Auburn quarterback TJ Finley is considering entering the transfer portal

Intro all right everybody welcome on into the Auburn Daily Show the Tuesday edition of the Auburn Daily Show Lance doll Matthew Jacobs hanging out here with you Matthew we've got a couple of interesting topics to dive into today I know Auburn fans kind of like to get on the little a little bit more of the dramatic side at times and I think that today's episode will certainly uh help feed that for anybody out there that's looking for a little drama we've got TJ Finley's comments he joined the locked on SEC podcast uh to kind of give his thoughts on whether or not he wants to transfer he will transfer uh kind of made a pitch for himself in in the interview and then also uh Matthew you wrote a really good article here at almerdaily.com about the unacceptable truth on the Auburn versus Alabama rivalry we're gonna dive into that later on in the show as well just want to say off the top here for anybody watching uh maybe for the first time maybe this is your 30th time please subscribe to the show if you're watching on YouTube if you're listening on podcast would really appreciate a follow there as well let's go ahead and just dive right into it so TJ Finley appeared on the lockdown SEC podcast earlier today spoke with Chris Gordy uh the host and he had some comments Matthew about you know the situation last year and then heading into this year about whether or not he's going to be taking a look at the transfer portal just a very interesting conversation with Gordy and yeah it was a it was an enlightening conversation to say the least I think you need to break the the first 10 minutes of the interview up into two parts I'm sure you're fixing to read the quote I believe we discussed that and um but the first part of the interview when he's discussing in 2022 you can certainly hear the frustration and a bit of anger in his voice it was kind of surprising and um yeah I'll let you go ahead and I'll take let you take it from there yeah so for context and and you can elaborate a little bit on this after I Context read this here it's just it's not about necessarily you know it is about what Finley's saying but I think it's important to provide the context of the emotion and how he was presenting this uh to to the host Chris Gordy so when asked to describe the 2022 football season Finley didn't hesitate or mince words and this is the quote here just from the competition standpoint they brought in Zach calzada they brought in Robbie Ashford in my head to me that's a slap in the face that you don't believe in what you already have that they bring in two guys that are close to the same age as the guy that you have finished this season uh the previous year my mind immediately goes to let's work mode and I think that's what I did I proved to everybody that I deserve to be the starter yet neither me nor Robbie got the go ahead to be the starter even though I was named the starter through the first three games it was a 50 50 thing he was kind of running the ball and I was kind of throwing the ball luckily we played teams like Mercer in San Jose State but by the time we got closer to Penn State and those teams they kind of had to figure it out when I was in the game we were going to run run the ball and when I was in the game we were going to throw the ball when I was out of the game we were going to run the ball and while I was in the game we were going to throw the ball it was just an up and down year we really didn't know which direction we wanted to go in unfortunately for me in week three I got hurt and they turned the reins over to Robbie and he finished the season because I wanted to red shirt that's what TJ Finley said it reads angry uh I'm not gonna lie and it it reads like a lot of frustration uh over the fact that Auburn wasn't committed while Auburn wasn't loyal I guess is a word that you could use here for not sticking with their guy um I'm gonna be honest with you Matthew and I'm not trying to dog Finley here I don't really think that he deserves that considering Auburn's goal is to put out a winning product on the field and they don't just stick with quarterbacks because they played with them the year prior I mean the goal is to go out there and win football games and I understand Auburn didn't really accomplish that last year with any quarterback on roster it was a tough situation and when Finley got his opportunities he still didn't play very well yeah let's not forget the idea that he is not a very good quarterback at this level um he's got a good arm mechanically the sound but he's not anything else with the quarterback at this level and um or at the SEC level let's say that okay Lance yeah and um but yeah this particular comment he he spit it out there was there was he paused at the immerser in San Jose San Jose State did he almost went to the where you don't go as far as say you know lesser teams things of that nature things that coach was coaches aren't going to like but I think that the first part of that interview was him declaring that he was going to say what he wanted to say regardless of who liked it and that includes the