Auburn’s T.J. Finley guided by patience, faith as he prepares for ‘emotional’ return to LSU

TJ Finley

Auburn quarterback TJ Finley (1) celebrates with Aubie after they defeated Georgia State in an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, in Auburn, Ala. Auburn won 34-24. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP

T.J. Finley stepped off the bus at Ponchatoula Junior High and walked to midfield.

It was familiar territory for the young quarterback, then just an eighth grader in Louisiana. He played many games on that field, guiding Ponchatoula to a district championship a year earlier. That day on Ponchatoula’s field, he had a shot at another district title — this time as a visiting quarterback after transferring to Hammond Junior High following his seventh-grade year.

As he approached midfield and took in his old stomping grounds, Finley knelt and picked up a couple blades of grass. Channeling his inner Les Miles — the former LSU head coach who first offered him a scholarship as an eighth grader — Finley put the grass in his mouth and began to chew it. He turned to his mother, Dr. Shannon Finley, and nodded his head and smiled.

“He had to go back to his old school, which is where his heart was, and it was like, ‘OK, here we go,’” Shannon Finley said. “He whooped his old team for the district championship…. He went to Ponchatoula and beat them on their home turf.”

Six years later, Finley finds himself with a chance to repeat history, this time as a quarterback at Auburn, which opens SEC play on Saturday on the road against Finley’s former team, LSU. Whether Finley will be Auburn’s starter in Death Valley remains to be seen, as head coach Bryan Harsin faces an important decision at the position following last weekend’s dramatic comeback win. Against Georgia State, Finley replaced a struggling Bo Nix late in the third quarter and led a late 98-yard drive for the go-ahead touchdown with 45 seconds to play.

“It’s my homecoming, and I look forward to it,” Finley said. “… I just can’t wait to enjoy 100,000 in Tiger Stadium, and whether I’m starting or not, I just want to be part of the team and help the team win in any way possible.”

Before Finley’s opportunity to return to Baton Rouge, La., this weekend, it’s important to understand how the former LSU quarterback and lifelong LSU fan got here, and why he’ll be standing on the visitor’s sideline in Tiger Stadium.

***

Shannon Finley missed seeing her son smile.

It started to fade sometime toward the end of his freshman season at LSU, and its absence lingered through the spring. Finley’s parents could tell something was off with their son, whose first college season both exceeded expectations and felt underwhelming at times.

Here was the No. 1 quarterback in the state of Louisiana coming out of high school, a 6-foot-6, 242-pounder with a cannon mounted on his right shoulder, who started five games as a true freshman at his dream school. Yet his confidence was fleeting and he started doubting his abilities as the calendar turned from his freshman season to his sophomore spring.

“As a mother, I did a lot of crying and I did a lot of praying, because it was very, very hard to see a kid that was filled with so much life when I dropped him off (at LSU) have that sucked out of him in a matter of a year and a half,” Shannon Finley said.

Finley dreamed of playing at LSU since he was 8-years old, and he became the first quarterback from his high school, Ponchatoula High, to sign with the state’s premier football program. The situation at LSU, though, never lived up to those expectations he set in his mind and was sold on when he first committed to the program as a sophomore in high school.

More than anything, the constant change within LSU’s offense left him feeling like he lacked consistency and structure. He signed with LSU in December 2019, when Joe Brady was the team’s passing game coordinator during its College Football Playoff championship run. But Brady left for the NFL shortly after Finley enrolled that January, and LSU coach Ed Orgeron brought in Scott Linehan to take over that role and work alongside offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger last season.

In December, Ensminger moved into an off-field analyst role, and Orgeron brought in Jake Peetz — a disciple of Brady’s — to run the offense in hopes of recreating some of that 2019 magic.

“We didn’t know who was calling the shots on offense,” Finley’s father, David Finley, said. “It was just a transition period there that wasn’t good for T.J.”

The persistent change impacted Finley, who showed promise at times after being thrust into the starting role midway through a freshman season played against the backdrop of a pandemic. He went 2-3 as a starter and completed just 57.1 percent of his passes for an LSU team that finished 5-5, but the upside and physical tools were evident.

He just needed development and direction.

“It was just the inconsistency,” Shannon Finley said. “He just didn’t know what he was doing right or what he was doing wrong. He didn’t have a lot of direction at times…. There were a lot of moving parts and pieces at LSU, and we just wanted a more consistent environment and more stable environment for him.”

Finley was part of a crowded competition — along with senior Myles Brennan, fellow sophomore Max Johnson and four-star freshman Garrett Nussmeier — for the starting job at LSU, but after a disappointing performance in the spring game, the writing was on the wall. Finley had to choose his best course of action.

He was torn. Transferring is something he considered but leaving behind his dream school and his teammates was difficult to follow through on.

