‘Amazing’ how comfortable polarizing ex-Auburn QB looked in monumental upset

Polarizing former Auburn football quarterback TJ Finley completed 22/30 passes, threw for three touchdowns, and even added another on the ground in a monumental 42-31 upset win over Baylor on September 3.

That was a lede that, in a million years, this writer would’ve never dreamt of being a reality given Finley’s winless record against FBS schools while starting under center for the Tigers at the end of the 2021 season and beginning of the 2022 campaign. Finley’s performance was one On3’s Justin Hokanson noted as being at a level of comfortability not present during his 2-4 run as AU’s QB1 or 2-3 run as LSU’s.

“Finley threw for 298 and three touchdowns — amazing how much more comfortable he looked today than any time at Auburn,” Hokanson wrote.

TJ Finley was not the one that got away for Auburn football

While Finley looked more crisp as a passer running the Bobcats offense than either Payton Thorne or Robby Ashford did in the pocket against UMass, he is not someone Auburn football fans should feel is the one that got away.

Thorne and Ashford’s two-headed QB hydra was efficient, producing a Thorne-Jay Fair connection in the end zone and three Ashford scrambles resulting in six. And not for nothing, Hugh Freeze gave Finley the chance to be a part of it before the Michigan State transfer Thorne was even on his radar.

Finley didn’t prove to be a fit with Freeze, particularly because of his comments in opposition to any more competition in the quarterback room following the program’s A-Day scrimmage. And that’s okay because evidently, Finley running the show at a smaller school has given him the confidence to be the best QB he can be; something any true Tiger fan should hope for deep down.

Sometimes, two parties going their separate ways isn’t a bad thing. It seems Finley and Auburn football are both in better places now, with Week 1 of the 2023 college football season providing plenty of evidence to that point.