Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss have been picked as the top four teams in this season’s Southeastern Conference football race, with all four returning talented starting quarterbacks.
Auburn is returning its quarterback as well, but the Tigers have been pegged 10th.
No league player could be more responsible for his team’s success — or lack thereof — this season than Payton Thorne, the graduate transfer from Michigan State who nearly guided Auburn to upset wins last year over Georgia and Alabama. Yet the 6-foot-2, 203-pounder from Naperville, Illinois, was mostly mediocre as Hugh Freeze’s debut season with the Tigers yielded an unfulfilling 6-7 record.
“Having a full year is a huge difference,” Thorne said last week at SEC media days. “Getting here last year in the middle of summer obviously was not ideal going into a new offense, a new team and a new atmosphere. Everything was different last year, and figuring that out in three months before the season started was not exactly easy.
“I’m coming in now knowing the basic things around me. I know all my teammates, and I know the coaches.”
Thorne ranked 12th among SEC quarterbacks and 73rd nationally last season in passing efficiency, completing 162 of 265 passes (61.1%) for 1,755 yards with 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He threw for 94 yards and suffered three sacks during a 14-10 victory at California in early September, and he had 44 passing yards and endured five sacks in a 27-10 loss at Texas A&M two weeks later.
There were three impressive league routs of Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Arkansas in which Thorne threw eight combined touchdowns and was intercepted only twice, but the final image of him last season was an 84-yard, three-sack outing in a 31-13 lackluster loss to Maryland in the Music City Bowl.
“I think he was really, really solid in another Power Five conference, and I think he’s proven he can use his feet to move the chains when we need to,” Freeze, who will be calling the plays this season, said last week. “I think he has confidence in year two with us. He knows that he’s got to produce. We don’t run from that.”
The biggest difference in Thorne’s two seasons on the Plains should be his supporting cast.
Auburn signed the nation’s No. 10 recruiting class earlier this year, according to 247Sports.com, which was headed by four in-state receivers ranked among the best 200 players in the country — five-star Cam Coleman (6-3, 197) of Phenix City, and four-stars Perry Thompson (6-3, 222) of Foley, Malcolm Simmons (6-0, 179) of Alexander City, and Bryce Cain (5-10, 150) of Mobile.
Coleman had four receptions for 92 yards in April’s A-Day game, including a 34-yard touchdown from Thorne.
“Having a young guy come in like that who is a big prospect, sometimes you don’t know what kind of personality you’re going to get,” Thorne said. “He works like he hasn’t done anything yet. I guess technically he hasn’t at this level, but he’s been great so far, and he’s going to make a lot of plays for us this year. Auburn is going to love him.
“He gives us the ability to spread the field, both horizontally and vertically. Teams are going to have to respect that, and I can’t wait to be on the field with him.”
Auburn’s overhaul on the perimeter also included the NCAA transfer portal route, as the Tigers were able to bring in Penn State’s KeAndre Lambert-Smith (6-1, 182), Georgia State’s Robert Lewis (5-10, 188) and California’s Sam Jackson V (5-10, 187), who played quarterback against the Tigers year.
Lambert-Smith had 53 receptions for 673 yards last season for the Nittany Lions, while Lewis amassed 102 catches for 1,238 yards during his 32-game career with the Panthers.
“KeAndre just got here in the summer, so we’re getting to know him,” Thorne said. “It’s been great so far. I’m excited for what we have to come. We’ve got some new weapons.”
Auburn returns senior running back Jarquez Hunter, who rushed for 909 yards and 5.7 yards per carry last season and has compiled 2,170 rushing yards and a 6.2-yard average in his three years with the Tigers. Hunter, however, was Auburn’s only preseason SEC first- or second-team offensive or defensive selection released by the conference office last Friday, with linebacker Eugene Asante making the third team.
Establishing Hunter on the ground and having receivers who can create more separation should help Thorne get the ball out quicker, as the Tigers tied for 106th nationally last year in sacks allowed, but ultimately Thorne has to be better.
Thorne’s 42 career college appearances and 39 career college starts separate him significantly on the depth chart from redshirt sophomore Holden Geriner, redshirt freshman Hank Brown and four-star newcomer Walker White, so there is no time like the present for him to erase an erratic past.
“I feel like Coach Freeze and I are really on the same page right now,” Thorne said. “We’re working to really see eye-to-eye on everything with the offense, and that comes with watching a lot of film and with being on the field and asking questions.
“I think that we’re really in a good place right now, and it’s going to continue to get better.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.