Thorson looks forward to facing an SEC opponent in Kentucky. By Mike Organ
Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thorson's eyes lit up when he saw earlier this month his team was matched up against Kentucky in the 20th annual Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl.
The last time Thorson faced an SEC opponent it wasn't pretty.
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It was in 2016, Thorson was a freshman starter and Northwestern lost to Tennessee 45-6 in the Outback Bowl.
The Vols punished Thorson throughout the game on the way to claiming their largest margin of victory in a bowl game in program history.
Tennessee held Northwestern's offense to just 129 passing yards and 261 total yards while forcing four turnovers.
Thorson, however, says that was then, and this is now.
"I'm a completely different player since that game," said the junior from Wheaton, Ill. "Our offense is so much better. We could sit here for a few hours and talk about how much difference there is in that team and the team we have now."
Thorson will make his 38th consecutive start and sees Friday's game against Kentucky (7-5) at Nissan Stadium (3:30 p.m., ESPN) as an opportunity to extract revenge on the SEC along with the chance for Northwestern (9-3) to claim 10 wins for the second time in four seasons.
"The fact that we are playing an SEC team gives me a little more motivation," Thorson said. "We got embarrassed the last time we played Tennessee. That is one of the things with coming to this bowl that I was excited for and a lot of the older guys were excited for too, was to play another SEC team."
Thorson completed just 8-of-20 passes for 57 yards against the Vols. He was intercepted twice and sacked four times before being replaced by Zack Oliver, who also threw two interceptions.
"We were very run-oriented back then," Thorson said. "We would run the football, run the football and then I'd throw it on third down. We are much more balanced now and that takes a little bit off our defense."
Thorson heads into the bowl game ranked 41st nationally in passing yards (2,809). He has completed 258-of-426 passes with 15 TDs and 12 interceptions.
He became Northwestern's all-time winningest quarterback with 26 career victories earlier this season.
While Northwestern did manage to win 10 games in 2015, coach Pat Fitzgerald said this year's team in considerably better.
"We're a totally different team than we were two years ago," Fitzgerald said. "We had a freshman quarterback back then, now he's a third-year starter. It starts there; (Thorson) has grown so much since that first bowl opportunity. He's already our all-time winningest quarterback with a year to go, plus one game."
• Go Wildcats: Northwestern and Kentucky's players attended Sunday's Titans game against the Rams at Nissan Stadium. With both team's nicknames being the Wildcats, it got a bit confusing when fans would offer encouragement.
"We had fans walking by us yelling, 'Go Wildcats!' and we were like, 'Yeah, go Wildcats!' and we knew they were talking about Kentucky," Thorson said. "Then they were like, 'No, go big blue!' So it was kind of funny."
• Moving practice: Northwestern arrived in town on Saturday and practiced the last four days at Pope John Paul II. Northwestern will practice Wednesday at the Titans indoor facility.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 and on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.