Lost in all the hoopla from Bryan Harsin pulling the trigger on handing the Auburn football QB1 reigns to TJ Finley in the third quarter of Saturday’s Georgia State matchup to great success is the side effects the signal-caller swap will have on Bo Nix.
For all we know, Harsin could turn around and hand the ball back to Nix heading into next week’s pivotal Week 5 matchup against LSU in Death Valley.
The damage may be done though. That critical confidence that Nix took up to Happy Valley to keep it a one-score game against a now-sixth ranked Penn State may be waning.
His former Tiger teammate and current Jacksonville Jaguars safety Daniel Thomas tweeted out his support of his college quarterback in an effort to slow down any potential mental spiral from Nix:
Don’t give up on Bo Nix either!😤 shake back brother ✊🏽
— daniel thomas (@gamechanger021) September 26, 2021
Thomas saw Nix knock off top-ranked Alabama, Texas A&M, and Oregon programs two seasons ago in Bo’s freshman year en route to leading the Tigers to a 9-4 record. If anyone knows what the second generation gun-slinger can do, it’s Thomas.
The 2020 fifth-round NFL Draft pick was in the minority of Nix-centric reactions to Saturday’s matinee instant classic.
As one could imagine, all eyes were on what Finley was able to do when given the chance to overcome an early season obstacle nobody saw coming. Georgia State was a +27-point underdog heading into Saturday’s game.
Credit to where it’s due, Shawn Elliot talked the talk and had his Panthers rolling in a game nobody gave them a chance to win. Obviously, most of the credit goes to Auburn football’s stars of the game as well.
Perhaps more of us need to give credit to Nix, though, who took the benching well enough to allow Finley to shine on Saturday.
What Harsin does next will be interesting, but let’s hope Nix does indeed shake back like Thomas is hoping for.