out what's best for our football team. I think it's vital that all of our quarterbacks are doing a lot this summer to prepare.”
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