Ultimately, his parents told him he needed to make a business decision and do what was best for him. That’s when the lightbulb went off. He walked into Orgeron’s office in early May, tears trickling down his cheeks, and informed the LSU coach he was transferring.

“It was like you got to have some grip pliers to grip him away (from LSU),” Shannon Finley said. “You’re talking about a kid who is a Louisiana native, who bled purple and gold…. I almost had to set LSU on fire myself to get him to leave. It was extremely difficult because he didn’t see anything wrong. It was a very, very tough decision.”

***

The perception in Louisiana was that Finley was running from the competition when he decided to leave LSU.

It didn’t take long for that to be disproven. He raised his stock during his freshman season, and the NCAA’s one-time transfer rule meant he would be immediately eligible in the fall. He had immediate interest from major programs like Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State and Texas A&M within the SEC, as well as Big Ten programs Michigan and Penn State.

Finley could have transferred to a school with an easy path to the starting job, but that’s not how he approached the decision.

“The biggest thing for him initially was honestly getting to a place where he could be mentally free — a new environment, a new opportunity, a new school, warm embrace,” Shannon Finley said.

Finley, who started college at 17 and had two SEC wins under his belt by 18, wanted somewhere he could be developed for the next level, even if it meant waiting for his opportunity. He wasn’t turned off by the prospect of sitting behind an entrenched starter for a year, so long as he had the chance to compete.

That’s what Auburn coach Bryan Harsin and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo sold him on during their conversations over the course of Finley’s 18-day recruitment. Auburn had Bo Nix returning as a third-year starter, but they needed depth at the position, and with it being a new staff, there was no firm commitment that Nix was their guy.

The opportunity was there for Finley if he proved he was the better option.

“The key here is the one thing about T.J. and us: We weren’t running from competition,” David Finley said. “We went over there to compete with a third-year starter… We didn’t go there to say, ‘We know we can beat Bo out.’ No, we went to compete. There’s a lot of patience in this family.”

That’s something David and Shannon Finley instilled in both their sons through faith at a young age. Their message to their children has always been to remain patient, remain humble, and know that when your time comes, God will open the door.

“Now, is that time now? It could be,” David Finley said. “I don’t know, but he’s ready if it is.”

***

The smile has returned to T.J. Finley’s face.

He flashed it for all to see Saturday evening in Jordan-Hare Stadium as he stood atop a podium in front of Auburn’s student section and embraced the adoring cheers from his fellow students. “It’s like a stick of dynamite went off,” Shannon Finley said. “He’s so excited and explosive.”

That’s because Finley’s patience and trust in himself finally paid off four weeks into the season.

After arriving at Auburn this summer and absorbing Harsin and Bobo’s offensive playbook as quickly and meticulously as he could, Finley entered the season as the team’s backup quarterback. He pushed Nix throughout fall camp, as each’s presence and performance in practices caused the other to raise his game, but he never seemed to threaten for the starting job.

That was Nix’s to lose.

Then, late in the third quarter against Georgia State, Finley’s number was called. Nix struggled for a second straight week, and Auburn’s offense was ineffective as the team trailed by double digits in the second half at home against a Sun Belt opponent. Auburn was on the precipice of a disastrous loss, and Harsin knew the offense needed a spark. So, he turned to Finley with the team trailing by five and 3:10 to go in the period.

The rest is well-documented. Finley capped the comeback with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Shedrick Jackson on fourth down with 45 seconds remaining, and Auburn escaped with a 34-24 win.

“People don’t understand — coming into a game like that and not starting, just waiting a whole half or whatever it was, coming and making plays like that — that’s hard to do,” Jackson said. “He took control of the offense; he was confident, he was poised, and he was ready to go. That’s big-time.”

Finley’s late-game heroics threw Auburn’s quarterback situation into question this week as the team opens SEC play. Harsin is tight-lipped about his plan, but it’s possible — and even likely — that Finley gets the nod against his former team in Death Valley on Saturday night.

Whether he starts for Auburn, his teammates are using his homecoming as a rallying cry this week. Shannon Finley said after the Georgia State win, as the family left the stadium, safety Smoke Monday approached them and told them, “We’re going into Tiger Stadium with our boy T.J., and we’re about to take Tiger Stadium down” and end losing streak for Auburn in Baton Rouge that dates back to 2001.

It will undeniably be an emotional day for Finley, who insists there’s “no bad blood” between him and LSU. But it will be a return to the place he always dreamed of playing and where he earned his first win as a college quarterback.

“I’m sure he’ll probably have his own private moments where he goes out in the stadium and has his emotional moments,” Shannon Finley said. “He’s going to shake it off…. He’s going to do whatever he has to do to release his nerves or jitters on that field.”

Just like six years ago, when he stood at midfield in Ponchtoula and chewed those blades of grass. Only this time, the stage is bigger, and the stakes are higher.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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