This is Payton Thorne's secret to Michigan State football's success

INDIANAPOLIS — It's funny how much can change in 365 days.

Michigan State football this time last year was coming off a 2-5 season.

The Spartans didn't have any answers in the backfield, having not had a running back rush for a touchdown in 2020, the first time in program history. They were in the midst of a quarterback competition, one some thought would be won by senior grad transfer Anthony Russo.

Then the season happened, MSU won 11 games and had the best running back in college football.

And if the Spartans are to take the next step, they will do so on the shoulders of the man who won the starting quarterback job, Payton Thorne, who was one of the catalysts of the program's best offensive season in five years.

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Thorne set the program's single-season passing touchdown record (27), finished third for passing yards in a season (3,240), completed 60.4% of his passes and added four rushing TDs.

"I've never had any question about what he can do on the field," coach Mel Tucker said. "I always felt comfortable with him and he puts us in a good position to win."

As MSU focuses on winning a Big Ten championship this season, the picture becomes clear; for as much as this year is about Thorne on the field, it's every bit as much about him off of it.

The price of admission

Brick by brick, Tucker has implemented his culture at MSU.

Sitting on a podium in the middle of Lucas Oil Stadium — the same site he hopes dumps confetti on his team in less than five months — he told the story of when he really knew it was starting to take hold.

It was last fall camp, when he began to hear players echoing his phrases to one another, using the mantras in every day conversations. Now, he's onto the final step; moving from a coaches-led team to a player-led team.

Nobody has taken that more seriously than Thorne.

"He’s gotten out of his comfort zone and has worked hard to be an extension of the coaching staff," Tucker said. "He knows what’s expected, he knows what the standards are and it’s not just holding himself to those standards, but his teammates.

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"Your quarterback has to be your No. 1 competitor."

Thorne has long been a leader. He learned it from his father, Jeff Thorne, a national champion coach at Division III North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, who is now the offensive coordinator at Western Michigan.

Jeff learned it from his father, John, who wasthe head man at North Central from 2002-14. Thorne remembers a conversation he had in middle school, as he ascended and started to recognize what it took to lead.

"I told my dad, 'I don’t think leading by example is a thing'," he said. "That’s just the price of admission. That’s just doing what you’re supposed to do.

"Even if you work your tail off, it’s what you’re supposed to do, you’re supposed to work hard and in a good program that’s what everybody does."

So Thorne doesn't just lead by example; he leads vocally. Safety Xavier Henderson, the only MSU player who was named a captain all 13 games in 2021, saw it earlier this summer.

"We will be doing our little 7-on-7's, maybe the young guys don't quite know the plays or the offense isn't doing good, Payton just the other day was like, 'it's (expletive) Week 5 of this (expletive)," Henderson said. "He's throwing the ball down ... he's like 'this is (expletive ridiculous).

"That comes from the amount of time he puts into it, he wants people to match that."

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It's about love

Thorne didn't just start screaming one day at his teammates expecting them to listen. It comes with time and bonding.

"Bringing guys with you, that’s leadership and saying ‘come on, let’s go’ and challenging guys," he said. "In order to do that you have to know something about the guy you’re playing with. If you don’t know anything about the guy you’re playing with and you try to yell at him, he’s not going to accept it real well.

"But if you’ve built relationships with guys and they know it’s coming from a place of ‘hey I want you to be better or I want us to be better as a team, then you can do that."

One of the best ways he has built that brotherhood, is when the team did a bonding exercise called "the four H's." It's meant to create trust, as people talk about their history, their hero, their greatest heartache and their deepest hope.

"When you learn those four things about somebody, you learn a lot about them," Thorne said. "Some guys have been through some serious stuff and when you get down to the deep stuff and you shed a tear, you become like this (crosses fingers) instantly."

It's Thorne's insistence on bringing in exercises like that — matched with high-level production on the field — that gives him credibility with fellow players.

Sometimes it's in the weight room. Other times, it's when the team is lined up running sprints and one person has his toe on the line when it's supposed to be behind it.

He fights for those inches. Or as Tucker likes to say, those marginal gains.

"That seems like something that’s maybe insignificant, but somebody’s gotta do that," Tucker said. "Somebody has to confront that."

Michigan State had one stated goal during media day: Win every game on the schedule. Whether or not that's feasible, the belief is there.

You can hear it when the players speak. You can see it by how they follow their coach.

But Tucker said a team is only as good as how its players lead, and thanks to growing up, listening to generations of his elders on the football fields in Northeastern Illinois, MSU has a leader behind center.

"My whole life, they talked to me about relationships and really love," Thorne said of the lessons he took away. "People may not talk about that much in football because it’s supposed to be this hard-nosed game, but when you really get to know somebody which is what they focused on in their program.

"I watched them do that and the power behind that and how guys responded to that, so it’s something I’m used to."

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on twitter at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Payton Thorne has secret to Michigan State football success