This article is from a couple years ago. Many have probably seen it. For those that haven’t…this is as good as it gets in detailing really what makes Payton Thorne, the competitor and leader he is. Just WOW comments from trainer Kofi Hughes, a former legit Indiana receiver.
As good as he was last year in guiding us to an incredible 11-2 record, and setting the MSU record for season TD passes…what I think about most is the incredible moxie he showed in getting up hit after hellacious hit, along with staying the course against Pitt when he really had a less than satisfactory 3 quarters, and dug down deep in the 4th to guide us to victory. I suspect the inner drive qualities outlined in this article helped him to do just that.
Good long read for a ‘one week to go’ Friday. Here it is.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — It’s December in mid-Michigan, and Payton Thorne is standing on the sidelines of Michigan State’s indoor practice field — calm and relaxed, answering questions with poise beyond his years — in his first media appearance. His true freshman season is coming to an end in a few short weeks, and Thorne has learned a thing or two in the most important course he’ll take in college. He’s here to reflect, but also to look forward.
It’s been a learning experience for Thorne, someone who’s always had the keys to the offense prior to this year, but he understands his place. He praises senior Brian Lewerke, and acknowledges that this was his season. He’s diplomatic in his responses, noting that the quarterbacks he’ll soon compete with each brings a different skill set to the table. In a short period of time, he exudes a quiet confidence and knowledge of his situation. And also, an understanding that his time could come at a moment’s notice.
“I just try to go into every game and have that same mindset of being ready,” Thorne said then. “You never know what’s gonna happen.
Thorne, entering his second season at Michigan State, is a name to watch. He’s one of three quarterbacks competing for the starting job at Michigan State — a program in transition. It’s not often you’ll encounter a quarterback like Thorne, still just a redshirt freshman, in the mix to start. For the past 13 years, only a handful of Michigan State players have competed at quarterback so early into their careers. It makes what Thorne has done so far unique and, perhaps, worth a further explanation.
Those who’ve been with Thorne every step of the way aren’t surprised by the sudden rise. They aren’t surprised that a lowly-rated recruit has entrenched himself in a Power 5 competition. They aren’t surprised that he’s getting a shot so early in his career. They aren’t surprised by the fan buzz he’s generated, or any of the heads he’s turned along the way.
They believe he’s earned the chance to state his case. Allow them to explain why.
Most of the kids who walk into Kofi Hughes’ gym don’t always have a clear path for themselves. They want to get faster. Sure, they want to get stronger. They want to become better athletes, which is something Hughes specializes in. However, the first time Payton Thorne walked into Hughes’ gym during the winter of 2017, Hughes knew then that the kid standing in front of him was different.
“He was a young man who knew what he wanted,” Hughes said. “Payton has always known the drill. He’s a quarterback. He’s going to start at a high-level program. He’s just a gamer. I could just tell, kind of by his moxie and by the way he carried himself as a sophomore in high school, that this is just one of those kids, man. This is one of those kids that you just know he has D-1 written all over him.”
Hughes is speaking from experience when he says this. A former Indiana wide receiver who played in the early 2010s, Hughes knows what it takes to play Big Ten football. He’s been through the recruiting process, what coaches look for in Power 5 athletes and what sort of work ethic is needed to get on the field and stay there. After his playing days, Hughes relocated to Naperville, Ill., Thorne’s hometown, to open his own gym — Kofi Hughes Training — and work toward his passion for developing young athletes in search of guidance.
He keeps his circle small in order to offer both training tips and mentorship. Thorne was one of his earlier mentees.
“The goal has always been to get stronger and bigger, but, number one, get him faster,” Hughes said. “He knew that he needed to gain weight, but he had to also get faster in order to compete at the level he wanted to. His IQ is off the charts, but if he wasn’t a good enough athlete, nobody was going to be able to witness his IQ. This is a kid, I’m telling you, that was calling me to come to the gym. This is a kid that — I wouldn’t even have a session at the times he’d ask, but he had practice with his father, he had other things that he had to go to. It’s just a very uncommon thing with a high school athlete to where they’re beating down the door to train. Usually, kids are not like that. They show up, but they’re never, like, blowing up your phone every day about it.”
Thorne did just that. Not only did he keep coming to Hughes for extra sessions, he picked away at specific workouts to learn how and why it would help him get better. Why are we doing this rep range? What is this going to do to my body?He wanted to understand the methods to the madness.
