With former Auburn football quarterback Bo Nix packing his bags and heading to Oregon and Birmingham Bowl starter TJ Finley having a less-than-great game versus Houston, it’s very likely that head coach Bryan Harsin and newly-hired offensive coordinator Austin Davis will be turning to the NCAA transfer portal for another quarterback.
Harsin and the coaching staff find themselves in a similar quarterback situation to the one they were faced with last year prior to adding Finley from the portal. After the bowl game, naming Finley QB1 for 2022 does not seem like a best-case scenario, but freshman Dematrius Davis got no snaps during the 2021 season.
As things stand, it seems that adding an experienced quarterback from the NCAA transfer portal must be a high priority for Harsin, and with a plethora of talented QBs to choose from, here are four options that Auburn football should pursue:
Auburn football transfer portal QB option #1: Zach Calzada
Yes, we’ve been here before, but why not consider an experienced SEC quarterback that beat both Auburn and Alabama last year? Although Auburn football fans are split about the former Texas A&M Aggie becoming a Tiger, Fly War Eagle co-expert Andrew Hughes reminds everyone why the QB could benefit the Tigers in 2022:
"Calzada finished 2021 with a 56% completion rate, 2,185 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions after taking over as the starter for Haynes King after a fractured leg ended his season Week 2 against Colorado."
According to Jeffrey Lee from Auburn Live, Calzada will be visiting campus between January 5-11, the time when transfers eligible to enroll in the spring semester are allowed to take visits.
Although incoming freshman Holden Geriner is expected to put up a fight in the QB competition this spring, there’s no doubt that pursuing an experienced SEC quarterback that is not TJ Finley to the QB room would make us all feel a lot better.