Michigan State football stars Jayden Reed, Payton Thorne know Western Michigan pretty well

EAST LANSING — In an alternate universe, maybe Payton Thorne and Jayden Reed would be preparing to play against Michigan State football this week.

Yet their well-chronicled story of friendship diverted from the path to Western Michigan stardom, first with Thorne flipping his commitment to the Spartans in December 2018 and then Reed transferring from the Broncos to MSU the following spring.

Yet their well-chronicled story of friendship diverted from the path to Western Michigan stardom, first with Thorne flipping his commitment to the Spartans in December 2018 and then Reed transferring from the Broncos to MSU the following spring.

Tim Lester’s loss eventually became Mel Tucker’s gain. The quarterback and wide receiver showed the college football world last season how dynamic of a passing duo they are, and Thorne and Reed emerged leaders for the 14th-ranked Spartans as they prepare to open the season Friday at home against WMU.

While the natural inclination is to think Thorne would have some insight into what the Broncos plan to do under their new offensive coordinator, his father Jeff — not much, actually, the younger Thorne said — it is Reed’s one season in Kalamazoo that might bear the most intel.

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“Oh, for sure, yeah,” Reed said Tuesday. “I can see a lot of similarities from me facing that defense when I was there. … I will prep for (the Broncos) like I would prep for any other game. We look at the personnel, what kind of players they got, what kind of coverage and defenses they run. And we gotta attack that.”

Flash back to 2018. Reed put together an impressive debut season for WMU, catching 56 passes for 797 yards with eight touchdowns to earn Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-American honors. That included four 100-yard receiving games and countless times in practice torching his own first-team defense. The Broncos’ defense gave up 34.5 points and 30 touchdowns through the air, yielding 220.8 yards per game. Lou Esposito took over as defensive coordinator on an interim capacity during that season, then received the full-time promotion in the winter.

Reed went against Esposito’s 4-3 defense during spring practice with WMU in 2019 before announcing that May his intention to join Thorne at MSU. The two were high school teammates at Naperville Central and Metea Valley before that, both in suburban Chicago.

After sitting out the Spartans’ 2019 season due to NCAA transfer rules at the time, yet still working on the scout team with Thorne, Reed emerged as a big-time target the past two seasons under Tucker. The 6-foot, 190-pound senior caught 33 passes for 407 yards and three touchdowns in the seven-game 2020 season, then blossomed as an All-American and All-Big Ten all-purpose player while leading MSU with 59 catches, 1,026 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns along with two punt return scores.

Reed said he is focused on remaining “level-headed” and “neutral” in his approach to facing his former program, though he said he has not been in communication recently with any of his old teammates.

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“I know quite a few guys out there,” he said. “I'll probably be lining up against some of the guys that was in the receiver room with me when I was there. … They definitely have really good players over there at Western Michigan. They have players that could play here. And we've seen that, we've watched film on it.”

Back in Kalamazoo, Esposito’s defense gradually improved. Last season, the Broncos allowed just 186.4 passing yards to rank 10th in the Football Bowl Subdivision while giving up 23 touchdowns. Overall, WMU finished No. 18 nationally in total defense at 329.5 yards a game.

The Broncos return all three linebackers in Zaire Barnes, Corvin Moment and Ryan Selig, along with cornerback Dorian Jackson and strong safety Delano Ware. Selig arrived at WMU in the same freshman class as Reed, who also was teammates in 2018 with Moment, Barnes and other current Broncos defensive starters.

“It helps a lot. It's a lot of experience,” Moment told reporters Monday. “It's a lot of guys who made mistakes before, so they know not to repeat those mistakes. Going into a first game, there's just things that you gotta get used to, and a lot of guys have been through it before.”

Though Thorne never made it to WMU, Lester hired his father away from Division III North Central College in Illinois to run the Broncos offense this season. They avoided discussing specifics this summer, but the younger Thorne did hear from his dad about the culture Lester has created with the Broncos.

“Jayden shared about his experience and what they are,” Thorne said. “I don't have as much knowledge of who they are because I wasn't in it, but obviously I've learned a little bit from what my dad has shared with me over the summer and everything. Again, that's nothing scheme-wise, it's just (about) the program. ... But we haven't had to talk to the team about that because coach Tuck has been all over it and that's been made clear — they're a good football team, they got good players, and we're gonna have to be ready to go. And we will be ready to go.”

During his news conference Tuesday, Lester gushed over Thorne, who committed to the Broncos in May 2018.

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“I think he's like most good quarterbacks. The hardest thing he presents is he's smart. He's not gonna make mistakes,” said Lester, himself a former WMU quarterback. “You watch him, and he always knows where to go with the ball. You're not gonna confuse him a ton. You're still gonna try, but it's harder. And it's hard to get to him. The real smart ones, when you're bringing pressure and trying to hit him, he gets rid of it. And he gets up. That's probably the one thing - I've known Payton since he was born, and he's a tough kid.”

Longtime friends as well as teammates, Reed is close with the Thorne family and often has returned to Naperville to work out at their home. To him, nothing changed this summer when he went back into Jeff Thorne’s house.

“We cracked our jokes about it and everything,” Reed said, “but everything's pretty normal.”

Reed, who bypassed entering the NFL draft after last season, still has one year of eligibility remaining thanks to the COVID waiver for 2020 and taking a redshirt in 2019. Had he remained at WMU, he this would be his final year of eligibility.

But even his days in brown and gold feel a lifetime away, the Broncos still hold a special place in Reed’s heart.

“Oh, no doubt, I wouldn't be here without them,” he said. “I really appreciate them, the whole coaching staff and everybody there. They brought me into college football, and I would not take any of those opportunities for granted.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football stars know Western Michigan pretty well