Photo: Auburn Athletics

Collegiate standout quarterback Payton Thorne recently signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and one of his coaches at Auburn University played a significant role in his decision to come to the CFL.

“It was great playing for Coach (Kent) Austin. I really enjoyed my time with him. He’s a really solid guy as well off the field, and so we definitely had conversations about Canada. We knew how good of a player he was, how good of a coach he was,” Thorne said on a recent episode of the 3DownNation Podcast.

“He had an incredible career up there, and we definitely heard a lot of stories. It’s a different game, it really is. It’s still football, but there’s an extra guy, there’s a lot of different rules as well, so we talked to him about those things as a quarterback group. I heard some of the different concepts that he would run. He always said that it’s more creative up there and it’s more fun.”

Austin’s been out of the CFL for almost a decade, but there’s no denying his impact. He threw for 36,030 yards, 198 touchdowns, and 191 interceptions as a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, B.C. Lions, Toronto Argonauts, and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and earned the Grey Cup’s Most Valuable Player award in 1989.

The native of Natick, Mass., started his CFL coaching career with the Ottawa Renegades in 2003 and quickly climbed the ranks, becoming Saskatchewan’s head coach four years later. He led the team to a Grey Cup victory and was named the league’s Coach of the Year before departing for the collegiate ranks at the University of Mississippi. Austin returned to Canada as the head coach and general manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2013 and spent five seasons with the team, helping them reach two Grey Cups.

Austin served as an offensive analyst at Auburn in 2023, which was Thorne’s first season with the program after transferring from Michigan State. He was then promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2024 and helped Thorne complete 62.0 percent of his passes for 4,468 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions over 24 games.

“After my senior season playing there (at Auburn), (Austin) had brought it up that there were a few (CFL) teams interested and they were asking him about things,” said Thorne. “At that point in time, I was going through the draft process and focused on the NFL, obviously, but we had a conversation about it. It wasn’t a long conversation, but obviously, he’s a wealth of knowledge for all things CFL.”

The six-foot-two, 210-pound passer attended training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2025, where he fittingly played under another former CFL quarterback in head coach Zac Taylor. When no further NFL opportunities materialized following his release, it was time for him to give more consideration to the CFL.

Thorne discussed the CFL with two collegiate teammates, both of whom are currently members of the Ottawa Redblacks. One of them is Nick Mardner, who played receiver at Auburn in 2023. The native of Mississauga, Ont., was selected with the second overall pick in the 2024 CFL Draft, though he missed all of 2025 due to a torn ACL. The other is Shakur Brown, who played defensive back at Michigan State.

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The native of Naperville, Ill., played well at Auburn, but his best collegiate season came in 2021 at Michigan State. He went 11-2 as the starter and led the Spartans to a victory over Pittsburgh in the Peach Bowl. He threw for 3,232 yards, 27 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and scored a career-high four rushing touchdowns.

“I had great guys around me (in 2021). I was part of a really good team, a good coaching staff, and I was very fortunate to be part of that team,” said Thorne. “We had a lot of fun that year, but I think also I was prepared for that moment.”

“We brought a transfer in the offseason before that year, and I just asked Coach like, ‘Hey, am I going to get a legit shot here? Is this going be a real competition?’ They told me, ‘Yeah,’ so I said, ‘OK, I’m going to stay here then.’ I worked my tail off, and I got some good help from people close to me along that way, like I have my whole life, and I did what I’ve done my entire life: worked hard, and I guess made it happen when it counted.”

Thorne played 29 games over three seasons with Michigan State, completing 60.9 percent of his passes for 6,493 yards, 49 touchdowns, and 24 interceptions. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however, which led him to transfer after the 2022 season.

“There were a couple of things at Michigan State that were a little strange in the spring (of 2023),” he said. “I still love that place and didn’t want to leave. I talk to guys that are still there, I’ve talked to (basketball coach Tom) Izzo over the last few years. The people that matter, they know the real story of what went down.”

It also doesn’t sound like Thorne was particularly happy near the end of his tenure at Auburn, indicating there were “a lot of things going on behind the scenes” and that he had “a lot of frustrations over (his) time there.” He declined to get into specifics.

Thorne is one of two relatively big-name additions for the Blue Bombers at quarterback this offseason, the other being former Super Bowl champion and UFL MVP Bryce Perkins. General manager Kyle Walters seems pleased with the two additions, who will bring some much-needed depth and youth to the roster.

“We’re excited. Bryce has a little different pedigree than we’ve seen in our training camp for a while. He’s a little more mature; he’s been around. He was the MVP of the UFL, and we’re excited that he wants to focus on the CFL,” said Walters from the league’s recent offseason winter meetings.

“Thorne’s an interesting athlete, played at some big-time schools, so we’re excited, but we’ll see. There’s a steep learning curve in that quarterback room, but these guys are coming in with interesting skill sets, and hopefully they’re excited and ready to come in and learn the Canadian game, and we’re excited to have them.”

The Blue Bombers have a strong need at quarterback with Zach Collaros, Terry Wilson, and Chase Artopoeus as the only incumbents on the roster. Collaros will turn 38 in August, while Wilson and Artopoeus have yet to start a CFL game.

Thorne appears set on not only making the most of his CFL as an opportunity to play, but also preparing for his future career in coaching.

“I plan on getting into coaching after I’m done playing, and follow my grandfather and my father’s footsteps in that area. Seeing the list of great coaches here in college and in the NFL that played in the CFL at quarterback (made me want to sign),” said Thorne.

“Everything Coach Austin had to say about the creativity of the game and the things that he brought from Canada down here to this game, it was something that was very interesting to me, and then I just like to play. I want to play. When you have a contract in front of you with a team that wants you, I don’t want to turn that down.”

“This league has been around, I think, longer than the NFL has, so it’s obviously a storied league, very stable in what they do, and I’ve known about the CFL my whole life, so it was something that I was excited to do. I’m excited to get up there and meet everybody and get in that playbook and learn everything I can.”

“I’ve only heard good things about the Blue Bombers and their organization. I heard it’s a first-class organization, and obviously, being down here my whole life, I don’t know a ton about the league, but I did hear that five years in a row to the Grey Cup. … I’ve heard the fan base is great. I’ve heard Winnipeg is a sports city in a way, and so doing my best to learn as much as I can about the place. I’m just looking forward to getting the opportunity to compete and get up there and … give everything I got.”