While Auburn football QB TJ Finley has the floor right now for the Tigers, he will lose that spotlight next season when Bo Nix returns from the ankle injury that sidelined him for the final three games (2 regular season tilts and one bowl game) of 2021.
Finley came to the Plains with an eye on this very moment right now, but it’s going to take an Iron Bowl upset for him to have any momentum towards starting once more when Nix is back to practice, which should be sometime next summer.
AU will be welcoming a 4-star gunslinger from Savannah, Georgia in Holden Gardiner, and current redshirt freshman Dematrius Davis should be in line for a bigger opportunity than he’s had in year one, where he has yet to take a single snap.
Finley may be the odd man out in the Tigers’ QB room moving forward should he fall short against Alabama in the regular-season finale.
That’s assuming, of course, he isn’t content with another season designed for him to be on the sidelines. It’s taken injuries two years in a row with two different schools for him to get the opportunity he seeks, but eventually the Louisiana native may want to be the starting from the onset of the season…and not just when the glass needs to broken in case of emergency.
With turnover for the Auburn football program in the offseason all but guaranteed if the ship doesn’t stop sinking in 2021, these two schools could transfer portal options for TJ Finley should he decide to enter it for a second time: