Redshirt sophomore Payton Thorne was on the field taking most of the first reps while graduate student Anthony Russo was not too far behind him as they were essentially even in terms of playing time. Thorne said that he feels “extremely comfortable” with the offense. 

“I think that COVID and not having spring ball last year was a little bit of a blessing in disguise because we focused strictly on the mental piece,” Thorne said. “Doing all the Zoom stuff for months, we got so down into the details with the offense that I think it is beneficial, and I think it has carried over into this spring.”

Russo and Thorne both had some of their ups and downs throughout the day, with Thorne having the lowest of the lows with the only interception thrown by a quarterback on the day when the pass protection broke down, and Thorne was forced to roll out to his right. He then attempted to force a short pass, but a brilliant read by redshirt junior safety Michael Dowell led to a nice route jump that picked off the pass. 

Thorne had to give credit where it was due, saying that Dowell has been a standout defensive player throughout spring practice. 

“I thought he had a great spring,” Thorne said. “I have talked to him about that, and we joke around all the time because going against him for 15 practices, you start to learn quite a bit about each other on the other side of the ball. ... That’s definitely one that jumps out at me.”

Besides that one play though, Thorne along with Russo had relatively clean days throwing the ball. The majority of the balls were short passes or even checkdowns, but the ball did not hit the turf very much at all outside of a few here and there and a dropped pass by redshirt junior wide receiver Jalen Nailor during one of Russo’s first snaps in 11 on 11. 

The Spartans ‘scored’ two touchdowns in the live scrimmage, both of which came off of deep throws by Thorne and Russo.

The first came from Thorne on the very first play of 11 on 11 in the 11th period on a shot to redshirt junior Jayden Reed, despite being called back from offensive holding. Russo followed it up with his own deep pass to a streaking Reed down the left sideline from 41 yards out. Russo has not been in East Lansing very long but already shows some confidence in his receivers, especially Reed in particular. 

“I saw their boundary safety come down," Russo said. "I knew it was going to be man coverage. Jayden Reed, I will take him one-on-one against anybody in the country. I just wanted to get a good fake. I knew the offensive line would protect me. I saw Jayden win, and I just wanted to lay the ball out there and let him go make a play like he always does.”

After Russo and Thorne, whose exact position on the depth chart remains unknown, it was redshirt freshman Noah Kim who received extended playing time under center. 

He too connected on a deep pass against the MSU secondary. It was a slightly underthrown ball, but good enough for sophomore Ian Stewart, who converted to tight end last year and is now back as a wide receiver, to make a spectacular Randy Moss-style catch over cornerback Justin White. 

On the grand scheme of things, not much separation was evident Saturday between Russo and Thorne on who will be the starting quarterback come the fall. But this public display of the quarterback battle was a good demonstration of how truly tough this decision is for the coaching staff. It may be a while until we hear a decision. 

“I’ll tell you what, you can see we have really good competition at that position,” Tucker said. “I thought all three of those guys (Thorne, Russo, Kim) that you mentioned, as well as Theo (Day) and Hamp Fay, I thought they all showed some good things. They made some good throws, made some good decisions. I'm sure we had a couple throws that we would like to have back, but just overall I thought we were efficient.”

From here, the players will have some time off with finals upcoming. After finals, they will have three weeks off before starting the summer program.