College Football

Michigan State football stars Jayden Reed, Payton Thorne know Western Michigan pretty well

Michigan State's Jayden Reed, right, hugs Payton Thorne after Reed's touchdown against Maryland during the first quarter on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.

EAST LANSING — In an alternate universe, maybe Payton Thorne and Jayden Reed would be preparing to play against Michigan State football this week.

Yet their well-chronicled story of friendship diverted from the path to Western Michigan stardom, first with Thorne flipping his commitment to the Spartans in December 2018 and then Reed transferring from the Broncos to MSU the following spring.

Yet their well-chronicled story of friendship diverted from the path to Western Michigan stardom, first with Thorne flipping his commitment to the Spartans in December 2018 and then Reed transferring from the Broncos to MSU the following spring.

Tim Lester’s loss eventually became Mel Tucker’s gain. The quarterback and wide receiver showed the college football world last season how dynamic of a passing duo they are, and Thorne and Reed emerged leaders for the 14th-ranked Spartans as they prepare to open the season Friday at home against WMU.

While the natural inclination is to think Thorne would have some insight into what the Broncos plan to do under their new offensive coordinator, his father Jeff — not much, actually, the younger Thorne said — it is Reed’s one season in Kalamazoo that might bear the most intel.

JEFF SEIDEL:Here’s why MSU’s opener is so strange for Payton Thorne — and his mom

“Oh, for sure, yeah,” Reed said Tuesday. “I can see a lot of similarities from me facing that defense when I was there. … I will prep for (the Broncos) like I would prep for any other game. We look at the personnel, what kind of players they got, what kind of coverage and defenses they run. And we gotta attack that.”

Michigan State’s Jayden Reed, right, hugs Payton Thorne after Reed’s touchdown against Maryland during the first quarter on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.

Flash back to 2018. Reed put together an impressive debut season for WMU, catching 56 passes for 797 yards with eight touchdowns to earn Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-American honors. That included four 100-yard receiving games and countless times in practice torching his own first-team defense. The Broncos’ defense gave up 34.5 points and 30 touchdowns through the air, yielding 220.8 yards per game. Lou Esposito took over as defensive coordinator on an interim capacity during that season, then received the full-time promotion in the winter.

Reed went against Esposito’s 4-3 defense during spring practice with WMU in 2019…

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