Payton Thorne sat down on a plastic chair in an interview room underneath Nissan Stadium and tried to cope with another poor outing to close out a frustrating season of maddening inconsistency. Auburn’s quarterback spoke softly and rife with pauses to collect his thoughts on a game he hardly plans to look back on.
After a 31-13 loss to Maryland on Saturday in the Music City Bowl, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said Auburn’s starting quarterback position is “wide open” heading into 2024. That comment came only two weeks after Freeze committed to Thorne as his guy, so to speak, going into next season and as an explanation for his decision not to pursue a quarterback in the transfer portal.
Thorne wasn’t aware Freeze had made that comment as he discussed plans to possibly watch the film of this game once on the trip back to Auburn and then throw it away for good.
“Honestly, I’ve already started to turn the page, to be honest with you, to next year and what we have going on next year. I’ll watch the film and talk with Coach,” Thorne said. “I’m excited about the future. Like I said, just a disappointing day. We didn’t play well, and that starts with the quarterback.”
Thorne completed 13 of 27 passes 84 yards along with one touchdown and one interception. It is the fifth time this season Thore failed to pass the 100 passing yards mark in a game. Backup quarterback Holden Geriner was no better, completing only one of six passes for eight yards and an interception along with it.
Only now-third-string quarterback Hank Brown was effective, passing for 132 yards while completing seven of nine passes.
With another game to rethink his comments, Freeze backtracked on his commitment to Thorne.
Thorne, though, remains confident in himself as Auburn’s starting quarterback going into 2024.
“I think I told you guys earlier in the year that Tom Brady thing,” Thorne said. “Tom Brady talked about how that was his mindset going into every single year because of how he earned the job. It was not expected. So like I said earlier in the year, that’s your mindset every offseason. You’re trying to be as good as you can. You’re not competing against any other quarterbacks.”
And while Thorne may be focused on bettering himself, it’s clear that Auburn’s offseason plan won’t be as simple as helping a loaded incoming class of high school wide receivers mesh with a starting quarterback because it’s not obvious who that quarterback will be.
Thorne will be the leader entering any upcoming competition. He will be fighting with himself in addition to Geriner, Brown and incoming four-star quarterback Walker White.
“That’s been my mindset in any competition I’ve been in,” Thorne said. “You’re competing against the defense, so I’m doing my best to get better as a quarterback myself, then get the guys around me better as well. That will translate into points, that will translate into wins. Like I said, I’m excited for a full offseason with all the guys here in Auburn and all the coaches. Looking forward to that.”
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