The Payton Thorne saga at Auburn takes another turn

Payton Thorne’s career has to be one of the more interesting I have seen in quite some time. Thorne set the single-season passing touchdown record at Michigan State in 2021 when the Spartans went 11-2 and won the Peach Bowl. Thorne then fell off the side of a cliff the next season and subsequently transferred to Auburn at seasons end.

This was a strange move because I think we all felt the SEC would be too difficult for him to navigate, and we were right.

Fast forward to 2024 and Thorne was benched after the Tigers' first two games of the season. Freshman quarterback Hank Brown stepped in and went 1-1 in the next two games including a four-touchdown performance in Week 3 against New Mexico.

Now, just one day before Auburn’s next game against Oklahoma, the Tigers have decided to shift back to Thorne at quarterback.

I usually always have an opinion about former Michigan State players at their new schools but I think I’ve run out of them for Thorne. After the many ups and downs in his career at Auburn and the couple shots he took at the MSU fanbase I’m kind of over hearing about Thorne.

Sure I’m happy he’s the starter but do I have any faith he’ll be able to lead the Tigers to just one win in the SEC? No I don’t.

I know I’m starting to sound like a hater and I promise I hope for the best for him, but all of this back and forth between good news and bad news makes me go back to the one thing we all thought after the 2022 season when Thorne entered the portal, he should not have gone to the SEC.

Thorne probably would’ve excelled had he transferred to a Group of Five school and we’d probably be somewhat celebrating his success there. But now we have to face the fact that a quarterback who can’t get it done at Auburn holds a major passing touchdown record at Michigan State.

Aidan Chiles, if you’re reading this please break Thorne's record.