coaches at Auburn the current coaches at Auburn I believe it kind of is telling to what the Auburn quarterback room is right now and how he feels about Robbie Ashford and how he feels about spring training and about yeah I agree with what you said he didn't do anything to deserve the respect that he's asking for and nobody knows nobody owes anything in college football you go out there and you win or you go home exactly he's about to go home I don't know where he's going to go but yeah he speaks like a player that's entering the transfer portal I mean just the the negative way that he talks about you know the team and like you said you can tell how he feels about Ashford I wonder if he's considered crying about it I think that's definitely an option for him at this point because it sounds like somebody it's like I put in the work I did this that and the other and I deserve to get the get the starting job everybody else is doing the same thing that you're doing it does not mean therefore that you need the starting job he went beyond a sense of entitlement it went to a sense of these guys are literally hurting me because I earned this and I did this and therefore it's Auburn's fault that I'm not successful it was it was an interesting interview to say the least I've never seen anything like it in my years covering Collegiate Sports he's a confident young Confidence man for for a guy that two through two picks against an FCS school and then through one in the very next week against San Jose State I mean it's he's not a good quarterback and I understand that you're supposed to have confidence and be a leader at that position um but he has not displayed any other quality besides confidence and Leadership uh that would Grant him the title of starting quarterbacks so you know a for effort I guess is what I should say here and if he does enter the transfer portal and he's certainly speaking like that uh then you know I think that uh somebody will pick him up and that's kind of where the conversation LED with the locked on SEC podcast and this is some part of part of what you wrote here Matthew is uh inevitably the question was where well where are you right now with auburn and he said I graduate in June if I wanted to I could transfer as a grad transfer right now my heart is in Auburn but everything is really up in the air right now it sounds like he's kind the writing's on the wall at this point Matthew and it's just the question of when he does it not not will he do it I agree with you and I also want to reiterate your point where are these Auburn quarterbacks quote unquote keep coming up with his confidence I keep thinking back to Robbie Ashford last year talking smack after beating Texas A M when he went you know I think it was 5 for 13 for 60 yards and two interceptions and came out and was I'm the best quarterback there is and Twitter's stupid I mean I don't know but there's a plenty of confidence in that room deserved or undeserved but yes TJ and he followed that comment up with if I were to leave it would not be because of the plural or competition it would be simply because another school has a better situation for me and my family I am here right now we will see what happens with conversations with the coaches over the next few weeks and once again we're gonna have to that's us reading it we're gonna have to go back to the way he actually said it it sounded more like an advert it was more like please somebody reach out to me so I know where to go and that's the only way I can actually see this interview being given I don't see that you can go back into the Auburn quarterback room after giving these statements and stare at the other guys in the face because you're pretty much admitting defeat at this point and you're asking somebody to pick you up yeah that's that's the way all of this reads is somebody that's that's making this decision and and then uh like you said I think we talked about this a little bit before we started recording you don't just hop on a podcast for an interview and and not have a direction that you want to take it right and I don't know the situation whether or not Gordy reached out or Finley reached out um maybe it was a mutual thing where it's like hey you want to hop on in Finland it's like I can use this as an opportunity to kind of sales pitch myself um but he this is something you said I I believe he didn't really do himself any favors and statistically when you look at them when you watch them on film I mean there's there's not a whole lot there I'll I'll just say that there's just not a whole lot there for this kid and I really do hope that he's able to go somewhere and he's able to find success I'm not hating on him as an individual I'm just saying as as the player as TJ Finley the player he has not done anything at this point to prove that he's a starting quarterback in the SEC and I think that he's he's best served moving on and finding another place to play totally in agreement there and I should I should it would be remiss to not mention that he did speak a lot about being home in Louisiana and there's a few small ULM and things of that nature that could yet certainly