Hughes remembers one day, in particular, years ago, when Thorne asked him to sit down and plan out his workload. He’d just wrapped up his sophomore season at Metea Valley High School, emerging as the starter in his second year, but wasn’t satisfied. Thorne played multiple sports, but football was his main focus. He was eager to do whatever he could to one day play in college. So, he came to Hughes and laid it all out for him.
“I want to train five days a week,” Thorne said. “What would it look like?”
“Dang, dude,” Hughes replied, surprised that a high schooler would commit to a schedule like that. “All right, it would look like this.”
Thorne locked in the schedule without much hesitation. It got to a point where he could walk into the gym and know exactly what the workout would look like that day by the first set. Hughes said if he needed to, he would feel comfortable walking away and having Thorne lead an entire session on a given day. Speed, agility, it wouldn’t have mattered. He wasn’t a kid who was just going through the motions. He knew what would benefit him and others.
Those were the early Thorne stories. The people who worked with him knew his work ethic would set him up for success down the line and, ultimately, lead to his dream of playing in college. As if there wasn’t another option.
There’s something about being a coach’s son that helps establish mutual respect between two parties. Shared experiences. Growing up around a chalkboard. Spending more time on a football field than a playground. This is how Mike Stine, head coach at Naperville Central (Ill.) High School, was able to click with Thorne.
The Thornes are known as a football family. Payton’s grandfather, John Thorne, is an accomplished high school and college coach in the suburbs of Chicago. Payton’s father Jeff is a former quarterback himself who played college football at Eastern Illinois, ranking among the all-time leaders in several passing categories on lists that include Sean Payton, Tony Romo and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Following his playing days, Jeff took up coaching and joined his father’s staff at North Central College, a D-III program in Naperville. Years later, Jeff later became the head coach of North Central, taking over for his father — who remained on staff. It’s been a high-level program for some time now with the Thornes leading the way. This past winter, Jeff’s program played in the D-III national championship and defeated Wisconsin-Whitewater to capture the school’s first title. This is the environment Payton was born into.
Stine recognized this, and related to Thorne. His father, Everett, was a legendary coach himself who won 222 games and a state title at Byron High School, and is a member of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He taught his son, Mike, everything he knew about the game. Stine later followed in his father’s footsteps and took up coaching himself, eventually landing the head gig at Naperville Central.
“The first thing when you meet him is, you can tell he’s a coach’s son,” Stine said. “Since he could walk, he was on the football field. With his grandpa and then with his dad, you know, he grew up on a football field. He grew up in the locker room. He probably never went to a babysitter a day in his life and that’s how I grew up. For those of us that lived that, it’s just a unique situation.”
Ahead of the 2017 school year, Thorne transferred from Metea Valley to Naperville Central, where he was paired with Stine to begin the most important year of his high school career. There was a high level of trust between the two. His knowledge of the game, upbringing and mentality made it an easy decision to name Thorne the team’s starter, despite the fact that he was new.
Upon arrival, Thorne quickly grasped Naperville Central’s offense. Stine said his understanding of the game is better than any player he’s ever coached before, and even some coaches, which is something he came to appreciate during his time at Central.
A few years back, Stine attended training camp with the New Orleans Saints. Head coach Sean Payton, a Naperville Central graduate who still follows the program, extended an invitation so Stine could come down and see how the team operates. During his week-long visit, one of the things that surprised Stine was how the offensive coaches in New Orleans rarely led the quarterback meetings. That’s because Drew Brees ran them. Brees knew exactly what he wanted to do against opponents, and Payton entrusted Brees to lead those meetings without hesitation. It was a product of Brees’ preparation and attention to detail, which led to him earning the trust of the coaching staff. Stine says he saw similar traits in Thorne early on — albeit, at the high school level.
“If you came in for two years and sat in our quarterback-wide receiver room, Payton ran our meetings,” Stine said. “I mean, the coaches, we were there and I bounced in and out, but he knew what he wanted. He and I would talk, but when he was there, when we were watching film, he was a coach in the room running the meetings. Not only did he ask questions, but he answered the questions. I felt confident in that because he’s the guy out there orchestrating what’s going on on the field. For him to be in a meeting and doing that, it also just gained the trust of the players around him. Very few high school kids can get in and just totally run offensive meetings, but Payton did it every day.”
Hughes built strong relationships with Stine and the coaching staff at Naperville Central and, eventually, joined as a wide receivers coach. As a member of the coaching staff, he was able to watch Thorne in practice each and every day and train him at night.
He remembers a time during practice when Thorne got after his receivers. The routes they were running that day were somewhat sloppy, and Thorne wasn’t having it. He took it upon himself to show them exactly where he wanted them to be by the time he was ready to deliver the ball.
“He would hop in the receiver line and he would run a route — very well — and say, ‘This is how I want you to do it,’” Hughes said. “The dude is just a governor, man. Just a straight leader. There’s no other way around it. And he’s the kind of leader you want because he holds himself to the highest standard, but it’s also sometimes like, you better get on board with that. You better care as much as he cares, you better give it your all the way he gives it his all, or you’re going to get exposed.”
This translated during games as well. Naperville Central’s offense is more advanced than what you’d typically expect from a high school team. The school ran an RPO-based offense with a lot of reads and checks at the line of scrimmage. Thorne had the freedom to audible into concepts he liked, signal routes to his receivers based on what the defense was showing and more. The coaching staff was more than comfortable with him leading the way because they knew how much time he put into it.
Leading up to games, Hughes and Stine both said that the staff had to stay ready to answer questions Thorne might have about specific plays or any suggestions he might give them against certain opponents. Otherwise, a 17-year-old would, unintentionally, make them look unprepared. Hughes agreed.
“The boy knows every single person’s responsibility on the field,” Hughes said. “There were so many times during games where it would be like, ‘Payton, what do you want to do?’ I’m talking heat of the moment, you’ve got grown men, offensive coordinators, coaches, saying, ‘Hey, what do you want to do? This boy’s 17-years old. It was no knock on any coach, it was just like, everybody really recognized this kid knows what the heck he’s talking about. If we listen to him, he’s gonna take us pretty far.”
With Thorne at quarterback, Naperville Central won 16 games over a two-year span. During that time, he became the school’s career leader in completions (342), passing yards (5,367) and touchdowns (65), and he added over 1,000 yards rushing. As a senior, he threw for 3,113 yards and 40 touchdowns and took home numerous statewide awards. Thorne was named the 2018 Illinois Offensive Player of the Year by USA TODAY and was the 2018 Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year.
Even with all the accolades he compiled, Thorne’s recruitment seemed to lack buzz. Stine believes it was, in part, due to his size. Thorne was about 6-foot-1 and needed to put on weight in order to get serious college looks. A prospect’s junior year is the most important year for recruiting. Coaches usually have a good idea by then what you can do on the field, how your body might translate to the next level and whether or not they want to consider you for a spot. Because of his size and other factors, Thorne ranked outside of the top-1,000 players in the 2019 class. He attended some camps and received some interest from Power 5 programs, but was mostly recruited by MAC programs. One of them being Western Michigan.
Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester played for Thorne’s grandfather, John, and is a close friend of Thorne’s father, Jeff, which led to a high level of comfort. Lester was like an uncle to Thorne and knew he came from a strong football family. He recruited him hard and wanted him badly. Toward the end of his junior year of high school, Thorne committed. However, another program in the state of Michigan kept close tabs on him in the months that followed.
Michigan State, under Mark Dantonio’s watch, typically liked to take one quarterback per class. When four-star 2019 prospect (and now-Georgia QB) D’Wan Mathis de-committed, coaches had to look elsewhere to fill the spot. Dantonio and then-offensive coordinator Brad Salem checked in on Thorne from time to time. They loved his football background and knowledge of the game. They loved his intangibles and what he brought to the table off the field. He reminded Dantonio of one of his former quarterbacks.
“Payton reminded them a lot of Kirk Cousins,” Stine said. “I mean, they used that analogy a lot, recruiting and talking to me, that Payton reminded them a lot of Kirk Cousins. Payton checked all those boxes. All you have to do is sit down and talk with him for a little bit and you see that. I think that’s why he’s such a leader. When he transferred in, there was no animosity from Day 1 stepping in our locker room. He was the leader of our team. And I’m sure there are some of those same similarities at Michigan State just because people want to gravitate toward people. He’s the kind of person you want to be around because he makes you better just being around him.”
Cousins, too, was a lightly recruited player coming out of high school, but the staff loved his competitive edge, preparation and thirst for knowledge. He joined Michigan State’s program in the 2007 class — Dantonio’s first full class as MSU’s head coach. Years later, while delivering the commencement speech at Michigan State for the class of 2019, Cousins said he arrived not knowing if he would ever play. There were other quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart, including Nick Foles, who might keep him on the bench for years. But he wasn’t going to let anyone outwork him.
