Payton Thorne (born June 26, 2001) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

. Thorne played for the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the school colors are green and wh ...

from 2019 to 2022.

High school career

Thorne originally attended

Metea Valley High School Metea Valley High School is a high school in Aurora, Illinois that opened in August 2009 in DuPage County. The school is one of four high schools operated by the Indian Prairie School District. Waubonsie Valley High School is also in Aurora, whil ...

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

before transferring to

Naperville Central High School Naperville Central High School (Naperville Central or NCHS) is a four-year public high school located in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. The school, which enrolls students in grades nine through twelve, is a part of the Naper ...

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...

. As a senior in 2018, he was named the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' and ''

Naperville Sun The ''Naperville Sun'' is a newspaper based in Naperville, Illinois, USA. It is published three days a week, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It is owned by Tribune Publishing's Chicago Tribune Media Group, a group that also includes the ''Aurora Be ...

'' Player of the Year after throwing for 3,113 yards and 40

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

. Thorne originally committed to

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

to play college football but later switched to

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

College career

Thorne was redshirted his first year at Michigan State in 2019. In 2020, he played in four games as a backup to Rocky Lombardi and made one start. In his first career start against

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

he passed for 325 yards and three touchdowns. For the season, he completed 48 of 85 passes for 582 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. In 2021, Thorne was named the Spartans starter to open the season. In his first full year as a starter, Thorne threw for 3,240 yards, 27 TDs, 10 INTs, with a 77.7 QBR. In 2022, he was a 12 game starter with 2,679 yards passing, 19 touchdown passes and one rushing TD. In the 2023 offseason, Thorne transferred to

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

to play under newly acquired head coach

Hugh Freeze Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

Statistics

Personal life

Thorne is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. Thorne's father,

Jeff Thorne Jeff Thorne is an American football coach and former player. He was the offensive coordinator at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2022. Thorne served as the head football coach at North Central College from 2015 to 2021. He su ...

, was the offensive coordinator at

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, Michigan, Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region a ...

in 2022.

References

External links

Michigan State Spartans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, Payton 2001 births Living people Players of American football from Naperville, Illinois American football quarterbacks Michigan State Spartans football players Auburn Tigers football players