use his talent his skills because they never had different offense than auburn does and to be a fresh start although he's had a couple of Fresh Starts already let's be honest with it but yeah like you said I don't know how he goes back to that quarterback room I don't know that's his that's his signing off work from what I understand he contacted Gordy it was not a hey you want to come on the show it was from what I understand it was he contacted Gordy so he had definitely had an agenda and if we're speculating here let's speculate a little bit I honestly think he was informed that hey you may not be the two guy you may be the three year four guy going into probably five if we pick up a portal guy six if we pick up two it's just going down the list and uh I think he went okay well I'm angry about that which you can kind of I can kind of relate I would be pretty angry about putting that much Sweat Equity and bouncing around from school to school but then again you didn't put the work in either you wouldn't you'd be a starting quarterback he's got the size he had the talent he had the ability there's something there that's not connecting gray matter wise or something so yeah I think he's I think that was his his sayonara so to speak it's it's uh it's about the execution and um you know it's probably a word Execution Brian harson used half a million times while he was here you know Auburn never really executed neither than TJ Finley and so now I think it's a point of you know if Auburn gets a player in the portal maybe that's what he's waiting on maybe he's waiting for Auburn to really get somebody out there and then and make that decision I don't know but I think it's coming regardless if you want to read any of the comments that Finley had you can go check out the locked on SEC podcast so you can also check out the article that Matthew put up over at auburndaily.com just some interesting comments from Finley at the very least and we'll see where he he ends up because again I feel like this this decision is coming uh at one point or another Matthew you wrote another interesting piece over to Auburn daily about the unacceptable Truth uh about the Auburn versus Alabama rivalry a very frustrating year I think for the Auburn Tigers and a variety of sports I want to kind of dive into that kind of get your thoughts on it in just a second before we do that though I want to tell you guys about our friends at nordvp PN staying safe online is an Ever growing difficulty it's really easy nowadays to get exploited by hackers get viruses just kind of browsing the internet as you would normally but nordvpn is here to help protect you they allow you to protect change your IP address making you harder to track and securing your privacy and nordvpn is giving Auburn daily listeners and readers a special deal all you have to do is check out the link in the episode description today and they will help you protect you or help protect you as you continue to use the internet and to kind of improve your online browsing experience really appreciate nordvpn for sponsoring today's episode all right Matthew the unacceptable truth about Auburn versus Alabama the 2023 uh 22-23 Sports season I should say was a very frustrating one for Auburn quite a few losses I'm going to let you kind of take the reins here on what you've noted and what you've written about and we'll just kind of dive into our thoughts about what kind of happened here and maybe look ahead a little bit well first of all we're not the type of guys that want to jump up and down excuse me jump up and down on on teenagers playing sports and people putting Sweat Equity into the program we have it we're not going to start it so you're gonna have to participate for the administrators and the coaches on this deal but in the 2023 season Auburn lost to Alabama in baseball twice already football gymnastics men's basketball twice famously men's tennis men's wheelchair basketball five times soccer track and field women's basketball twice women's swim and dive there was a couple more too I just got tired of riding them basically and we really just need to thank Auburn women's tennis and Auburn men's swimming for their their two lone victories and I did get some comments saying that well golf beat Alabama well no they didn't when you come in third or fourth and Alabama comes in sixth or seventh that's not beating Alabama you did it's not a head-to-head yeah it's not a hit-to-head or anything so I really I don't know what's your opinion Sports on the list for before we go any further I think that you know you've got your major sports you've got football basketball for both men's and women's baseball uh is frustrating women's basketball twice for the fact that we lost to men's or to the to the men's wheelchair basketball team five times I don't even know you could play somebody five times man and you got beat every single time didn't Alabama win the national title in in wheelchair basketball I'm like pretty sure that happened yeah so maybe that's it it's very hard to lose to a team five times um it's very difficult averages against you on that yeah yeah the numbers don't don't quite