'Hey dad, he did it right': How Payton Thorne's journey to Auburn began at North Central College

AUBURN — Jeff Thorne first realized it over some pizza.

Sitting on North Central College’s team bus after a season-ending loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Division III Playoffs, Thorne − then the team's offensive coordinator − was still stewing on a lopsided 59-28 defeat.

His father, North Central head coach John Thorne, had led the Cardinals to their second consecutive conference title that season. But like the year prior, their campaign came to a close three games shy of a national championship.

Sitting next to Jeff on the bus, a slice of Domino’s in hand, was his son, Payton.

"Hey dad,” Payton said between bites, “Aaron did it wrong.”

"What are you talking about?" Jeff asked.

"He didn’t throw the ball away," Payton replied.

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Jeff thought back to the night prior. He recalled sitting in a hotel room surrounded by his quarterbacks, giving a last-minute scouting report before the big game. He went out of his way to say that sacks would be a killer versus the Warhawks: "Throw the ball away, do whatever you have to do."

Starting quarterback Aaron Fanthorpe, who at one point in the loss ran out of bounds for a sack instead of getting rid of the ball, was in the room. So was Payton, who sat in the corner with eyes fixed on a Nintendo Game Boy and ears that were, evidently, open.

"This is at 6 years old," Jeff told the Montgomery Advertiser last week. "Two weeks later, we’re watching the NCAA D-III Championship Game and Mount Union is playing Whitewater. Whitewater’s quarterback gets out, throws the ball away and Payton is down on the floor (playing) with these football guys.

"He stops dead in his tracks and turns and looks at me and says, ‘Hey dad, he did it right.’"

Payton Thorne has always been this way. Perhaps he was born with it, a winner of the gene-pool lottery with enough smarts and athleticism to turn a three-star recruiting ranking as a senior coming out of Naperville Central High School in Illinois into a collegiate career that so far includes legacy-defining wins over the likes of Michigan and Penn State, an 11-win season in 2021 and a New Year’s Six bowl victory.

Or maybe he’s a product of his environment, fortuitously crafted by those around him − specifically Jeff and John − to be what his new teammates have already identified as a “natural-born leader."

Whatever the case, Thorne is who he is. And he was plucked out of the transfer portal in May to be coach Hugh Freeze's first starting quarterback at Auburn, largely due to those same traits his father first identified in 2007.

'The real football players'

John Thorne made one thing clear during his 13-year tenure at North Central: Linemen get special privileges.

Team meals? Big guys get their bellies filled first.

Room key distribution at the start of each semester? The skill positions can wait.

Loading up for a long bus ride? Linemen have first pick at where they want to sit.

It was an intentional practice. John believed those big bodies up front were the most important players on his team, and he felt they didn’t get anywhere near the credit they deserved from outside the building.

So he made up for it in his own way.

“We always called them the real football players,” John said. “Because nothing happens until they collide with each other. Every single play. What they do at the line of scrimmage makes it easier for every other player on the offense or the defense when they do it correctly.”

Payton wasted no time getting to know his new teammates and the staff at large in Auburn. He requested a book with the names and photos of everyone that worked in the Woltosz Football Performance Center upon his arrival to the Plains: “I don’t like working with people if I don’t know their name,” Payton explained. “It’s disrespectful in a way if you don’t know someone’s name.”

Especially those linemen; Payton and some of his teammates, including starting right tackle Gunner Britton, have gotten to know one another over a few rounds of golf this summer.

Britton admits sophomore kicker Alex McPherson might be the best with a club, but Payton isn’t too far behind.

“Payton Thorne shot one-over the last time we played and the time before that he ended up shooting three-over but the dude had four birdies on the front nine,” Britton said. “It was crazy. They’re legit, and (they) love playing against each other while I’m over there making sure I can find my ball.”

Britton added of Thorne: “The guy's just a natural-born leader. It’s something that I think is really, really special.”

For those that aren’t big golfers, like starting center Avery Jones, a meal at Baumhower’s with the linemen, running backs and quarterbacks is the go-to move: “He’s definitely a leader,” Jones said of Thorne. “Kind of just draws you in, his character and how he carries himself.”

“That's being a team builder,” John said of prioritizing the linemen. “As coaches, we always called all the rest of the players the pretty boys. … Every single day we celebrated the linemen, O-line and D-line.

“I think that’s something that Payton picked up. And it works. It’s leadership, but it’s also being a motivator. Give the big guys (a reason to) want to play hard for you. And then you’re going to play hard for them.”

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A football family

Nothing beats firsthand experience, and Jeff Thorne got just as much of that as a child as Payton did.

Growing up in Wheaton, just five miles north of Naperville and about 30 miles west of Soldier Field, Jeff was raised a diehard Chicago Bears fan. It's how he landed on his son's name, a nod to NFL legend Walter Payton.

But Jeff's experience with sports, much like Payton's, was intricate. He too spent time around his father in a football setting, subconsciously absorbing information to later be put to use; Jeff was an all-state quarterback under John as a senior at Wheaton Warrenville South High School and went on to be a four-year starter at Eastern Illinois from 1990-93.

"Naturally, there are certain things that coaches’ kids − when they’re spending time with their dad or mom, if the mom is a coach − there’s just things they pick up that other kids don’t," Jeff said. "Because they’re around the game. They’re observing."

