Bo Nix talked about his second chance in the sport at Pac-12 Media Day following his transfer from Auburn football to Oregon following the 2021 season — expressing gratitude for the fact that athletes in the modern age can transfer with immediate eligibility in all graduate cases and most cases otherwise.
“There have been so many guys before me that didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to where now I can benefit from it, and so can other collegiate athletes,” Nix said (h/t AL.com). “I think if guys go in and do it responsibly, then it’s a great thing, but at the same time, you got to be careful, and all good things can have a dark side too. So it’s just how each person handles it. And how moving forward, college football will handle it. But, for me, it was a blessing, and there’s nothing bad I can say about it.”
Nix has become a Heisman candidate at Oregon, having thrown for 3,593 yards, rushed for another 510, all mostly before an ankle injury suffered against Washington on November 12, and amassing 43 all-purpose touchdowns. Nix is tied for the seventh-best Heisman odds for the 2023 season at +1600 as of this writing.
Auburn football QB Bo Nix was ‘miserable’ in his final season on the Plains
With a different offensive coordinator every season with Auburn football, and his options getting progressively worse after Kenny Dillingham was replaced with Chad Morris and Mike Bobo, Nix had grown weary of his situation on the Plains by the end of the 2021 season. In fact, under Bryan Harsin, Nix had grown “miserable” with the Tigers.
“Last year, I was just kind of over it,” Nix said in October 2022 (h/t CBS Sports). “Each week it was something else. There was, quite frankly, nothing I could do about it. I just remember kind of being miserable. It wasn’t fun anymore.”
Being able to find joy in the game in his fourth season, allowing the Pinson Valley product to raise his NFL draft stock in the process, is something Nix enjoyed while his predecessors never got to; proving that playing in the post-COVID era has a plethora of benefits not previously experienced before.