Auburn’s starting quarterback Payton Thorne has been limited in practice the last two weeks after suffering a minor shoulder injury in the fourth quarter against Vanderbilt.
Thorne told reporters on Tuesday that he was “feeling good” for this week's matchup with Louisiana-Monroe despite not throwing in practice during the bye week.
“Got some good treatment on it,” Thorne said on what he did during the off week. “Obviously, been working on it every day to get it back to normal. So, feeling good.”
However, when asked at Wednesday's SEC teleconference meeting about what he had seen from Thorne, specifically in practice on Tuesday, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze was not as confident that the fifth-year senior was progressing with his injury.
“Not as far along as I had hoped with the shoulder,” Freeze said. “He thinks he’s going to be fine, but he was not ready to play yesterday, for sure.”
When asked about potentially making a change at the position on Monday, Freeze noted that the situation still needed to be evaluated throughout the practice week and that Thorne’s progression still had a lot to do with the decision.
“Payton (Thorne) has played solid,” Freeze said. “Now he was not able to practice last week with his shoulder, and we’ll see how this week goes with that and with others getting the reps and kind of go from there. When I say that, it’s certainly not an indication that I don’t think he has played pretty solid here as of late. But you start kind of thinking big-picture, and that’s not always the easiest thing to do because you love your players and you want what’s best for all of them, what gives us the best chance to win the remaining three games. And obviously, we’ll start seeing how the health is, first and foremost.”
Thorne’s absence from practice last week allowed Hank Brown, Holden Geriner and Walker White to get more reps.
“The second open week we actually got the other guys quite a bit of reps in the three practices we had. Then, we had a little scrimmage to close it out. Offense versus defense, other guys that don’t typically get reps, and offense won that scrimmage on a pass play from Walker (White) to one of the young receivers. It was good to see them get reps. We got Holden (Geriner) and Hank (Brown) quite a few also," the coach said.
After a four-interception performance in the loss to Cal earlier this season, Thorne was benched for Brown, but two games later was slotted back into the role as the starter and hasn’t relinquished it since.
With Thorne leading the charge, Auburn boasts the No. 7 passing offense in the SEC. He has completed 63% of his passes for 1,825 yards and 13 touchdowns this season, with seven interceptions.
Who will trot out as the Tigers starter against ULM still seems to be up in the air.
Kickoff for Saturday’s game is set for 11:45 a.m. CT and will be aired on ESPN.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email logan.fowler@1819News.com.
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