Thorne spent his first season at Michigan State redshirting, which had been the case for quarterbacks under Dantonio. He ran the scout team offense last season, where he was asked to go up against Michigan State’s starting defense each and every week and replicate the looks that opposing offenses might give them.
Hughes and Thorne stayed in touch as he transitioned to college, and Thorne would give him updates about practice as the year progressed. According to Hughes, Thorne picked up these offenses pretty quickly. Scout team is usually comprised of true freshmen who aren’t necessarily ready to see the field and walk-ons still developing. Players like Thorne are given instructions by the defensive staff — where to throw the ball, what to do in certain situations, etc. You’re at their mercy, essentially.
Thorne was such a competitor, though, that there were times when he’d place the ball out of the reach of a defender to make a play — simply out of habit. It helped to have two of his high school receivers, Jayden Reed and Cade McDonald, out there with him. They were in sync and it showed.
This impressed members of the first-team defense. They took note of Thorne’s ability as a true freshman. During and after practices throughout the season, a few of them would approach him with some words of acknowledgment.
“Keep doing what you’re doing, man,” some of the seniors would tell him. “Keep leading.”
Even though he wasn’t playing, Thorne stayed ready. Hughes recalled a time when Michigan State had a road game, but Thorne wasn’t on the travel list. Since he couldn’t be with the team and watch the veterans in front of him in person, he found another way to get better while they were away.
“He had me write him up a three-day speed workout,” Hughes said, in a tone that signaled this was not something he’s usually asked to do in-season. “This boy was in the indoor facilities, by himself, training three days a week. In my college years, I don’t know one of my teammates that was putting in work three hours a week by themselves on top of what the team’s already doing. He’s just undeniable, man. He really, really is. The boy is special.”
Those close to Thorne say that’s just how he’s wired. He always found ways to improve as a true freshman, and it’s one of the main reasons he’s in the mix for the vacant starting quarterback job in just his second season on campus.
“Michigan State’s really not been known as one of those schools that’s gonna start a freshman,” Hughes said. “But I have no doubt that Payton could be (one of) the first. I’m not the type to hype a kid up. I don’t like that junk. I don’t like when parents try to hype their kids up to me, or coaches hype up players and stuff and whatnot. But he’s all of it, man. He really is all of it.”
Though the offensive coaching staff that initially recruited him is no longer around, Thorne finds himself in a competition for the starting gig as a redshirt freshman. Mel Tucker is now leading the program and he’s said openly this offseason that he doesn’t care how experienced you are or when you joined the team. He wants to give players equal opportunities to show what they can do, and that’s been the case at quarterback.
A global pandemic has complicated things a bit, but Thorne has been able to make up for the time off by studying the new playbook via Zoom and an app called Learn to Win, showing the same preparation he had in high school. When he arrived at Michigan State, he was listed at 187 pounds, and the belief was that he was going to need to bulk up in order to see the field. So what did he do? He worked hard on his body is now up to 210 — an increase of 23 pounds. That’s a playable weight for Big Ten football.
And now that practice has begun and the Big Ten season is back on, coaches have had some time to evaluate this competition up close. Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson has said he wants his starting QB to be the “CEO of the offense” — someone who knows the responsibilities of everyone on offense and even the defenders trying to stop them. He’s seen some of these traits in Thorne.
“I think Payton has a great skill set,” Johnson said. “Seems to be very knowledgeable, seems to really understand the game. Obviously, with his dad and his dad’s background, I mean, shoot, his dad was a great player in college. I think he’s very well fit there and I think he’s very marketable and I think he can do a lot of things. I think he shows some decent skill sets of movement capability, but then also appears to have solid enough arm ability to make the throws that we need him to make. I’m excited about him.”
We’re coming down to the wire in the competition, and we’ll soon know who will get the ball Oct. 24 against Rutgers. The reps have been divided up among Thorne, Rocky Lombardi and Theo Day. Though the other two QBs have an edge in experience and years in the program, there’s a growing belief that Thorne has done well to close the gap. Those close to him believe that even if Thorne doesn’t begin the year as the starter, he’s done everything he can to position himself to be the next man up, should another quarterback struggle out of the gate. Even then, they believe it’s only a matter of time until his number is called.
A coach’s son through and through. A player who’s worked to improve his perceived physical limitations. A kid with a high football IQ who processes information thrown at him, and a player the team could build around if he proves he’s the guy.
