Auburn’s quarterback battle begins with Payton Thorne taking first snaps

If fans wanted a quick answer to who will be starting at quarterback for Auburn come the opener against UMass in a month, then this isn’t the right place.
After months of talking about an upcoming quarterback battle mixing new faces with old ones, Auburn finally had the group together on the same field Thursday. And for the first time, that meant coaches got to take a look at Payton Thorne.
Thursday was Auburn’s first practice of fall camp, and during a period open to media head coach Hugh Freeze’s quarterbacks took turns running plays with a full 11 on offense. They practiced against air, and Thorne was the first quarterback on the field.
Thorne took a handful of snaps with what appeared to be a group resembling the first-team offense.
Though Thorne may have been the first quarterback on the field, Freeze set the expectation as to not take too much away from that.
“They’re all gonna rotate through the first five practices really evenly amongst the 1s and 2s and 3s,” Freeze said. “We’ll evaluate all of those reps and kind of recalibrate and sit down and kind of go through there after the first five.”
Thorne’s session included mostly short-to-intermediate passes. For the junior, Thursday served similarly to the first day of school, as he inserted himself into a real Auburn practice for the first time. It is the true beginning of his work to build chemistry with a group of players not just new to him, but new to Auburn in general including junior tight end Rivaldo Fairweather and redshirt freshman receiver Caleb Burton.
Redshirt freshman Holden Geriner, who Freeze has spoken very highly of throughout the summer, was second to take snaps. And in a small sample size, Geriner looked impressive. He opened up a few more deep passes than Thorne’s first turn, highlighted with a pass into the corner of the endzone for Caleb Burton — one of at least 20 scholarship players who have joined Auburn’s roster since the end of spring practices.
Robby Ashford, who started games for Auburn at the end of the 2022 season, was the third quarterback to take a turn. He mostly ran running plays during his snaps. Freshman Hank Brown also saw a turn during the period open to the media.
Yet while Thursday may have been the true beginning of Freeze’s evaluation of the quarterbacks for this season — especially given it being Thorne’s first day — he has already built a strong relationship with the Michigan State transfer.
“It’s impossible for you not to visit with Payton because he demands it,” Freeze said. “I’m in my phone every day (and Payton says), ‘Hey coach, you got any free time today? Hey coach, you got any free time today?’ I love that about him. So, yes. I feel very comfortable with who he is and his leadership and his desire and his preparation and his football IQ. But you’ve got to make plays, and I haven’t seen that yet. And truthfully, I’m excited about the competition between he and Robby and Holden. I think it’s going to make them all better.”
The battle between those three will be among the biggest stories of fall camp. At SEC Media Days, Freeze said he hoped to quickly narrow it down to a top two.
It’s certainly too early to get a read on who that top guy will be. Freeze said he doesn’t want to set a date of when he will have a decision.
And even when he does get to that point, it doesn’t mean a decision is permanent.
“Heck, it may be three games into the season before we really know this is absolutely the guy we’ve got to roll with when it’s crunch time,” Freeze said. “We’ll have a starter game one. Does it remain bonafide? Show me the stats from game one. It comes down to how is the quarterback judged. He’s judged by how the team plays around him and his win-loss record.”