Jeff jumped into the coaching world following his time at Eastern Illinois, joining his dad's staff at Wheaton Warrenville South for eight seasons before John got the job at North Central in 2002. Jeff followed him and was the Cardinals' offensive coordinator for 13 seasons. He helped the school to a 118-30 record from 2002-14 and eight straight conference championships from 2006-13.

"I think it's a big advantage to have that and to grow up around it," Payton said of Jeff and John. "I grew up around football my whole life. I was riding the team bus with my dad when I was like 5, sitting and watching film, sitting in meetings when I really didn't know what was going on. But I was hearing it."

Though John averaged more than nine wins a season at North Central and guided the Cardinals to eight playoff appearances, he could never get over the hump and win the big one; the closest he would get to a national championship came in 2013, when North Central lost a heartbreaker against Mount Union in the semifinals, 41-40.

But six years later, with John retired and Jeff in his fifth season as his father's successor, the Cardinals broke through, trouncing Wisconsin-Whitewater in the 2019 Stagg Bowl to win the school’s second Division III title. The program’s theme that year, Jeff explained, was “Chase the Lion,” which was a play on a book with the same title published by Mark Batterson in 2016.

"Part of the concept of Chase the Lion is that (you should) dream big,” Jeff said. “… The kind of dreams that scare you because they’re outside of your own talent level or resources. But also the idea that there’s a genealogy to dreams. Like oftentimes dreams you might complete weren’t yours, they were somebody else's, you just happen to be in their downline.

"It was amazing, but that was our theme for a couple years and to have that come to fruition and be able to hand my dad that trophy after the game was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

'Why don't we just detour?'

All Jeff Thorne could do was helplessly watch from 250 miles away.

Hustling home from North Central's win over Wisconsin-La Crosse in November 2021, Jeff scrambled to grab his TV remote and flip the channel to Michigan State's final regular-season game of the year against Penn State.

He got it turned on just in time to watch Payton throw a pick-six.

The snafu gave the Nittany Lions a 20-17 lead with 11:07 remaining in the third quarter. With the snow coming down in droves on a field that was coated white before the game's first snap, things were quickly unraveling for then-No. 12 Michigan State.

But then the Spartans flipped a switch. Thorne completed seven of his final 11 throws for 100 yards and a touchdown, future Seattle Seahawk Kenneth Walker III rushed for 50 yards after Thorne's interception and Michigan State's defense allowed just seven points in the second half.

The Spartans ultimately won, 30-27.

Thorne's touchdown pass, a fourth-and-15 lob to the end zone, was hauled in by Jayden Reed, who the Thorne family refers to as his childhood nickname of "Bird." Bird was Payton's teammate at Naperville Central, and after one season at Western Michigan in 2018, he transferred to MSU and reunited with his high school quarterback.

When Reed was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the second round of the NFL draft in April, he celebrated surrounded by his friends and family at a draft party in Miami. Jeff and Payton drove down from Illinois.

And on the way back home, they decided to change course.

"It’s Sunday, that last day of the portal, and he put his name in that morning," Jeff recalled. "We got the call from coach Freeze and decided, ‘You know, why don’t we just detour? It’s about an hour out of the way.’”

The Thornes visited that day and spent about nine and a half hours on the Plains. By the time they left, it was clear there was a fit.

"I was excited with the idea of coach Freeze, coach (Philip) Montgomery, coach (Kent) Austin, Jessie (Stone), all these guys dedicated to the quarterback position,” Jeff said. “That was exciting to me. ... Four guys watching that position, I think they’re going to see everything.”

Payton and Jeff crammed a lot into those nine and a half hours, talking "tons of Xs and Os" with the staff and discussing how Payton could potentially slide into the offense.

A mutual friendship helped break the ice, too. Freeze's mantra of the offseason − "Flip the Script" − is inspired by a book titled "Win the Day," written by Batterson, the same author who Jeff pulled "Chase the Lion" from in 2019. Batterson, the lead pastor at National Community Church in Washington, D.C., grew up in Naperville and has a relationship with Jeff dating back three decades. Freeze has developed a friendship with the author, too.

"Payton didn’t share this with me until literally we got out of the car at the facility because he knew I would be full-court pressing for Auburn after hearing this," Jeff said of the connection. "... We talked about that a little bit. Knowing (Freeze’s) background and that his faith is as important to him as it is, that was really appealing to Payton and our family as well.”

Like father, like son

Sometimes things just line up.

Supervising a workout in the weight room at Wheaton Warrenville South in the early 1980s, John Thorne was approached by the school's varsity basketball coach.

"We've got so many guys out with the flu," the coach pleaded with John. "Can Jeff come out and practice with us?"

John grabbed his son, then in eighth grade, and instructed him to help the basketball team, which was comprised mostly of juniors and seniors.

Jeff wasn't a world-beater that day, but by the time they were on the way home, the younger Thorne had a scouting report to share with his father.

"Jeff and I were talking about it and Jeff said, ‘You know, dad, this player, he always dribbles with his right hand first. This other player looks one direction and then he does something different.’ He had analyzed all five of our starters in some way that we hadn’t," John said.

"I knew right then he had great vision and understanding of athletics."

Sound familiar?

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Payton Thorne: Family legacy has prepared transfer QB for role at Auburn