AL.com’s Joseph Goodman raised the question of whether or not former Auburn football quarterback Bo Nix is the “face of change in college football” in his 2023 season-opening salvo — which ended up being a tribute to the dark horse Heisman candidate ahead of the final campaign of what can be considered the soon-to-be old era of a four-team College Football Playoff featuring a true Power Five conference setup.
“This is a Bo Nix appreciation column because maybe there’s no better way to welcome a new college football season here at what feels like the end of a sport’s greatest epoch than with a tribute to a player whose time in football has spanned some of the most transformative years in collegiate athletics,” Goodman wrote before questioning, “Is Nix the face of change in college football? No clue, really, but he was once the face of Milo’s Sweet Tea and that feels like ages ago.”
Nix started out on the Plains in 2019, the last year before the whole world, not just college football, was turned on its head. In his sophomore season in front of quarter-capacity stadiums with a large portion of the NCAAF player pool opting out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nix took a major step back and lost his goodwill from his freshman year. During the first year of the NIL era, Nix took major sponsorships in Alabama, like as Goodman mentioned, Milo’s, but got injured in the team’s 10th game after a 6-2 start became 6-4, and eventually without him, 6-7. As a graduate transfer, Nix transferred to Oregon in 2022, and in 2023, his Ducks are now Big Ten-bound. There’s been a ton of change in Nix’s college career, and all of his moves tended to be microcosms of the sport-wide changes college football was experiencing. Perhaps he is the face of change.
Analyst compares former Auburn football QB Bo Nix to John Heisman
Goodman, deep in poetic feelings that were a joy to read, made the ultimate comparison for Nix: to the very man college football’s top individual award is named after, John Heisman.
“If any quarterback’s career embodies the theatrical legacy of John Heisman, then it’s Auburn’s former Shakespearian tragedy of a signal caller,” Goodman wrote.
Nix’s story has largely featured tragedy by sports standards, but the happiest endings feature the kind of come-from-behind triumph a Heisman win for No. 10 would be. Most Auburn football fans wouldn’t find that to be a happy ending in the slightest, though.