Kent Austin has worked with some successful quarterbacks during his storied coaching career. In fact, he was a great quarterback in his own right, throwing for 6,184 yards during his time at Ole Miss and still holding a spot in the top 10 in school history in almost every passing category.

So when he speaks and opens up his encyclopedia of knowledge, you listen. He's now on the field working with Payton Thorne as the quarterback enters his second season as Auburn's starting signal-caller, and he's seen the progress he has made this fall camp.

"He has a tremendous recall of information," Austin said. "You don't have to show him a lot of looks. He's not a high-rep quarterback. You can show him a look one time, and he'll recall it three or four years later. That's going to serve him really well this year."

His memory has helped Austin, Hugh Freeze and offensive coordinator Derrick Nix put more in Thorne's control this fall. While he set protections for the offense last season, Thorne will now be responsible for even more before the snap.

"Checking things in the run game, getting us out of a pass concept to a better pass concept," Austin said. "In our RPO world, being able to put our receivers in the proper RPO by changing the two-receiver combo or the single-receiver combo based on defensive structure."

That's a lot for a quarterback to handle, but Austin is confident that Thorne's mentality and knowledge have him up for the challenge. The coaches have been throwing everything at him to prepare him for game situations, designing plays and putting rules attached to a particular play for associated cut-ups that they introduce on a daily basis.

That preparation has Austin thinking Thorne will thrive this season.

"When he goes into the game, the probability of making great decisions increases dramatically," he said. "That's one of the reasons why we wanted him when we first got here. He had played a lot of football, and had a lot of experience and had quite a bit on his plate the previous stop."