Auburn football: DVV feels TJ Finley “trending towards” Plains

Caught in a position battle he may not come out on the winning end of, TJ Finley is trying to find an SEC school in a similar spot to the LSU Tigers he has decided to enter the portal to transfer from. In doing so, he has spotted a potential target that he feels could be conducive to his growth with the Auburn football program.

The Tigers from Lee County, Alabama, are a team with less congestion at the top of the depth chart at the quarterback position, and to Finley, that could be the opening he needs.

As he told 247Sports’ Keith Niebuhr, he wouldn’t be coming to the Plains to be a backup. Starting is his goal, even if AU has a pretty ingrained option ahead of him in Bo Nix.

Nix is an Auburn football legacy product, but the numbers haven’t been there in his first two seasons. Whether it be the yips or something with his mechanics, Nix has been a serial over-thrower of deep balls.

Given the potential need to push the 5-star recruit, there’s traction to the Finley-to-Auburn rumors. Finley stoked those fires himself:

"“There is an opportunity there,” said Finley. “A lot of people in the organization there since the new staff got there believe I can come in and compete for the starting job.”“It ain’t like me going there to be a backup,” added Finley."

Well, Finley’s words are starting to have LSU’s Death Valley Voice’s Zach Regan believing that he will be a Tiger of different stripes in 2021:

"LSU hosts Auburn on October 2. It would certainly be odd to see Finley on the Auburn sideline after he started five games for LSU in 2020.But that’s something fans should probably get used to seeing. We’re going to see a lot more situations like this in the coming years in college football, thanks to relaxed transfer rules."

It’s unclear when we will hear a decision about Finley’s next landing spot, but whether he’s starting for Auburn football or breathing down Nix’s neck as a backup, the six-foot-six, 250-lb QB is in play for Harsin and co. to battle the class of 2021’s Dematrius Davis and the class of 2022’s Holden Geriner for the quarterback job in the years to come.