Auburn football: Which QB is the odd man out in 2022?

Auburn football fans oughta be thankful for all of the options under center the Tigers will possess, as things stand, in 2022.

Bo Nix will return from an ankle injury, TJ Finley will be coming off a run as a starter, Dematrius Davis will perhaps get some reps, and then there’s incoming 4-star freshman Holden Geriner…

Wait for a second…we’re to believe Bryan Harsin–assuming he doesn’t bolt for Washington, mind you–is going to find time for all of them?

Sounds unlikely. These players most certainly can’t all be happy with their number of snaps, because we need to assume a full senior-year showcase for Bo Nix upon return from ankle surgery, and behind him would be the youth that will eventually take over.

That won’t be an apt descriptor for TJ Finley any longer in 2022, though. It will be year three for the six-foot-seven two-school tower.

TJ Finley could be the odd man out at QB for Auburn football in 2022

Dematrius Davis came to the defense of the coaching staff after AU’s latest blunder in Columbia, South Carolina last Saturday against the Gamecocks. That’d be a strange thing to do preceding an exit. Then again, as a redshirt freshman, it’d be a bad look for him to telegraph any potential exit in any fashion.

Holden Geriner won’t be in line for any big role and likely expects that, knowing Nix wasn’t NFL-bound injury or not. Plus, Davis committed nine months before Geriner did. He knew the deal and shows passion around the clock, frequently tweeting at Auburn recruits.

Nix, as we mentioned, should be back with a vengeance. If he can channel his performances this past season against the likes of LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State, we could be talking about a future NFL quarterback.

With the plan unlikely to actually be grooming each signal-caller for a stint in their senior season following Nix’s eventual departure (assuming he doesn’t use an extra COVID year himself), starting with Finley on down in this hypothetical, you’d have to assume the guy looking to transfer for a more meaningful opportunity is the one QB who has actually gone through with those steps in his career before. And who will also be an upperclassman.

The extra COVID year would allow him two years of eligibility left either way, so he could get the full four years while also finding a new home that will have the opportunity to feature him full-time.

Consider the Iron Bowl and the bowl game showcase opportunities for the current Auburn football starting QB to find a permanent home somewhere where he can be the main man, which was his intent when he made way to the Plains back in May.