Paul Finebaum has interesting take when assessing the importance of Auburn's quarterback battle

The start of the regular season is just a couple of weeks away, and the Auburn Tigers still have an unsettled quarterback competition. Former LSU quarterback TJ Finley is battling against former Texas A&M signal-caller Zach Calzada and former Oregon quarterback Robby Ashford for the starting job.

Finley and Calzada are the two most likely candidates to be under center for Auburn in Week 1. But in the eyes of SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum, it might not matter all that much. He joined McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Monday, where he evaluated Auburn’s ongoing quarterback situation.

Auburn opens the season with five straight home games. The first two games are against Mercer and San Jose State, which Finebaum refers to as warm up games. By the time the Tigers get through the first two weeks, Finebaum thinks that things will have sorted themselves out at quarterback, just in time for when the season really begins against Penn State in Week 3.

“No, because the prelude to the season is really so comparable for what Bryan Harsin is trying to figure out here,” Finebaum said. “What I mean by that is self explanatory. The first two games are just warm ups. So regardless of who is named in a week or two, I think it will play itself out. Especially in time for the Penn State game, which is really when the season begins and where the season could be decided.”

Bryan Harsin assesses Auburn quarterback competition

Even with three players competing for one job, having multiple quarterbacks ready to go is important over the course of a full season in college football. In fall camp, Harsin thinks that each of the three candidates has stepped up on different days, and the competition is still fully ongoing.

“Today was pretty good,” Harsin said last week. “I thought TJ had a good day today. Zach stepped up in some areas. All those did some good things and I think every one of those quarterbacks have been player of the day at some point. Those guys are all still competing. They’re getting somewhat equal reps, and I like where Robby’s progressing right now.

“All of those guys have done a good job of applying what coach (Eric) Kiesau is asking them to do. We’ve got more time. It’s not a finished product right now. For everybody, we all want to know, but coaching that position and doing this for a few years now, you know we have time to keep building through some things and you’ve just gotta stick with one thing for a while until they get it and then move on to the next.”