Michigan State football has QB pecking order behind Payton Thorne — at least for now
EAST LANSING — Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson raved about the changes Payton Thorne made during the summer as the junior prepares to enter his second season as Michigan State football’s starting quarterback.
No job, barring a potential injury, is more secure than Thorne’s entering the 2022 season. He is the only quarterback on the Spartans’ roster to take a snap in a college game.
Yet if something does happen ahead of the Sept. 2 opener against Western Michigan, or beyond that, Johnson knows who he'll turn to. At least for now.
Johnson confirmed sophomore Noah Kim is his No. 2 option at quarterback, with freshman Katin Houser still competing for the role.
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“Noah Kim has been really doing some positive things,” Johnson said Thursday. “I think as he's matured a little bit, he continues to grow. He really had had a solid spring, but then I think he's followed that up with some great work this summer in preparation and has been performing again at a pretty consistently high level. So I'm excited to see him again when we get in some more live situations to see how he responds, how he manages the team and doing that.
“So those are kind of the top two there. … But that's still I would say somewhat of an ongoing battle, and we'll continue to kind of evaluate that probably in the next eight to 10 days.”
MSU pushed its second scrimmage of camp back to Saturday, a week after the first one.
“I know the offense very well. I think all of us have really got a good grip on everything,” Kim said Thursday after practice. “And we're moving at a fast pace now.”
Johnson didn't officially anoint Houser his No. 3, nor did he mention where the other scholarship quarterback on the roster — redshirt freshman Hamp Fay — fits in the mix, saying, “They're all kind of working in there collectively,” before adding “I gotta get a little bit more information before I can handle it officially.”
“Katin and the other guys are doing well. And I'm excited about their future and roles …,” the third-year coordinator said. “We try to monitor the reps very, very diligently every day and really giving all the guys a bunch of reps,” Johnson said. “And so it's a little bit hard to say at this point, just because we really only have that one live deal, and that's where you really get a lot of great information. So I think we'll have a better idea once we get into next week.”
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Kim is entering his third year under Johnson after arriving as part of Mark Dantonio’s final recruiting class in 2020. A suburban Washington native who initially committed to Virginia Tech as a three-star recruit, Kim served as the No. 3 quarterback last season behind Thorne and Anthony Russo, a one-year graduate transfer from Temple.
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“As a kid, my parents were always telling me, 'Are you a leader or you're a follower?' And so you've kind of set the example as a kid,” Kim said. “You can kind of figure out who the leader is starting young and then growing up. You can learn from people like Payton — for me, I'm learning from Payton how to be a better leader. ... You kind of just watch how they do things, how to rally up guys who are the same age, play the same position and stuff like that, but you still kind of understand how to listen to them.”
The new kid is Houser, a 6-3, 195-pound four-star prospect originally from the Las Vegas area. He and fellow freshman Germie Bernard (a wide receiver) were high school teammates there at Liberty High before Houser spent last season at prep power St. John Bosco in California.
Both Houser and Bernard enrolled at MSU in January and are roommates, and they impressed coaches during the first scrimmage. The next step for Houser, he said, is to show he can remain calm in arranging his protections and check in and out of plays while also displaying an ability to read coverages as they get more complex with the season approaching.
“Scrimmage 1 was good,” Houser said. “It was good to compete against our guys. It was really good going against our defense. We've been practicing against them the whole spring and fall, so I kind of knew what to expect going in, made a couple plays, got to drive downfield and score. So there was couple of opportunities for me to make plays and also my teammates around.
“We looked good as an offense, so it was good to see that and I can't wait for the Scrimmage 2. I'm looking forward to it.”
It also will be another opportunity for Johnson to see how much Thorne has developed from last season, when he set an MSU record with 27 touchdown passes and guided the Spartans to an 11-2 season and Peach Bowl victory.
“I think Payton's playing at a pretty high level right now,” Johnson said. “I think he's changed his game a little bit from what we had seen in the fall, which is what he really focused on. … A lot of things that we're looking for is how he manages the pocket. He's managing the game very well with what we give him offensively. So I'm pleased with him.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football appears to have QB order behind Payton Thorne
