Auburn's Hugh Freeze Makes Decision on Starting Quarterback

Auburn will have its starting quarterback when it takes on Louisiana-Monroe this Saturday

Thorne will reportedly be ready to start on Saturday / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Following an injury to his shoulder in the Auburn Tigers’ loss against Vanderbilt two weeks ago, there was speculation that starting quarterback Payton Thorne would not be available against Louisiana-Monroe.

Thorne did not practice during the bye week but performed well enough in practice this week to get the green light. Jason Caldwell of 247Sports was among the first to report that Thorne would get the nod for the ULM game.

“It’s feeling a lot better,” Thorne said about his shoulder on Tuesday. “A lot better than last week, I got some good treatment on it. Obviously I’ve been working every day to get that back to normal.”

Auburn is coming off a bye week which allowed Thorne to take his time recovering instead of rushing to get back on the field. 

“Just in the training room getting treatment, being careful with what I’m doing in the weight room,” Thorne said on how his recovery process has been. “Coach Dobbs is obviously great, so I trust him completely on what he had me doing in there. No throwing last week for me.”

Despite uncertainty around Thorne’s performance in practice earlier this week, head coach Hugh Freeze was confident that Thorne would be ready to go on Wednesday.

“Not as far along as I’d hoped with the shoulder,” Freeze said on Thorne’s status on Wednesday. “He thinks he’s going to be fine, but he was not ready to play yesterday for sure.” 

This is welcome news for the Tigers who are fighting for the chance to play in a bowl game this winter. 

“I’m just focused on doing what I can to help us win and play the best that I can and finishing this thing the right way,” Thorne said. “Obviously, that’s one game, one week at a time.”

Thorne and the Tigers kick off against Louisiana-Monroe at 11:45 a.m. CT on Saturday. SEC Network will carry the television broadcast.