Hopefully he is ready to go. He is one of the forgotten draft prospects due to his ACL injury during the bowl game. He didn't take the huge leap from his sophomore to junior campaign but Northwestern has won 26 games with him under center. Thorson is not a clean prospect but my guess is that if he is healthy he will be getting comparisons to Wentz/Allen. He is a big, strong, athletic QB and Northwestern could very well surprise the Big 10 this year with a healthy Thorson under center. They play Michigan, Michigan St, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa (as well as Notre Dame) - all of those teams should be bowl eligible - so if he does play and perform well especially in those big games his stock should really rise.
Pat Fitgerald has assembled quite a white friendly roster in the past few seasons and does do a pretty good amount of recruiting in "Big Ten country".
Northwestern redshirt senior QB Clayton Thorson (knee) said that he's doing "everything in [his] power" to play in the team's season-opening showdown with Purdue on Aug. 30.
Thorson (6'4/220) tore his right ACL while catching a pass on a trick play in December's Music City Bowl win over Kentucky. He subsequently underwent surgery to repair the serious knee injury, with the renowned Dr. James Andrews performing that procedure. The redshirt senior was more or less kept on the sidelines during spring practice drills as he continued his rehab. We should have a much better idea of just how realistic it will be for Thorson to start that opener against Purdue once August camp starts up. While the team has predictably been relatively mum on Thorson's status, one anecdotal sign of his recovery -- he was married on June 16 and reported back that he was "[j]umping around, moving around, no pain." Should Thorson be held out to open the season, the Wildcats would likely turn to one of TJ Green, Aidan Smith and Andrew Marty in his stead. There's very little experience in that group.