'I guess I'm not that slow,' Payton Thorne says rushing performance vs Samford was fun

Thorne torched the Bulldogs on the ground this weekend.

Lance Dawe | Sep 17, 2023

'I guess I'm not that slow,' Payton Thorne says rushing performance vs Samford was fun /

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Auburn Tigers

Auburn's leading rusher on Saturday night vs Samford had 123 yards, two touchdowns, and averaged 11.2 yards per carry.

That rusher wasn't starting running back Jarquez Hunter, who finished with just 37 yards on 11 carries.

It wasn't backup Damari Alston, nor was it third-stringer Brian Battie - Both finished with less than 55 yards rushing combined.

It also wasn't backup quarterback Robby Ashford, who did have a rushing score in the contest.

It was QB Payton Thorne, who absolutely torched the Bulldogs on the ground.

In three seasons at Michigan State, Thorne had 270 total rushing yards. He has half of that (140) through three games at Auburn.

In 2021 he ran for 181 yards and four touchdowns, the majority of his production up until Saturday. He's never been known as a dual threat, but with the aid of Kenneth Walker and a strong offensive scheme, Thorne was able to cash in a few times and hurt defenses with his scrambling ability.

Now in a different scheme, Thorne found success on the ground that no Auburn quarterback has had in quite some time. His 123 rushing yards were the most by an Auburn quarterback since 2013.

Thorne believes that he's ready to run again after suffering an injury that hampered his ability to show what he can do on the ground.

“I guess, I’m not that slow," Thorne told the media in a postgame press conference following Auburn's win over Samford. "I told people all summer I couldn’t really run last year. Two years ago, I don’t know how many yards I had, but it wasn’t anything crazy. I can get some stuff done on the ground. It was good to get back out there and run again."

Now that he is healthy, Thorne expects to be involved in Auburn's running game - not just as a scrambler, but through designed quarterback runs, too.

"My body finally feels back to 100 percent after dealing with some stuff I couldn’t run last year, so it was great," Thorne said. "I haven’t really run any quarterback-designed run plays. Just different reads in my past, so tonight we were able to get that done and that was fun.”