Michigan State Football: Payton Thorne had record-breaking game vs. YSU

Raise your hand if you had Payton Thorne penciled in as the starting quarterback for Michigan State football this season.

OK, now keep your hand raised if you believed he was going to be darn near perfect through his first two starts in 2021.

Now that all of those hands are down, we can all agree that we may have expected Thorne to be a solid quarterback, but what he did against Youngstown State in Week 2 was legendary. In fact, it was the best game of any Michigan State quarterback since 2000.

According to the Big Ten Network, Thorne’s performance on Saturday against the Penguins resulted in the highest passer rating of any MSU quarterback since 2000.

Thorne passed up a couple of impressive names in Kirk Cousins and Jeff Smoker and that means he out-did any Connor Cook performance as well. Sure, the opponent was far from elite, but it was one heck of an all-around game for the sophomore quarterback from Illinois.

It topped the best passer rating by about 12 points, so it was a really special outing.

Thorne completed 16-of-21 passes for 280 yards and four touchdowns. He was a dropped pass away from a fifth touchdown and just four incompletions, which would have only helped that passe rating, but that’s just how good he was. He added a rushing touchdown as well.

It’s safe to say Mel Tucker made the right choice for QB1.

Thorne resembles a former Michigan State football QB

I actually had a former Michigan State quarterback on my podcast last year to talk about his time with Michigan State, the direction of the program under Mel Tucker, and the quarterback position after a questionable 2020 season. That quarterback was Brian Lewerke.

We actually chatted about what we liked about each quarterback and I told him that I believed Thorne looked like him a little bit, and he agreed.

I now feel like Thorne is exactly that. He’s a healthy Lewerke. He has a strong arm, he can hit all the short and intermediate throws, he can be electric with his legs, and he brings excitement to the position. Thorne looks like he could be the guy that everyone expected Lewerke to be before he got hurt and struggled with his confidence in his final two years.

A dual-threat quarterback with a strong, accurate arm who isn’t afraid to make tough throws? Yeah, that’s Lewerke. The only thing that is a little different is that we aren’t seeing a ton of mistakes with Thorne just yet. He’s been relatively mistake-free.

Hopefully this trend continues.