Auburn football is off to a rugged start in the 2024-25 season, and the disappointment continued in Week 5. Payton Thorne has been catching a lot of flak for his fourth-quarter interception against Oklahoma, ultimately leading to the Tigers dropping to a 2-3 record. The senior returned as Auburn's starting quarterback after head coach Hugh Freeze opted to give redshirt freshman Hank Brown appearances in Auburn's previous two games.
Thorne played a quality first half, but it was all taken away when Auburn's lead was squashed after Sooners linebacker Kip Lewis' 63-yard interception return with four minutes remaining in the game. Despite Auburn's 27-21 loss, Thorne believes that he wouldn't change anything about the pass if given another opportunity, per The Next Round on X, formerly Twitter.
“Quite honestly, if I had that play over 10 times,” Thorne said. “I probably would have done the same thing 10 times out of 10…”
Thorne put together his best outing of the season in Week 5. He completed 21-of-32 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns, as he will likely get another start when they travel to Georgia on October 5. But, he kept on reflecting on that play.
“It doesn’t make any sense, right? Like, why the hell would you do that? I agree with that,” Thorne said, per Peter Rauterkus of AL.com. “I look back on the play, and I did what my plan was and what we had talked about in the week. And like I said, it’s just a tough situation, and it stinks.”
While it was the last thing that Thorne needed to happen, as he was making his pushback as Auburn's unquestioned starter under center, there's no reason to suggest that he won't redeem himself.
Payton Thorne credits linebacker for making a great play
Thorne was stellar throughout the matchup. He hit wide receivers KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Malcolm Simmons on deep touchdown passes in the second quarter and did the best job that he could to give his defense a cushion against a really good Oklahoma team. Thorne was impressed by Lewis' interception and TD runback and said that there wasn't much that he could do to avoid it.
“I look at the backer, I see him coming, go to find our choice route, he wins inside, I throw it to him,” Thorne said. “They had a good call on. He did a good job of coming up, put hands on our offensive lineman, showed me he was coming, and then dropped out.’
Thorne has a chance to recover from the costly pick-six in practice this week before the Auburn football team faces Georgia.
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