Last season, Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne came off the bench against Iowa, Indiana and Ohio State, and made his first career start against Penn State and threw for 3 touchdowns. In his 4 games, Thorne completed 48 of 85 passing attempts for 582 yards, 325 of them against the Nittany Lions in the season finale.

Not bad for a redshirt freshman QB.

With those numbers, entering the 2021 season, it should be safe to assume that Thorne would be behind center when the Spartans open the season in Evanston against Northwestern on Sept. 4.

Not so fast.

According to Spartans head coach Mel Tucker, the quarterback position is a two-man race, as Temple transfer Anthony Russo brings a host of experience (26 starts) to the table and is putting pressure on Thorne for the starting spot during camp.

“It’s an open competition,” Tucker told Big Ten Network. “It’s a healthy competition. The quarterback has to be the No. 1 competitor and I see that out there. They’re making each other better. It’s just great to see.”

Tucker has plenty of experience to draw from

Countering Thorne’s experience from last season, Russo brings a total of 31 games behind center for Temple, with 6,287 passing yards, 44 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. The interceptions have been an issue for Russo, having thrown a pick in 26 of his 31 games played over the course of his career.

Last year’s Spartans season-opening starter at QB, Rocky Lombardi, left for Northern Illinois. Tucker also lost Theo Day, who entered the portal and wound up at Northern Iowa. Lombardi would’ve been in the mix for the starter this season, but Day only appeared in 2 games over his 3 years in East Lansing.

But Tucker is counting on all that experience to get the job done.

“We’re going to need them both, actually,” Tucker said. “We’ll need all of our guys to be ready to play. We need depth at each position. We need competition at each position. And that’s how we’re going to get better as a team.”

Most recent reports have the competition for the starting spot running neck-and-neck, but it’s important to note that Tucker is not looking for a gun-slinging game-changer. The Spartans do have weapons on the outside with the likes of Jayden Reed, and the backfield will feature Kenneth Walker III. A transfer from Wake Forest, Walker is a preseason All-Big Ten selection by Pro Football Focus and was also named to the Doak Walker Award Watch List. If Walker can bring a strong running attack, that should take some of the load away from the passing attack.

The group had been working together all summer as Thorne, Reed and Cade McDonald all share a hometown — Naperville, Ill. — with Walker making the trip to join them.

Thorne was good last season, but not great

Last season saw Thorne show some impressive accuracy at times, with a run of 12 straight completions against Penn State during the second and third quarters. He also completed 11 straight attempts to open the game against Ohio State. But the jitters were there as well, as the freshman QB did struggle holding on to the ball, resulting in an interception in each of the games with Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana. He also fumbled against OSU and Indiana, with the Spartans recovering the Hoosiers’ game mishap.

At times, Thorne clearly looked overmatched, and that’s expected of a young player who began the season as a back-up. Now that he is entering his third year in the program, the second under Tucker and offensive coordinator Jay Johnson, it would be expected for Thorne to be ready to take the reins.

The other QB in the room

In addition to Thorne and Russo, redshirt freshman Noah Kim also has a seat in the quarterback room in East Lansing. Should either of the top two falter, or get hurt, the 3-star recruit would have to step up.

Kim was the No. 43-ranked pro-style QB in the class of 2020, and had previously committed to Virginia Tech before opting to join the Spartans. Redshirted as a freshman, Kim didn’t see any action last season, but was named Scout Team Offensive Player of the Week for the week prior to the Northwestern game.

How the next 2 weeks play out will be interesting to watch, but as of now, it appears there is no clear front-runner for the spot behind center for the Spartans. All things being equal, one would think the question would be obvious. With just a season’s worth of games in green and white available to Russo, and having the potential for a three-year starter in Thorne, the question Tucker has in front of him is whether to look to the future and deal with some growing pains, or look at the short term and get what he can from his experienced transfer?

For the answer, we’ll have to wait and see.