This is the case for Payton Thorne — whether it’s now or in the future. We’ll see what comes of it.
As good as he was last year in guiding us to an incredible 11-2 record, and setting the MSU record for season TD passes…what I think about most is the incredible moxie he showed in getting up hit after hellacious hit, along with staying the course against Pitt when he really had a less than satisfactory 3 quarters, and dug down deep in the 4th to guide us to victory. I suspect the inner drive qualities outlined in this article helped him to do just that.
Good long read for a ‘one week to go’ Friday. Here it is.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — It’s December in mid-Michigan, and Payton Thorne is standing on the sidelines of Michigan State’s indoor practice field — calm and relaxed, answering questions with poise beyond his years — in his first media appearance. His true freshman season is coming to an end in a few short weeks, and Thorne has learned a thing or two in the most important course he’ll take in college. He’s here to reflect, but also to look forward.
It’s been a learning experience for Thorne, someone who’s always had the keys to the offense prior to this year, but he understands his place. He praises senior Brian Lewerke, and acknowledges that this was his season. He’s diplomatic in his responses, noting that the quarterbacks he’ll soon compete with each brings a different skill set to the table. In a short period of time, he exudes a quiet confidence and knowledge of his situation. And also, an understanding that his time could come at a moment’s notice.
“I just try to go into every game and have that same mindset of being ready,” Thorne said then. “You never know what’s gonna happen.
Thorne, entering his second season at Michigan State, is a name to watch. He’s one of three quarterbacks competing for the starting job at Michigan State — a program in transition. It’s not often you’ll encounter a quarterback like Thorne, still just a redshirt freshman, in the mix to start. For the past 13 years, only a handful of Michigan State players have competed at quarterback so early into their careers. It makes what Thorne has done so far unique and, perhaps, worth a further explanation.
Those who’ve been with Thorne every step of the way aren’t surprised by the sudden rise. They aren’t surprised that a lowly-rated recruit has entrenched himself in a Power 5 competition. They aren’t surprised that he’s getting a shot so early in his career. They aren’t surprised by the fan buzz he’s generated, or any of the heads he’s turned along the way.
They believe he’s earned the chance to state his case. Allow them to explain why.
Most of the kids who walk into Kofi Hughes’ gym don’t always have a clear path for themselves. They want to get faster. Sure, they want to get stronger. They want to become better athletes, which is something Hughes specializes in. However, the first time Payton Thorne walked into Hughes’ gym during the winter of 2017, Hughes knew then that the kid standing in front of him was different.
“He was a young man who knew what he wanted,” Hughes said. “Payton has always known the drill. He’s a quarterback. He’s going to start at a high-level program. He’s just a gamer. I could just tell, kind of by his moxie and by the way he carried himself as a sophomore in high school, that this is just one of those kids, man. This is one of those kids that you just know he has D-1 written all over him.”
Hughes is speaking from experience when he says this. A former Indiana wide receiver who played in the early 2010s, Hughes knows what it takes to play Big Ten football. He’s been through the recruiting process, what coaches look for in Power 5 athletes and what sort of work ethic is needed to get on the field and stay there. After his playing days, Hughes relocated to Naperville, Ill., Thorne’s hometown, to open his own gym — Kofi Hughes Training — and work toward his passion for developing young athletes in search of guidance.
He keeps his circle small in order to offer both training tips and mentorship. Thorne was one of his earlier mentees.
“The goal has always been to get stronger and bigger, but, number one, get him faster,” Hughes said. “He knew that he needed to gain weight, but he had to also get faster in order to compete at the level he wanted to. His IQ is off the charts, but if he wasn’t a good enough athlete, nobody was going to be able to witness his IQ. This is a kid, I’m telling you, that was calling me to come to the gym. This is a kid that — I wouldn’t even have a session at the times he’d ask, but he had practice with his father, he had other things that he had to go to. It’s just a very uncommon thing with a high school athlete to where they’re beating down the door to train. Usually, kids are not like that. They show up, but they’re never, like, blowing up your phone every day about it.”
Thorne did just that. Not only did he keep coming to Hughes for extra sessions, he picked away at specific workouts to learn how and why it would help him get better. Why are we doing this rep range? What is this going to do to my body?He wanted to understand the methods to the madness.
