2023 3* Mich St. Transfer QB Payton Thorne commits to AU!

[TigerVII 108]

26 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Yeah but I wasn't really talking about that, just the original posters point about whether or not Gus could've did what it's assumed Hugh did to pry this QB away. 

I was not attacking Gus (for those Gus disciples on this board), but answer me this question.  Why was Jarrett Stidham a shell of himself in 2018 (with basically the same receivers but minus Braden Smith - the last 1st round OL draft pick from AU - and others on the o-line)?  

If all you care about is recruiting rankings when your head coach signs high rated players (as in 2-3 4* tight ends per year) when you are not filling the team's needs with 3* offensive lineman capable of playing SEC football (like Dye and Tuberville did), then you deserve what you get (2015-2020) under Malzahn with one solid victory (2017) and one lucky victory (2019) over your cross-state rival.

I am celebrating today that we finally attracted  a starting SEC QB for the first time since Stidham (because we are rebuilding the OL).  

No offense to Bo Nix, who should never have been thrust into starting as a true freshman with a Sun Belt conference O-line.

 

[gr82be 14,458]

2 hours ago, TeamZero77 said:

For those interested in Payton Thorne's family background, his grandfather on his Mom's side played football for Wisconsin. 

His other grandfather is John Thorne. He was a high school football HC in Illinois from 1980-2001 going 181-65 and winning 4 State Titles. He became a HC of Division III North Central College in 2002 until 2014. His record was 118-30 in college. He won 4 Conference Titles and was named Division III Coach of the Year 3 times. He is in the NCC Hall of Fame.

Payton's father is Jeff Thorne and he is the OC at Western Michigan. He played QB for Eastern Illinois University and then got into coaching as well. He was the OC at North Central College until 2015 when his Dad, John, retired and Jeff took over the head coaching duties. Jeff's team won the 2019 Division III National Title and he was also named 2019 D-III Coach of the Year. In 2021, Jeff's North Central College team made it to the D-III National Championship game again but were beaten this time.

The first game off the 2022 season, Michigan State played Western Michigan. Payton was starting QB for Michigan State and his father Jeff was the OC for Western Michigan. Pretty neat they got to play against one another.

I know all of this doesn't mean that Payton Thorne will be all-world here at Auburn but I just found the family's background in playing and coaching football pretty interesting. 

I'm really happy that Coach Freeze got his QB and Sept. 2nd can't get here quick enough. WDE

I believe I read earlier today that Lutz's father played for Thorne's grandfather. Thought that was pretty interesting. 

Edited May 6, 2023 by gr82be
Just saw Bird's post in the Nest. That's not where I read it originally ftr. 🙄

[gr82be 14,458]

36 minutes ago, yngwie1995 said:

Any relation to Damien Thorn? That might be a bad omen.

We'll have the trainer start him on an exercism program right away. 

 

 

[LPTiger 5,173]

5 hours ago, Muscle Shoals Tiger said:

Hugh Freeze has been like a highly skilled reconstructive surgeon putting a Football Program back together that had lost almost all hope and the sports world had written off. Auburn has hope, excitement and purpose again. Auburn is coming back stronger and better. I haven't been this pumped since in many years. War Eagle and get some receiver's!

This is so well said.   it is a surgeon looking through a microscope, with 300,000 people looking over his shoulder, and he dissects a matter no one has ever seen before and there is zero residual bleeding and the patient is up and walking 30 minutes later.

[gr82be 14,458]

2 minutes ago, LPTiger said:

This is so well said.   it is a surgeon looking through a microscope, with 300,000 people looking over his shoulder, and he dissects a matter no one has ever seen before and there is zero residual bleeding and the patient is up and walking 30 minutes later.

Meanwhile across the state there is hemorrhaging going on. 

[woodford 3,665]

6 hours ago, DAG said:

Like that response. Can't wait to eat some crow about him.

Same here. If he’s not QB1 I hope he still gets on the field. He is way too athletic to sit on the sidelines. 

