Bryan Harsin updates T.J. Finley status, describes toughness shown vs. Alabama

The Auburn Tigers’ battled until the end on Saturday night in another Iron Bowl classic, but came up short 24-22 in a four overtime thriller. Tigers’ quarterback T.J. Finley injured his ankle in the game and spent some time in the medical tent, but was able to battle through the pain to stay in the game. Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin talked about his quarterback’s toughness after the game with reporters.

“T.J. showed a ton a lot of toughness tonight. This time of year guys are banged up. He got a little bit rolled up there and he was able to still stay out there and play and did a great job in the huddle and lead….Doing everything we’re asking him to do just execute the offense and go out there and play,” Harsin said.

“Play that position to the best of his ability. Everybody did some really good things tonight. As far as toughness goes, he definitely showed that. He was ready to go out there and fight. He was ready to go out there and finish the game. So I appreciate that about him. I thought he did some really good things from that standpoint, had to fight through some injuries,” he said.

T.J. Finley was firing absolute strikes in the game

Not only did Finley show an incredible amount of toughness in the 24-22 four overtime classic, but he dropped some epic dimes in the game as well.

Check out the incredible touchdown strike he threw in the back of the end zone to his receiver, Landen King.

AUBURN WITH THE ANSWER@AuburnFootball's Landen King goes one-handed! pic.twitter.com/b2Lb7ck9VU

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 28, 2021

The touchdown strike tied the game up at 17-17 in the first overtime. Not only was it an incredible pass by Finley, but what an unreal one-handed snag by King.

Finley’s stat line for the game won’t wow anyone, he completed 17 of his 26 pass attempts for 137 passing yards, while tossing two touchdowns and one interception. But passes like the one above in crunch time were absolutely massive.

While the Tigers’ lost in gut-wrenching fashion, they’ve still got to be proud of the way they battled in the game all the way until the end. The game will not only go down in Iron Bowl history, but college football history as well as one of the all-time classics.

This one will sting for quite some time for Auburn fans

The finish of this game will not only sting for Auburn fans because Alabama completed the comeback, but how they did it. Auburn running back Tank Bigsby made a critical error on a second down play with less than two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. He was running for a first down with Auburn leading 10-3, but was forced out of bounds two yards short of the line to gain at the Alabama 37-yard line. There was 1:47 left in the game and Alabama did not have to use one of their timeouts to stop the clock. Bigsby running out of bounds saved the Crimson Tide at least 30 seconds of clock for their final drive.

Auburn finished their season at 6-6 and will now wait to see what bowl they end up playing in the 2021 postseason.