Hughes remembers one day, in particular, years ago, when Thorne asked him to sit down and plan out his workload. He’d just wrapped up his sophomore season at Metea Valley High School, emerging as the starter in his second year, but wasn’t satisfied. Thorne played multiple sports, but football was his main focus. He was eager to do whatever he could to one day play in college. So, he came to Hughes and laid it all out for him.
“I want to train five days a week,” Thorne said. “What would it look like?”
“Dang, dude,” Hughes replied, surprised that a high schooler would commit to a schedule like that. “All right, it would look like this.”
Thorne locked in the schedule without much hesitation. It got to a point where he could walk into the gym and know exactly what the workout would look like that day by the first set. Hughes said if he needed to, he would feel comfortable walking away and having Thorne lead an entire session on a given day. Speed, agility, it wouldn’t have mattered. He wasn’t a kid who was just going through the motions. He knew what would benefit him and others.
Those were the early Thorne stories. The people who worked with him knew his work ethic would set him up for success down the line and, ultimately, lead to his dream of playing in college. As if there wasn’t another option.
There’s something about being a coach’s son that helps establish mutual respect between two parties. Shared experiences. Growing up around a chalkboard. Spending more time on a football field than a playground. This is how Mike Stine, head coach at Naperville Central (Ill.) High School, was able to click with Thorne.
The Thornes are known as a football family. Payton’s grandfather, John Thorne, is an accomplished high school and college coach in the suburbs of Chicago. Payton’s father Jeff is a former quarterback himself who played college football at Eastern Illinois, ranking among the all-time leaders in several passing categories on lists that include Sean Payton, Tony Romo and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Following his playing days, Jeff took up coaching and joined his father’s staff at North Central College, a D-III program in Naperville. Years later, Jeff later became the head coach of North Central, taking over for his father — who remained on staff. It’s been a high-level program for some time now with the Thornes leading the way. This past winter, Jeff’s program played in the D-III national championship and defeated Wisconsin-Whitewater to capture the school’s first title. This is the environment Payton was born into.
Stine recognized this, and related to Thorne. His father, Everett, was a legendary coach himself who won 222 games and a state title at Byron High School, and is a member of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He taught his son, Mike, everything he knew about the game. Stine later followed in his father’s footsteps and took up coaching himself, eventually landing the head gig at Naperville Central.
“The first thing when you meet him is, you can tell he’s a coach’s son,” Stine said. “Since he could walk, he was on the football field. With his grandpa and then with his dad, you know, he grew up on a football field. He grew up in the locker room. He probably never went to a babysitter a day in his life and that’s how I grew up. For those of us that lived that, it’s just a unique situation.”
Ahead of the 2017 school year, Thorne transferred from Metea Valley to Naperville Central, where he was paired with Stine to begin the most important year of his high school career. There was a high level of trust between the two. His knowledge of the game, upbringing and mentality made it an easy decision to name Thorne the team’s starter, despite the fact that he was new.
Upon arrival, Thorne quickly grasped Naperville Central’s offense. Stine said his understanding of the game is better than any player he’s ever coached before, and even some coaches, which is something he came to appreciate during his time at Central.
A few years back, Stine attended training camp with the New Orleans Saints. Head coach Sean Payton, a Naperville Central graduate who still follows the program, extended an invitation so Stine could come down and see how the team operates. During his week-long visit, one of the things that surprised Stine was how the offensive coaches in New Orleans rarely led the quarterback meetings. That’s because Drew Brees ran them. Brees knew exactly what he wanted to do against opponents, and Payton entrusted Brees to lead those meetings without hesitation. It was a product of Brees’ preparation and attention to detail, which led to him earning the trust of the coaching staff. Stine says he saw similar traits in Thorne early on — albeit, at the high school level.
“If you came in for two years and sat in our quarterback-wide receiver room, Payton ran our meetings,” Stine said. “I mean, the coaches, we were there and I bounced in and out, but he knew what he wanted. He and I would talk, but when he was there, when we were watching film, he was a coach in the room running the meetings. Not only did he ask questions, but he answered the questions. I felt confident in that because he’s the guy out there orchestrating what’s going on on the field. For him to be in a meeting and doing that, it also just gained the trust of the players around him. Very few high school kids can get in and just totally run offensive meetings, but Payton did it every day.”
Hughes built strong relationships with Stine and the coaching staff at Naperville Central and, eventually, joined as a wide receivers coach. As a member of the coaching staff, he was able to watch Thorne in practice each and every day and train him at night.