[woodford 3,665]

Someone mentioned it earlier but he was voted captain twice. Auburn has not had true leader at the QB position in some time. It’s going to take someone who can lead on and off the field during the rebound. 
 

Great quarterbacks can will their teams to victory. He will be the difference. 

[lutzcammed 469]

after this, I just put money on the OVER 6.5 wins. Although maybe I should have called the bama coach for advice 

[DAG 34,015]

43 minutes ago, TigerVII said:

I was not attacking Gus (for those Gus disciples on this board), but answer me this question.  Why was Jarrett Stidham a shell of himself in 2018 (with basically the same receivers but minus Braden Smith - the last 1st round OL draft pick from AU - and others on the o-line)?  

If all you care about is recruiting rankings when your head coach signs high rated players (as in 2-3 4* tight ends per year) when you are not filling the team's needs with 3* offensive lineman capable of playing SEC football (like Dye and Tuberville did), then you deserve what you get (2015-2020) under Malzahn with one solid victory (2017) and one lucky victory (2019) over your cross-state rival.

I am celebrating today that we finally attracted  a starting SEC QB for the first time since Stidham (because we are rebuilding the OL).  

No offense to Bo Nix, who should never have been thrust into starting as a true freshman with a Sun Belt conference O-line.

 

Exactly . Even if he were to get Thorne he wouldn’t know what to do with him. Look at how UCF has been playing out. Still seeking athletes at the QB position . But the point still remains, even if you would’ve gave Gus a pot of gold, he still would not have prioritized how Freeze is doing. So to me Freeze being “dirty” is irrelevant. He has a philosophy and goal, sticks with it. I digress though . Don’t want to big this thread down . Very happy with Freeze. 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by DAG

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,718]

57 minutes ago, TigerVII said:

I was not attacking Gus (for those Gus disciples on this board), but answer me this question.  Why was Jarrett Stidham a shell of himself in 2018 (with basically the same receivers but minus Braden Smith - the last 1st round OL draft pick from AU - and others on the o-line)?  

If all you care about is recruiting rankings when your head coach signs high rated players (as in 2-3 4* tight ends per year) when you are not filling the team's needs with 3* offensive lineman capable of playing SEC football (like Dye and Tuberville did), then you deserve what you get (2015-2020) under Malzahn with one solid victory (2017) and one lucky victory (2019) over your cross-state rival.

I am celebrating today that we finally attracted  a starting SEC QB for the first time since Stidham (because we are rebuilding the OL).  

No offense to Bo Nix, who should never have been thrust into starting as a true freshman with a Sun Belt conference O-line.

 

I definitely don’t want to argue the “did Gus do enough to enough meet needs” point - I might’ve misinterpreted your post in what it was saying Gus lacked that Hugh had. My apologies there 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,718]

If you’d (general you) like to summarize my earlier post on this page as a compliment for Hugh, and this might be my first time doing that since he’s been hired, his ability to roll around in the proverbial mud of recruiting is the greatest advantage he has over 3 of the 4 previous staffs (I think Gene’s staff got too dirty in ways that might’ve extended past recruiting lol).  

[TigerVII 108]

No offense taken on my part. I love Auburn and I love Auburn fans.  The bottom line to me is that we (AU) strayed from winning the game in the trenches in the past 10 years.  It's embarrassing that lesser SEC teams have better OL and DL than we've had since 2017, and it's our own fault (or at least the fault of our coaches and university administrators).  I hope and believe Coach Freeze is correcting this problem.

[WFE12 9,191]

 

[AUINSY 2,228]

This Twitter reaction had me loling:

Quote

Payton Thorne vs. Tyler Buchner in the Iron Bowl. Just as we all expected.

 

[yngwie1995 2,229]

5 minutes ago, WFE12 said:

 

Thanks for sharing. So I guess he's named after Walter Payton? 

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

Here are my thoughts on skimming 2-3 of MSUs games tonight.  This is my opinion of his play from my amateur, untrained eye!

Good arm- Not a world beater arm but strong enough to make all the throws required.  He has a good quick release. He can manipulate his throwing angle when needed as well.

He is fairly mobile as well. He is not Nick Marshall or even Bo Nix in that regard, but he is quick and agile enough to extend plays and make the defense pay a couple times a game if they lose contain.

Seems to go through progressions well. Also has a quick trigger when he identifies his man. 

He seems like a good leader and locker room guy from what I have read and seen. 

If I was going to knock him on what I have seen it would be 3 things. He can tend to float backwards and get a little happy feet  in the pocket.  (at least he doesn't bail left or right everytime and he also keeps his eyes downfield)

Another thing is he needs to be more consistent with his touch on shorter routes. I.E Bubbles, shallow crossers, etc. Saw him bounce a few bullets off WRs pads....of course...I am of the belief that if it hits you in the hands or numbers you should catch it lol. 

Last he just needs to minimize some of his throws that are forced. In the Washington game, he had a few that he tried to force and it nearly, and sometimes did, cost them. They were down by 20+ so I get trying to make something happen, but got to be more careful.

All in all, I think he just what we need right now. He fits a lot of what I believe HCBHF is looking for in a QB. I think with some good coaching from HF, PM and Co., he can be a dependable QB for us and an instant upgrade for us this year. I would say he intstantly adds 1.5 wins to our schedule compared to what we had this year. Now, the thing I really love is that if he stays for year 2 I think he can be coached into a very good QB. Sorry for the length guys and gals. Just wanted to share my thoughts. War Eagle!

 

[AEAugirl 9,633]

5 hours ago, AUINSY said:

This Twitter reaction had me loling:

 

We got the better deal in Thorne.  My Bama friends are spiraling over the thoughts of Buchner. 

[ellitor 33,114]

17 hours ago, TeamZero77 said:

Realistically, what other areas do you think we fill through the portal? I figure a WR that will battle for the WR1 spot, the Juco O-Lineman and possibly one more OL, some depth pieces in the secondary and maybe one more edge? 

@TeamZero77 Adding to what you posted the staff wants 1 more S and 1 more LB.

[ellitor 33,114]

16 hours ago, au701948 said:

Now we have a complete QB Room.

Disagree. A complete QB room has known quality depth in case of injury. For this to be a complete QB room Robby or HG will have to develop quite a bit.

[ellitor 33,114]

16 hours ago, W.E.D said:

Also if Davis reclassified to 24 you're looking at possibly 2 5* WRs in the same class

@W.E.D Did you mean Ryan Williams? It was posted on On3 he will not reclassify now FWIW.

[Muscle Shoals Tiger 144]

7 hours ago, yngwie1995 said:

Thanks for sharing. So I guess he's named after Walter Payton? 

 

3 minutes ago, ellitor said:

@W.E.D Did you mean Ryan Williams? It was posted on On3 he will not reclassify now FWIW.

He's gonna love the Blue and Orange !

[ellitor 33,114]

Pickell with a little breakdown on Thorne.

[W.E.D 11,070]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

@W.E.D Did you mean Ryan Williams? It was posted on On3 he will not reclassify now FWIW.

Yes.  Hadn't seen that. 

Okay, we'll just have 5* WRs in back to back classes

[Barkchevious 75]

Anybody trolled the Michigan State sites to see how they feel about this?  Couple things I’ve seen on Twitter indicate they are not thrilled to lose him?  ‘Tampering’ idea being thrown a little.  Sure looks like an incredible pick up for the good guys but I know we’ve got some feedback from other fan bases in the past that has turned out pretty accurate.  

[AEAugirl 9,633]

4 hours ago, ellitor said:

@W.E.D Did you mean Ryan Williams? It was posted on On3 he will not reclassify now FWIW.

I would imagine that fairs well for us?  The longer these coaches have with him the better the relationship they can build.