Jay Johnson Talks Spartan Quarterback Payton Thorne
East Lansing, MI—Jay Johnson, the Michigan State Spartan football general of Mel Tucker’s offense, knows that he has to find a quarterback. Something made more difficult with the COVID-19 safety protocols taking out spring. But he took time to talk about redshirt freshman Payton Thorne.
“You know, I did, I went back, and I looked at all the guys to kind of cut-up of all of them and watched them all; obviously with Rocky and Theo, they had a little more game situations. Even some of those, I went back to spring ball from last spring and fall camp for Payton, and so yeah, I think Payton has a great skill set, you know seems to be very knowledgeable, seems to understand the game. Obviously, with his dad and his dad’s background, I mean, shoot, his dad was a great player in college. And so, you know, I think he’s very well fit there and I think he’s very marketable and I think he can do a lot of things. I think he shows some decent skill sets of movement capability but then also appears to have a solid enough arm ability to make the throws that we need him to make, so I’m excited about him. I mean obviously haven’t seen him physically be able to do anything live, but just on the tape, it looks like he brings a good skill set to the game.”
The Spartans kick off the season on September 5, 2020. They will be hosting in the Northwestern Wildcats with a rare, season-opening Big Ten game.
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