He remembers a time during practice when Thorne got after his receivers. The routes they were running that day were somewhat sloppy, and Thorne wasn’t having it. He took it upon himself to show them exactly where he wanted them to be by the time he was ready to deliver the ball.
“He would hop in the receiver line and he would run a route — very well — and say, ‘This is how I want you to do it,’” Hughes said. “The dude is just a governor, man. Just a straight leader. There’s no other way around it. And he’s the kind of leader you want because he holds himself to the highest standard, but it’s also sometimes like, you better get on board with that. You better care as much as he cares, you better give it your all the way he gives it his all, or you’re going to get exposed.”
This translated during games as well. Naperville Central’s offense is more advanced than what you’d typically expect from a high school team. The school ran an RPO-based offense with a lot of reads and checks at the line of scrimmage. Thorne had the freedom to audible into concepts he liked, signal routes to his receivers based on what the defense was showing and more. The coaching staff was more than comfortable with him leading the way because they knew how much time he put into it.
Leading up to games, Hughes and Stine both said that the staff had to stay ready to answer questions Thorne might have about specific plays or any suggestions he might give them against certain opponents. Otherwise, a 17-year-old would, unintentionally, make them look unprepared. Hughes agreed.
“The boy knows every single person’s responsibility on the field,” Hughes said. “There were so many times during games where it would be like, ‘Payton, what do you want to do?’ I’m talking heat of the moment, you’ve got grown men, offensive coordinators, coaches, saying, ‘Hey, what do you want to do? This boy’s 17-years old. It was no knock on any coach, it was just like, everybody really recognized this kid knows what the heck he’s talking about. If we listen to him, he’s gonna take us pretty far.”
With Thorne at quarterback, Naperville Central won 16 games over a two-year span. During that time, he became the school’s career leader in completions (342), passing yards (5,367) and touchdowns (65), and he added over 1,000 yards rushing. As a senior, he threw for 3,113 yards and 40 touchdowns and took home numerous statewide awards. Thorne was named the 2018 Illinois Offensive Player of the Year by USA TODAY and was the 2018 Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year.
Even with all the accolades he compiled, Thorne’s recruitment seemed to lack buzz. Stine believes it was, in part, due to his size. Thorne was about 6-foot-1 and needed to put on weight in order to get serious college looks. A prospect’s junior year is the most important year for recruiting. Coaches usually have a good idea by then what you can do on the field, how your body might translate to the next level and whether or not they want to consider you for a spot. Because of his size and other factors, Thorne ranked outside of the top-1,000 players in the 2019 class. He attended some camps and received some interest from Power 5 programs, but was mostly recruited by MAC programs. One of them being Western Michigan.
Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester played for Thorne’s grandfather, John, and is a close friend of Thorne’s father, Jeff, which led to a high level of comfort. Lester was like an uncle to Thorne and knew he came from a strong football family. He recruited him hard and wanted him badly. Toward the end of his junior year of high school, Thorne committed. However, another program in the state of Michigan kept close tabs on him in the months that followed.
Michigan State, under Mark Dantonio’s watch, typically liked to take one quarterback per class. When four-star 2019 prospect (and now-Georgia QB) D’Wan Mathis de-committed, coaches had to look elsewhere to fill the spot. Dantonio and then-offensive coordinator Brad Salem checked in on Thorne from time to time. They loved his football background and knowledge of the game. They loved his intangibles and what he brought to the table off the field. He reminded Dantonio of one of his former quarterbacks.
“Payton reminded them a lot of Kirk Cousins,” Stine said. “I mean, they used that analogy a lot, recruiting and talking to me, that Payton reminded them a lot of Kirk Cousins. Payton checked all those boxes. All you have to do is sit down and talk with him for a little bit and you see that. I think that’s why he’s such a leader. When he transferred in, there was no animosity from Day 1 stepping in our locker room. He was the leader of our team. And I’m sure there are some of those same similarities at Michigan State just because people want to gravitate toward people. He’s the kind of person you want to be around because he makes you better just being around him.”
Cousins, too, was a lightly recruited player coming out of high school, but the staff loved his competitive edge, preparation and thirst for knowledge. He joined Michigan State’s program in the 2007 class — Dantonio’s first full class as MSU’s head coach. Years later, while delivering the commencement speech at Michigan State for the class of 2019, Cousins said he arrived not knowing if he would ever play. There were other quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart, including Nick Foles, who might keep him on the bench for years. But he wasn’t going to let anyone outwork him.
