During Saturday's press conference previewing bowl preparation, Hugh Freeze made it clear: Payton Thorne will most likely be the starting quarterback in 2024. The job the head coach has now is filling the pieces around the signal-caller.

"Truthfully, I don't know if you know this, but we have one of the top returning quarterbacks in Power Five with wins in Payton Thorne," Freeze said. "I believe that if we get the right pieces around him and Holden and Hank, I think our quarterback room is going to be fine next year. That is my belief. It's what drives me to get the right pieces around them."

In his first season on the Plains, Thorne had his ups and downs but continued to improve, especially when Freeze put his foot down and took control of the offense, and the wide receivers got a bit better. The Auburn coach also made it a point to look at what other transfer quarterbacks did in their first season with their new team compared to what they accomplished in the second. For that, you have to glance at LSU's Jayden Daniels, Oregon's Bo Nix and Washington's Michael Penix Jr., all of whom were Heisman finalists following this season.

Daniels, the Heisman Trophy winner, was significantly better in 2023, completing 72.2 percent of his passes, up from 68.6 percent in 2022, and threw for 899 more yards and 23 more touchdowns. Nix improved his passing percentage from 71.9 percent to 77.2 percent, throwing for 11 more touchdowns while limiting himself to four fewer picks.

"I also would say I don't know in year one of the transfer quarterback world who set the woods on fire," Freeze said. "Go look at that and find out now. Year two, there's a few, and that's my expectation for Payton, or Holden, whoever wins it."

Freeze wasn't done explaining his decision right now to roll with the quarterback as it is. Bluntly, he pointed out the natural reaction of fans when any quarterback hits the portal.

"I think the cool thing it seems in most people's eyes right now, the cool thing is as soon as a quarterback hits the portal, man I'm immediately getting hit: 'This is your guy! Throw the bag at him!'" Freeze said. "I'm like, 'Have y'all watched the film? How many games has he won?' Ultimately, that's what a quarterback gets judged on is how many games he wins."