Payton Thorne has great shot to win Auburn QB job after transferring

Payton Thorne could be the one who ends up winning the Auburn starting quarterback job.

After surprisingly entering the transfer portal, former Michigan State starting quarterback Payton Thorne is heading to Auburn to go play for Hugh Freeze.

Thorne had been the Spartans’ starter the last few years. While Michigan State struggled mightily last season, Thorne quarterbacked the Spartans to a New Year’s Six bowl win only two years ago. With him leaving for Auburn, the expectation is that either Noah Kim or Katin Houser will be QB1 for Mel Tucker in what now seems to be a very critical year for him in East Lansing. This is insane…

Here is Thorne announcing he will be the one replacing TJ Finley in the Auburn quarterback room.

Thorne will compete with the incumbent Robby Ashford, as well as Holden Geriner, in what will be Freeze’s first year down on The Plains.

Let’s discuss the chances of Thorne winning the job out of fall camp at his new SEC university.

Payton Thorne enters the fray as high-profile quarterback transferring to Auburn

We knew as soon as Finley hit the portal that Freeze had to go big-game hunting to replace him. Ashford may have been the Tigers’ starter a season ago, but Auburn was terrible in the final year of the Bryan Harsin era and in its first campaign without legacy quarterback Bo Nix under center. Nix seems to be doing just fine playing for Dan Lanning over at Oregon. He did make the right call.

What you have to remember when it comes to Auburn is this is a new regime in town, meaning Freeze has no loyalty to any of the players he inherited. It was cool of him to retain Zac Etheridge and Carnell “Cadillac” Williams on his coaching staff, but even these Auburn alums know changes were coming. Ashford and Geriner may have a great shot at winning this, but here comes Thorne…

To me, Thorne wouldn’t transfer to Auburn this late in the cycle if he didn’t like his chances of winning the starting job. He is a proven Power Five starting quarterback, and wouldn’t just go to a rebuilding SEC program if the odds were stacked against him. Then again, he may just want out of town in East Lansing. Some people do really enjoy the opportunity of getting to start over fresh.

I think the best part of this is that iron will sharpen iron for these annual Iron Bowl participants. Auburn cannot be complacent or feel any sense of entitlement. You operate under those circumstances and your three biggest rivals in Alabama, Georgia and LSU will continue to run laps around you. This is Auburn! They are down for now, but this is a top-15 program in the history of the sport.

In a way, Thorne leaves the Big Ten equivalent of Auburn to go play for … Auburn. The Tigers are realistically the worst Power Five program where winning a national title is certainly feasible, whereas Michigan State is on the short list of the first four out in that department. That may change in due time, but this is true. Regardless, Thorne will need to bring it to beat out Ashford.

If the Tigers get improved quarterback play, they can make it to a bowl game in Freeze’s first year.