It was early July when Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne last made the eastward trek to work with Will Hewlett, his personal quarterback trainer, just outside of Jacksonville, Fla.

“Hey, you’re going to jump in with this workout,” Hewlett told Thorne.

The workout in question also featured guys like San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks Kyle Trask and John Wolford.

In all, there were about six or seven NFL quarterbacks working out that day, Hewlett says.

Thorne, obviously, wasn’t one of them.

“I think for him, it was the first time he was ever in that environment,” Hewlett said of Thorne.

But Auburn’s newly named starting quarterback didn’t back away from the challenge.

Instead, like a chameleon, Thorne blended right in with the likes of the professional quarterbacks he trained with.

“I think you would’ve walked away from there, if you were a casual bystander, you wouldn’t have known that he wasn’t one of the pros,” Hewlett says.

Passers like Anthony Richardson, who was the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft; Malik Willis, who was Hugh Freeze’s most successful quarterback at Liberty and is now with the Tennessee Titans; NFL veteran Matthew Stafford and the aforementioned are all guys Hewlett has had a hand in training.

“I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of great quarterbacks and a lot of great coaches through the collective,” Hewlett said. “And then I’ve been able to mix in a lot of college quarterbacks and a lot of pro quarterbacks.”

The “collective” Hewlett refers to is the QB Collective, which advertises itself as the only pro-style development pipeline for high school quarterbacks.

Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur and Mike McDaniel all serve as coaches with the collective, while Hewlett and other gurus serve as private quarterback coaches. Together, the collective has worked with players like USC’s Caleb Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy last year; Carson Beck, who was recently named Georgia’s starter for 2023; and current Chicago Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields.

The list goes on and on.

And what Auburn fans want to hear is this: Thorne isn’t an outlier. He, too, fits on that list.

“I will tell you this: Payton Thorne is one of the best — if not the best — leader that I’ve ever been around at that position,” Hewlett said.

“Just in terms of his presence, his approach, his diligence in terms of wanting to be great at the small things. Ownership on things he wasn’t so good at. He’s rare. I really mean that.”

Thorne’s leadership was one of the first things Hewlett noticed about him when the two started working together when Thorne was a redshirt freshman at Michigan State.

And if Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze were around to hear that, he’d probably say “ditto”.

Despite transferring from Michigan State in May, Freeze had to wait until the start of fall camp in August to see Thorne throw with his own two eyes.

But Freeze didn’t have to wait around to see Thorne’s leadership as it was immediately put on display when the fresh transfer asked for photos of everyone who worked in Auburn’s football facility, along with their names.

When Freeze named Thorne Auburn’s starting quarterback Thursday, he mentioned that the junior transfer had a slight edge in terms of on-field play. But that was far from the deciding factor.

“The reason Payton is getting the nod, is just the leadership ability and the understanding of the offense,” Freeze told reporters Thursday.

In a radio interview with Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic Friday, Freeze went on to say that the other guys in the huddle have a different look in their eyes when Thorne is under center. Freeze said it’s a look he can’t explain.

It likely means Thorne can pilot an offense – which is the biggest box a quarterback can check. But of course, there are others that Thorne will have to check if he wants to be successful as Auburn’s starting quarterback.

When Thorne first joined forces with Hewlett, the focus was on tightening up some of his mechanics.

“It’s one of those things in high school, when you’re going to be a college quarterback, you can rely on talent,” Hewlett said. “But when you get to the next level, things have to be tightened up fundamentally and we need to get better in areas. That’s kinda where everything started.”

Prior to Thorne traveling to Texas — where Hewlett was living at the time — to train for four or five days, Hewlett had been analyzing Thorne’s film and suggesting corrective drills.

It all boiled down to making Thorne a more efficient thrower — a process that started from the bottom and worked its way up.

“He was somewhat unstable in terms of how he approached the throw,” Hewlett said. “And so we really put him in a position where he was more consistent with his feet and his lower body. And then his upper body was synced up really, really well. That kinda led up to his first year starting at Michigan State.”

Thorne was Michigan State’s starting quarterback in 2021 and 2022. He tallied 26 starts during his time in East Lansing, passing for 6,494 yards and 49 touchdowns with a 60.9% completion rating.

His campaign as a redshirt sophomore in 2021 was his best for the Spartans, throwing for 3,233 yards, 27 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Thorne also helped Michigan State navigate its way to a 11-2 record and a New Year’s Six bowl game win.

In 2022, however, Thorne saw a bit of a drop off.

“I know his last year was a tough year there. He was dealing with a lot of bumps and bruises and little injuries he had to work through,” Hewlett said. “Offensively, they lost some key weapons and they just weren’t the same team.”

So Thorne made the decision to enter the transfer portal – something Hewlett says felt mutual between Thorne and the Spartans’ program.

“I think it was mutual, they felt like change was coming,” Hewlett said. “And I don’t know necessarily that he wasn’t going to be the starter at Michigan State. But I think he just needed a fresh start and kind of a different environment.”

Thorne entered the transfer portal on April 30.

Five days later, he announced his intentions to join the Tigers on The Plains – a move Hewlett says Thorne made “100% on his own”.

Selfishly, having Thorne closer to Jacksonville, paired with the fact that he’s got plenty of friends who are Auburn fans, Hewlett is happy Auburn was the transfer destination.

But Hewlett knows being with the Tigers will benefit Thorne leaps and bounds, too.

“I was excited for him to come south,” Hewlett said. “Just a fresh start and the SEC is a fantastic proving ground for quarterbacks to try to take that next step to the NFL. I think he was just kinda ready to move on and to take on a new challenge.”

Thorne’s transition from the Big 10 to the SEC has been a popular topic of conversation, as it often is.

When anyone at any position makes that move, people love to speculate whether or not they’ll be ready to play in the SEC on Saturdays.

And generally speaking, that’s a fair concern to have, Hewlett admits.

Hewlett worked with Ian Book when he was at Notre Dame. And Hewlett can recall Book saying there was a noticeable difference in the play of the defensive backs when the Fighting Irish played Georgia on Sept. 21, 2019 in a game that saw Book toss two interceptions.

“It was like a considerable step up from any other program he had played that year,” Hewlett says.

“But the good thing for Payton is he’s on an SEC team. So what you might lose in terms of the lack of explosiveness that you’re seeing in the Big 12 and the other conferences, you’re gonna make up for it with the receiving corps and the skill positions on the offensive side are equally as explosive.”

But as is the case with any transfer, there’s going to be an adjustment period, Hewlett says.

And it’s unfair to hold Thorne to irrational expectations.

“But Auburn, I think, an upgrade in their passing game is something probably that would be helpful,” Hewlett said. “And not a knock on anyone that’s currently there, but I just know Payton will provide a different style of play that they haven’t had there in the last couple of years.”