Michigan State football: Mel Tucker “not concerned” about Payton Thorne

After a shaky start to the Michigan State football season, Mel Tucker says he’s not concerned about starting quarterback Payton Thorne.

Through two weeks, Michigan State football is 2-0, and its out-scoring opponents 87-13. Yet there’s a gigantic elephant in the room that has been causing concern among the fanbase: Payton Thorne’s accuracy and mechanics.

Although we heard all offseason that he was ready to take that next step and has all the confidence in the world, he has struggled through the first two contests.

Everyone was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt after the opener because he may have been a little too amped up for the first game against his dad. He was overthrowing everything, it seemed, and finished with 233 yards and four touchdowns but he completed just 50 percent of his passes against a MAC team. Not great.

He responded in Week 2 by completing over 60 percent of his throws (18-for-28) but he had two bad interceptions — one was just a split-second mistake in which he bombed a flea-flicker down the field as he was getting hit (he should have just taken the sack). He was still overthrowing his guys and throwing off his back foot with happy feet in the pocket too much.

But even after this slow start, Michigan State has been humming along to two blowout wins and a No. 11 ranking in the nation. This inaccuracy is something we haven’t really seen from Thorne in his career, so should we be worried? Mel Tucker says no.

Tucker knows that these mistakes that he’s been making are correctable and his quarterback getting this vow of confidence after a tough start has to feel good. He knows that he’s the guy under center and he just has to settle down and he’ll be just fine.

Fixable mistakes are a good thing. It’s the ones you can’t correct that you have to be concerned about. That’s why there’s no concern here from Tucker.