TJ Finley to record interesting feat in first start at Auburn

Auburn quarterback Bo Nix suffered a broken ankle in Auburn’s 43-34 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday, a tough blow that opens up a huge opportunity for backup quarterback TJ Finley.

Nix played almost the entire game against Mississippi State until Finley came on in the game’s waning minutes. Nix finished with 27 completions in 41 attempts, good for 377 passing yards and two touchdowns, and he quarterbacked several plays with the ankle injury. Finley, on the other hand, did not complete the only pass he threw.

When Finley starts on Saturday, the 6-foot-7, 246-pound sophomore will make his first start of the year against South Carolina for the second consecutive season — at different SEC West schools.

Last year, while with the LSU Tigers, Finley on Oct. 24 made his debut against the South Carolina Gamecocks in Baton Rouge. He helped lead LSU to a 52-24 win over the Gamecocks with 17 completions in 21 passing attempts, 265 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception; meanwhile, he added eight carries for 24 yards and a rushing touchdown.

Auburn loses Nix, looks to Finley to finish season

Through Auburn’s first ten games, Nix, Auburn’s go-to starter, has completed 61 percent of his passing attempts for 2,294 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions, while also providing help on the ground — Nix has rushed for 168 yards and four touchdowns this year.

Finley has only played meaningful minutes in one game, a Sept. 25 win over Georgia State. Nix struggled to keep the offense moving against South Carolina, completing less than half of his pass attempts for just 156 yards, so head coach Bryan Harsin pulled Nix in favor of Finley. Finley ended up leading Auburn to the eventual game-winning touchdown and finished with a 9-for-10, 97-yard, one-touchdown stat line, while adding 15 rushing yards. Besides from that one contest, Finley has only appeared in garbage-minute situations; he’s completed 51.5 percent of his passes this season for 275 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Nix, the 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year, came into Auburn from Pinson Valley High School (Alabama) as a five-star quarterback, one of the top-ranked signal callers in the nation. He had an immediate impact his freshman year, as he became the first true freshman quarterback to start a season opener for Auburn since 1946, and threw for 2,542 yards and 16 touchdowns, with just six interceptions. Additionally, Nix tacked on another 313 yards on the ground, rushing for seven touchdowns. Though the 2020 Auburn Tigers went just 6-5 his sophomore year, resulting in then-head coach Gus Malzahn being fired, Nix put up a somewhat comparable statline to his freshman year; he threw for 2,415 yards in two fewer games due to the abbreviated season, and he threw for 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He’s had an up-and-down 2021 season but figured to man the starting role throughout the season before the injury.

Finley, Nix’s replacement, is a 6-foot-7, 246-pound sophomore from Ponchatoula, Louisiana. He transferred from LSU to Auburn this offseason, after throwing for 941 yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions in 2020. Formerly a three-star quarterback recruit from Ponchatoula High School, he started five games last year for LSU. In high school, Finley was a three-year starter for Ponchatoula High School, and he accounted for 72 touchdowns during his high school career — 58 passing touchdowns and 14 rushing touchdowns.