Thorne spent his first season at Michigan State redshirting, which had been the case for quarterbacks under Dantonio. He ran the scout team offense last season, where he was asked to go up against Michigan State’s starting defense each and every week and replicate the looks that opposing offenses might give them.
Hughes and Thorne stayed in touch as he transitioned to college, and Thorne would give him updates about practice as the year progressed. According to Hughes, Thorne picked up these offenses pretty quickly. Scout team is usually comprised of true freshmen who aren’t necessarily ready to see the field and walk-ons still developing. Players like Thorne are given instructions by the defensive staff — where to throw the ball, what to do in certain situations, etc. You’re at their mercy, essentially.
Thorne was such a competitor, though, that there were times when he’d place the ball out of the reach of a defender to make a play — simply out of habit. It helped to have two of his high school receivers, Jayden Reed and Cade McDonald, out there with him. They were in sync and it showed.
This impressed members of the first-team defense. They took note of Thorne’s ability as a true freshman. During and after practices throughout the season, a few of them would approach him with some words of acknowledgment.
“Keep doing what you’re doing, man,” some of the seniors would tell him. “Keep leading.”
Even though he wasn’t playing, Thorne stayed ready. Hughes recalled a time when Michigan State had a road game, but Thorne wasn’t on the travel list. Since he couldn’t be with the team and watch the veterans in front of him in person, he found another way to get better while they were away.
“He had me write him up a three-day speed workout,” Hughes said, in a tone that signaled this was not something he’s usually asked to do in-season. “This boy was in the indoor facilities, by himself, training three days a week. In my college years, I don’t know one of my teammates that was putting in work three hours a week by themselves on top of what the team’s already doing. He’s just undeniable, man. He really, really is. The boy is special.”
Those close to Thorne say that’s just how he’s wired. He always found ways to improve as a true freshman, and it’s one of the main reasons he’s in the mix for the vacant starting quarterback job in just his second season on campus.
“Michigan State’s really not been known as one of those schools that’s gonna start a freshman,” Hughes said. “But I have no doubt that Payton could be (one of) the first. I’m not the type to hype a kid up. I don’t like that junk. I don’t like when parents try to hype their kids up to me, or coaches hype up players and stuff and whatnot. But he’s all of it, man. He really is all of it.”
Though the offensive coaching staff that initially recruited him is no longer around, Thorne finds himself in a competition for the starting gig as a redshirt freshman. Mel Tucker is now leading the program and he’s said openly this offseason that he doesn’t care how experienced you are or when you joined the team. He wants to give players equal opportunities to show what they can do, and that’s been the case at quarterback.
A global pandemic has complicated things a bit, but Thorne has been able to make up for the time off by studying the new playbook via Zoom and an app called Learn to Win, showing the same preparation he had in high school. When he arrived at Michigan State, he was listed at 187 pounds, and the belief was that he was going to need to bulk up in order to see the field. So what did he do? He worked hard on his body is now up to 210 — an increase of 23 pounds. That’s a playable weight for Big Ten football.
And now that practice has begun and the Big Ten season is back on, coaches have had some time to evaluate this competition up close. Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson has said he wants his starting QB to be the “CEO of the offense” — someone who knows the responsibilities of everyone on offense and even the defenders trying to stop them. He’s seen some of these traits in Thorne.
“I think Payton has a great skill set,” Johnson said. “Seems to be very knowledgeable, seems to really understand the game. Obviously, with his dad and his dad’s background, I mean, shoot, his dad was a great player in college. I think he’s very well fit there and I think he’s very marketable and I think he can do a lot of things. I think he shows some decent skill sets of movement capability, but then also appears to have solid enough arm ability to make the throws that we need him to make. I’m excited about him.”
We’re coming down to the wire in the competition, and we’ll soon know who will get the ball Oct. 24 against Rutgers. The reps have been divided up among Thorne, Rocky Lombardi and Theo Day. Though the other two QBs have an edge in experience and years in the program, there’s a growing belief that Thorne has done well to close the gap. Those close to him believe that even if Thorne doesn’t begin the year as the starter, he’s done everything he can to position himself to be the next man up, should another quarterback struggle out of the gate. Even then, they believe it’s only a matter of time until his number is called.
A coach’s son through and through. A player who’s worked to improve his perceived physical limitations. A kid with a high football IQ who processes information thrown at him, and a player the team could build around if he proves he’s the guy.
This is the case for Payton Thorne — whether it’s now or in the future. We’ll see what comes of it.
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