Auburn football: Bo Nix, Tank Bigsby transferring to this school would be disastrous

December 12, 2021, was a dark day for the Auburn football fanbase.

Three-year starting QB Bo Nix has officially announced he won’t be returning on Sunday night, refuting the E2C Network’s prior report that the AU legacy signal-caller was on his way back to the Plains.

Not long after that, Justin Hokanson of On3 relayed the news that Tank Bigsby was planning on doing the same.

So, for that keeping score, the Tigers are set to lose both their starting QB and star running back to the transfer portal in one fell swoop after the program lost its final four games of the season under a first-year head coach.

It’s a rough time to be a Tiger fan for those that saw potential in the team the past two years. Particularly in 2021, there were stretches where Auburn football seemed like a dark-horse in the SEC title hunt.

Now, the phrase ‘dark horse’ will forever be associated with a season with sky-high expectations gone awry.

It’s always darkest just before the dawn, though. Perhaps the young blood injected by the impending arrivals of 4-star Class of 2022 studs Holden Geriner and Damari Alston will offset the current sadness.

But there’s one scenario that would simply prolong the healing process in the wake of these transfer portal losses…

UCF adding Bo Nix and Tank Bigsby would be disastrous for Auburn football

If AU loses its two most notable offensive names to their former coach and the Group of Five school he coaches–remember, the move to the Big 12 isn’t immediate and can take another three to four years–it’d be an unmitigated disaster.

The optics would give the idea that Bryan Harsin couldn’t convince Nix or Bigsby to buy into his program, and would indicate that the pair preferred the previous regime.

Even if UCF can nab one of them, Knights Nation would have serious bragging rights over the Auburn family for stealing their stars. If former Tigers coach Gus Malzahn can nab both?

Disastrous.