When the Auburn Tigers take the field of Nashville’s Nissan Stadium Saturday, they’ll do so with their starting quarterback – a luxury that seems to be rarer and rarer in bowl games these days.

“We’re glad we got Payton back,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said Wednesday, referring to the Tigers’ starting quarterback, Payton Thorne.

On Dec. 18, Thorne told reporters he arrived at Auburn in the spring with the hopes of being in a position to decide if he wanted to stay for his final year of college football or if he wanted to turn his attention to the big leagues.

“To be honest, as the year went on and we weren’t performing on the level we hoped, I was leaning toward coming back,” Thorne told reporters on Dec. 18. “I didn’t want this to be my last year.”

Throughout the regular season, Thorne tallied 1,671 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions — all while spending more than half of the season stuck in the middle of a funky quarterback rotation with Robby Ashford, who announced his intentions to transfer Dec. 15.

So, Thorne will return to The Plains in 2024 for his final year. But first, he’ll finish out his 2023 campaign in Saturday’s TransPerfect Music City Bowl, where he and the Tigers will see the Maryland Terrapins, who fall in the category of being without their starting quarterback for the postseason.

After being Maryland’s starting quarterback for four seasons, it was announced on Dec. 19 that Tualia Tagovailoa would be opting out of the Music City Bowl to instead focus on preparing for the 2024 NFL Draft.

In Maryland’s regular season finale against Rutgers on Nov. 25, Tagovailoa, who is the younger brother of current Miami Dolphins and former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, broke the Big 10′s record for career passing yards as he polished off his career with 11,356 passing yards.

“Like any position, it’s next man up,” said Maryland head coach Mike Locksley.

But who is the next man up for Maryland?

Throughout the regular season, redshirt sophomore Billy Edwards Jr. and redshirt freshman Cameron Edge were the two behind Tagovailoa at the quarterback spot.

Together, the two combined for just 13 passing attempts throughout the 2023 season, meaning the film on either quarterback is few and far between.

“Obviously it’s difficult when guys don’t have a lot of game film to kind of game plan for them, but we’ve got a good enough staff to find some tendencies with their offensive coordinator, different people to make sure the game plan’s right,” said Auburn Jack linebacker Elijah McAllister.

Reading between the lines of some of Locksley’s comments leading up to the bowl game, it sounds like the Terrapins will go with Edwards out the gate, making for just the third start of his college career.

“I’m excited to see what Billy’s able to do,” Locksley said. “You kind of look at this game almost like a preseason game leading into next year. It gives us an opportunity to evaluate our quarterback situation going into the next year. But we’ve got a lot of faith in Billy, we’ve got a lot of faith in Cam, that both those guys have the ability and skill set to operate our system.”

In 2022, Edwards went 28-for-46 through the air, good for 308 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Measuring 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, Edwards has been used as more as a short-yardage rush threat this season as he’s tallied 14 yards on 13 carries with six rushing touchdowns.

“Their backup had taken some good snaps and done well with that,” Freeze said of Edwards Wednesday. “I’m sure that he’s had all of the practices leading up to this. He’s got some really good receivers and running backs around him.”

Maryland wide receiver Jeshaun Jones leads the way for the Terrapins’ pass catchers with 741 yards and four touchdowns. Meanwhile, Tai Felton has tallied 723 receiving yards, but is a bit more efficient with six touchdowns on the year.

In the backfield, it’s running back Roman Hemby who leads the way for the Terps with 687 rushing yards, an average of 4.9 yards per carry and scored four touchdowns through the course of the regular season.

While that trio is talented, no doubt, their combined 14 touchdowns is less than half of what Tagovailoa was responsible for throughout the offseason as he tallied 25 passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns.

And knowing how much production the Terrapins will be without in the absence of Tagovailoa, it leaves the Tigers feeling awfully grateful for the return of their starting quarterback.

“We’re confident in Payton. He’s confident in us,” said Auburn tight end Luke Deal. “It definitely is a huge advantage.”