Auburn QB Payton Thorne 'loving' his time on The Plains

The Tigers' new starting quarterback says that Auburn is his kind of place.

Lance Dawe | Aug 23, 2023

Auburn QB Payton Thorne 'loving' his time on The Plains /

In this story:

Auburn Tigers

Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne has officially won the starting quarterback position for the Auburn Tigers.

Thorne, a two-year starter at Michigan State, had a lot of learning to do when he arrived on campus in the summer.

It's been a lot of film, relationship building, and work, but its now led to his name officially being tabbed the starter less than two weeks away from the start of the season.

Thorne was asked during a roundtable interview with the media on Wednesday afternoon about how things have been going and why he chose to come play on The Plains.

"I'm on like three months being down here, but I love it down here. It's my kind if place. I love it down here," Thorne said. "Everybody has been very welcoming, just good people. People are nicer down here. A lot of people say that. It feels like everybody is friendly. Everybody goes to church, which is what I believe in. It's been great. Everybody has been very welcoming and it's been fun."

Adjusting to the atmosphere and getting acclimated to the environment is important for any transfer, but for the Tigers to now have one at quarterback makes leadership a bit different.

Thorne explained how he's approached the change in scenery and the importance of establishing a genuine connection with his teammates.

"The biggest thing I wanted to do is be myself," Thorne said. "It's a different part of the country, different conference, but I think if you go into a new place and try to be something you're not, everyone can tell. I wanted to come down here and do what I do, work hard, prove myself in workouts and get to know guys. I feel like I've been able to do that and build relationships."

One of the ways Thorne has created relationships with the team has been through the memorization of names - a book of faces that he's asked for to remember everyone. With a roster full of new transfers, it can be difficult to get to know each individual, or even remember their names - just ask Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.

Why did Thorne choose to take learning names so seriously?

"Nobody gave me advice to do that. Leadership, you can't lead within an organization if you don't know most people's names," Thorne said. "If you walk past someone in the hallway, I feel uncomfortable if I don't know their name. I'd be lying if I said I knew everybody's names already. It's a weird feeling. I don't like working with people if I don't know their name. It's disrespectful in some ways if you don't know their name."

"I'm trying to get to know people and getting to know someone starts with their name. I had asked that for that at Michigan State and that's not something that was given to me. I'm not trying to hate on anybody, we just didn't get around to it or didn't have everyone's pictures. I was there for four years, so I pretty much knew everybody's name."

It's not like you get the job and think you can relax and do nothing. You're still playing and trying to play well. I'm focused on playing well for our team to win games, not so I can keep my job. I don't think that's, if you're looking at it like that, why are you looking at it like that? You play to win. I'll be working as hard as I've ever worked right now. There's no relaxing, chilling. We have a big season ahead of us with a lot of great opponents.