Observations: Payton Thorne is QB1 and more from Day 11 of fall camp

Auburn has named a starting quarterback, and we learned a ton from the longest practice viewing window of the preseason.

QB Payton Thorne (Austin Perryman/Auburn Athletics)

I’ve been covering Auburn football for the vast majority of the last decade. My first fall practice was in 2013, at the start of a memorable new era for the Tigers.

And Thursday might have been the most I’ve ever gotten from a single afternoon of preseason practices.

Auburn officially named its new starting quarterback before Day 11 of fall camp — remember, Hugh Freeze said he and Philip Montgomery wanted to have the battle narrowed down after the first 10 days — and then media members were allowed to watch about an hour and a half of practice.

And that’s going to make for the most loaded Observations we’ve ever posted after a practice viewing window. There’s a whole lot to get to here, starting with the decision to name Payton Thorne the new QB1.

Here’s what we saw and heard on a busy Thursday afternoon on the Plains.

QB Payton Thorne (Austin Perryman/Auburn Athletics)

Why Payton Thorne has already won the QB battle

On Thursday morning, multiple reports came out that Thorne was expected to be named Auburn’s starting quarterback later that day.

Before practice, Freeze confirmed those reports, saying that Thorne would be the starter over Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner when the Tigers open the season against UMass in a little more than two weeks’ time.

“The reason Payton is getting the nod is just the leadership ability and the understanding of the offense,” Freeze said. “He's been in some really good battles, and it just seems like he was more efficient in the decision-making to this point — not that the others were terrible by any means.”

Thorne, who transferred to Auburn this summer after spending the last two seasons as the starting quarterback at Michigan State, was the most established signal caller in the competition. Freeze has a track record of going with transfer quarterbacks in these battles, and Thorne maintained his status as the favorite throughout fall camp.

This announcement came five days after Freeze left Auburn’s first scrimmage inside Jordan-Hare Stadium saying that he thought he had his “mind made up” about the quarterback, but that might have shifted with what happened on the field.

How did Freeze go from that on Saturday to a decision on Thursday?

“I felt like it was Payton going into the scrimmage and then in the scrimmage, I thought he pressed too much, and I didn’t like that,” Freeze said. “… I think that’s one of the reasons I’m at this point. I want to see now what he does now, (knowing) ‘I’m the guy, and I can go back to relaxing and playing within the system.’ That was all of it. And Robby had a really good Saturday, comparatively.”

Thorne had almost always been the first quarterback in drills during the viewing windows of fall camp, and that obviously didn’t change Thursday. He showed a good command of the offense throughout practice, especially with directing traffic pre-snap with a wide range of rotating skill guys.

Freeze has also repeatedly mentioned just how much extra time Thorne has spent in the football facility since he arrived, and that clearly has stood out to the coaching staff.

“The guy's in here all the time,” Freeze said. “I can't get rid of him. He wants to know the ins and outs of everything I'm thinking or Phillip is thinking on every aspect of our passing game, run game. He's a pro at knowing how to prepare.”

Freeze stressed Thursday that he felt like he could win games with Ashford and Geriner, and there had been days of fall camp were there was little separation. But Thorne is going to be the guy, and Freeze still wants his other two quarterbacks to compete. (What Freeze said about Ashford, which we’ll get to later, was also very intriguing.)

“It was not a slam dunk,” Freeze said. “I hope that everyone will handle it right. This is happening in a lot of places, (the) NFL, here. You compete, and you continue to compete. And trust me, once someone gets that job, they have to hold onto it. Hopefully the others work every day to press to make me feel like I need to second-guess that. That’s the hope.”

TE Rivaldo Fairweather (Austin Perryman/Auburn Athletics)

Who stood out during the team drills?

Most of what we’ve seen at practices so far in fall camp have been individual drills, plus offense and defense running plays against air.

The extended viewing window gave us long stretches of offense vs. defense work, including some first-team vs. first-team action and a two-minute drill. There’s a lot here, and we’ll empty the notebook of what caught our eye here: