Payton Thorne seems pissed off and ready to prove doubters wrong
Michigan State incumbent starting quarterback Payton Thorne went from favored son to an easy point of criticism between Spring 2022 and Spring 2023.
With Kenneth Walker III drawing a ton of attention in the Spartan backfield, Thorne thrived threw the air on his way to a school record 27 touchdown passes and 3,240 yards, the third-most in a single season in MSU history, two years ago.
After Walker moved on to the NFL and Michigan State suffered numerous losses to its offensive line last season, Thorne took a sizeable step back in production. His numbers dropped to 2,679 passing yards and 19 touchdowns in 2022. Thorne also threw 11 interceptions, one more than the year prior.
While we were aware that Michigan State's starting quarterback was dealing with some nagging injuries throughout 2022, we didn't get a full idea of how banged up Thorne was until he opened up about it this past Saturday.
After the 'Spartan Football Kickoff', Michigan State's alternative to the traditional Green-White spring game, Thorne said he was injured on “the second drive of the third quarter of the Western Michigan game." The quarterback remained injured for "the whole season.”
“I got sacked, and I was kind of in a compromised position," Thorne said. "Something that I had been dealing with all year until that point was finally better, and then ‘boom’ it got crunched."
Understandably, Thorne did not get into the specifics of the injury that occurred in last year's season-opener, but he felt comfortable, or motivated, to share some details.
"A torn something – partially," Thorne said. "There was about six other things that happened after that – the next week it was another thing, the next week it was another thing, the next week I felt like a cripple and then on from there. So, if I get in trouble for saying that, so be it."
Thorne used the hockey terms — upper or lower body injury — to give further insight.
“The first week is was lower, the second week it was upper, the third week was both," he said. "From there it was all different stuff. I spent more time in the training room than I did the first two years combined.”
There's no getting around the fact that the injuries that Thorne battled throughout the season impacted his overall play.
“During the game, it’s frustrating because you take off to go run, like, ‘ I got this guy’ or you pull a zone read that’s easy and then all of a sudden it’s like having a flat tire," he said.
"It’s like I push the accelerator and I’m not going anywhere. It’s so frustrating because you don’t have what your whole life you’ve had, playing-wise. And then you’re tackled in the backfield and you look you’re as slow as all get-out, and that’s annoying.”
As Thorne shared all this, in a room full of beat writers and reporters who's job it is to be critical and objective in their observations and evaluations, there was a definite tension in the air.
The redshirt senior, of course, is in the middle of a competition to keep his starting job. Large portions of Michigan State's fanbase are ready to move on to a younger, arguably more-talented option after seeing Thorne's struggles in 2022. There's no doubt that he is aware of the detractors he has within his school's own fanbase.
“People don’t understand what’s happening out there," Thorne said. "People don’t understand what’s going on with each individual guy. There were a lot of things that were not good last year, on the whole team."
Thorne has said multiple times this offseason that a 5-7 record wasn't good enough for a program like Michigan State. He's said multiple times that he did not play up to the standard that he holds himself to.
Understanding that context, it was clear on Saturday that the redshirt junior felt compelled to stick up for himself in the face of the criticism he's received over the last several months.
“I don’t have any regrets for last season at all," Thorne said. "I gave absolutely everything I had with what I was dealing with. I played as hard as I could and did everything I could. I didn’t slack mentally in preparation for any game. So, I think back on that, I feel good about what I put out there.”
The only way for Thorne to win back the fanbase is by first winning this open quarterback competition, and then showing what he can do on the field when fully healthy.
“Since last year, walking off the field at Penn State, I feel like I’m a lot better than I was, I feel like I’m more myself, healthy again, able to move around," Thorne said.
“I’m very motivated. I do want to get back out there. I do want to show the player I am, because I feel like I’m a really good player. I know I am. I’ve done a lot of really good things, even last year.”
The edge that Thorne has over his challengers, redshirt junior Noah Kim and redshirt freshman Katin Houser, is his experience. He's had two seasons of observing opposing defenses, dissecting coverages, making reads. Thorne pointed out how much fast he processes information now then he did two years ago.
“I feel like a smart quarterback. I feel like I can say that. I feel like I know the game really well," he said.
"Sometimes you sit down, you draw a concept up, you draw every single defense that you see that year, and you go through it all. It’s like, in this coverage, this play does not work. So if you know it doesn’t work, you’ve got to [go] boom, boom, boom [to other reads], check down, get it out early. And that helps the offensive line, that helps move the ball down the field, that helps you not get hit more and all that stuff. So just getting the ball out and working through that stuff and just being really quick.”
Thorne hopes he can meld that mental side of the game with a healthier body in 2023.
“I feel better, personally," he said. "So it’s going to be fun to get out there again and show what we’ve got and who we are.”
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