Auburn football: QB transfer target Tyler Shough chooses Texas Tech

While Bryan Harsin and co. have had a fantastic offseason–particularly for a coaching staff that was implemented late in the recruiting cycle–they couldn’t bring the biggest quarterback name in the transfer portal, Tyler Shough, to the Auburn football program.

Instead of making his way to the Plains in 2021, Shough will be leaving the Northwest to join the Texas Tech Red Raiders football program. Trading in his neon Ducks uniform for TT red and black and migrating from Eugene, Oregon to Lubbock, Texas, Shough will now be joining a Red Raiders team that went 3-6 in 2020.

Shough replaces Alan Bowman, who announced his own intent to transfer last month. Bowman came on strong as the starter for Texas Tech in 2018, but a collapsed lung and broken collarbone both severely limited his 2019 and 2020 seasons.

The Red Raiders were not seen as a top destination for Shough, making this announcement somewhat of a surprise. While the fit is there and snaps in the offense won’t be hard to come by, Texas Tech was not listed as one of the best fits for the Arizona native by 247Sports.

Three Pac-12 schools (Oregon State, Washington State, Arizona), three Big Ten schools (Illinois, Nebraska, Penn State), and Auburn football were the seven schools ranked by 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello, with the Nittany Lions being the only team seen as a better landing spot for Shough than Auburn.

The Tigers will head into the 2021 season with third-year Bo Nix leading the charge as the primary signal-caller, but he now faces significant competition in the backfield with the arrival of four-star recruit Dematrius Davis out of Texas.

Shough arriving would have given Nix a run for his money as the starter, but he is now expected to be behind center for sure when the team opens up the 2021 season at Jordan-Hare against the Akron Zips of the MAC conference on September 4th.