When questioned about watching footage from the previous season, Payton Thorne gave a frank answer.
“I look at it and see the terminology and what our play calls were.” I don’t feel well because of it,” Thorne told reporters on Monday.
When asked about the plays they ran in 2023, head coach Hugh Freeze expressed sentiments that were similar to Thorne’s.
“To be honest, I don’t want to talk about last year anymore,” Freeze declared prior to Auburn’s first autumn camp practice. “I want the responsibility for it to rest on me.”
When viewing Auburn’s offense from the previous season—which finished worst in the SEC in passing yards—many fans had the same impressions.
Thorne’s season was statistically the worst he has ever had, passing for fewer than 2,000 yards.
His output during his time at Michigan State has clearly declined. It was a very distinct set of circumstances, though.
After missing spring camp, Thorne was quickly promoted to starting quarterback at Auburn last summer.
The offense never seemed to click from the coaching staff down to Thorne and the other players because they didn’t have a complete offseason and the coaching staff was still relatively new.
Play calling was ceded to offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery by Freeze, who had frequently taken charge of the offense during his prior coaching stints. Montgomery was fired at the conclusion of the season as a result of this experiment.
Derrick Nix took over for Montgomery, and now that everything is set for the entire offseason, there’s a renewed sense of comfort and continuity.
Thorne expressed his satisfaction with the team’s current state, saying, “I feel really good about it and I feel like I understand what Coach Freeze, Coach Nix, and Coach Austin are trying to do.”
Thorne has been able to assume greater offensive control thanks to the group’s mutual understanding and trust that were developed during the offseason.
Thorne stated, “Coaches can have confidence in me to be able to change things up if I need to if we’re on the same page and seeing things the same.”
The people surrounding Thorne have changed significantly from the previous season.
Thorne has virtually a whole new group of receivers to pass to thanks to Auburn’s signing of three receivers via the transfer portal and four freshmen wide receivers.
It truly is the best team game, despite what some people think. It’s difficult, “Thorne cried. “You’ve seen excellent quarterbacks in the NFL; even if everything start to go apart around them, they can still perform well. However, they have changed since they acquired all of their parts.
“You just have to deal with what you’ve got sometimes, and it’s obviously a challenging scenario. Right now, I’m pretty happy with where we are.
Although players like Robert Lewis, Cam Coleman, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, and others are great additions to an offense, Thorne won’t be relying only on these new receivers in 2024.
tense conclusion In 2024, Rivaldo Fairweather, who led Auburn in receiving yards the previous season, will be a vital cog in the offense.
Thorne stated he tries not to dwell on the previous season, but he believes he can improve on his relationship with Fairweather.
It’s as if they’re asking, ‘What can you learn from the good things that happened last year, and what can you learn from the bad?’ And I suppose it’s because, as Thorne put it, “I never threw to the tight end as much as I did last year.” “We will carry that over to this year as it’s building a part of my game that I didn’t do before.”
Thorne believes that include the gifted receivers in the mix will assist Fairweather’s game even more.
Thorne remarked, “Now you know they can’t double team him anymore.”
Since Thorne first set foot on Auburn’s campus, the offense has seen a great deal of change, and the senior quarterback doesn’t see the need to go back with everything that has changed.
“I don’t really give last year much thought,” Thorne remarked. “Obviously, our staff is also very different.”
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