add up there I mean they do they add up to five L's but still uh just just a very very tough year uh for Auburn in 2022 and I mean you know what it it's it's a combination I think of Auburn having down ears in some of their major sports in Alabama having really solid years and others I mean like we mentioned Alabama's wheelchair basketball team won the national title I'm partially I'm partially uh kidding there um you've got soccer I'm pretty sure Bama was good in that obviously Bama was good in men's basketball before they face San Diego State uh football I mean they're always going to be better than auburn in terms of talent acquisition I think and then well as long as savin's here and then it was partially a down year for Auburn and there was very little chance Auburn was taking that win in the iron ball on the road um baseball is another one where Auburn's just in a down year I mean Alabama's mid as well um in in baseball this season so it's it's something where in in women's basketball you know is still trying to kind of rebuild here with Alabama basketball or women's basketball being pretty pretty solid so it's a combination of not just like Auburn upset Auburn got upset Auburn got upset it's more of like hey Bama's teams are somewhere between solid to good and Auburn's teams are either good to hey we're having some down years we're having some regression uh in areas where we normally don't like Auburn last year if that if it's that if that's your normal Auburn football team you know and that game's played in Jordan hair you got a legitimate shot if it's a good football team you got a legitimate shot in Bryant Denny for basketball Walker Smith Jabari uh yeah yeah Walker Kessler Jabari Smith wow I've watched that terribly um enough said there I mean it's just it's just part of it sometimes you have down ears and sometimes things just add up to a lot of else and I think the question is you know whether or not Auburn can kind of rebound from that and make this uh this year this 2020 324 uh academic Sports year maybe they can make that something special I don't know but Matthew regardless it's I can only imagine frustrating uh just to a lot of Auburn fans out there I think it's frustrating to us as well we've discussed but I think you have to recall I think you right there just stay at the problem without realizing you stayed the problem Culture switch the generation I'm older than you so I come from a different generation of Auburn fans where we went we're not Alabama well you just went we're not Alabama that's the difference and that's that's the culture switch right there you see what I'm saying yeah so like it's acceptable we're like oh we're not and by the way I think who freeze is crushing Nick Saban in recruiting I think that's happening now I think it's going to continue to happen I think it's going to be a slip switch there it's gonna be Georgia that you have to worry about in LSU savings definitely falling down that list he's not ready for the new wave getting off a different topic there but that's literally it it's um the younger guys come in I think the administration came in we're like we're not Alabama they're apologetic we're not Alabama whereas with the tuberville years Pat die years it was we are not Alabama there's a definite change in the voice just like we were talking about earlier with Finley's tone of voice there's a definite change in the tenor coming out of this program all the way around the athletic department you you did say that you mentioned Jabari and and um I'm losing his name now Walker Walker thank you and uh that was a huge loss you can't recover from that that quickly so we're gonna give a pass to the Auburn Basketball team and pearl will have them back but it's unacceptable to be at this level spending this kind of money to have this kind of facilities to be completely just destroyed by your rival for an entire season of sports yeah and it looking forward I chose I'm the only one by the way anywhere choosing Auburn that's not a fan choosing Auburn over Alabama in the Iron Bowl this next year but you know we haven't won in the pandemic era so it's about time and I think like I said we talked on the other day talked about the other day and this is the Super Bowl for Auburn this year is going to be Alabama so I get the jokes I get that hey we had fewer players indicted and of course there's a I'm not going to read the bit about the large Alabama fans that got me in so much trouble um but sorry oh God yeah so um yeah I gotta get a few emails about that one so we'll skip that um we're gonna have to make some changes and it's going to be from a top down yeah so like any other organization we're gonna have to say it's unacceptable we're gonna have to put the Creed up front and say this is how we're going to do business or you're not going to be doing business here anymore and I think you're seeing that in the football program right now I think you just saw it with TJ Finley so you're talking here about not just a Investment mentality change like you said from the the 90s and before that just establishing your identity as you in an aggressive way saying we're not Alabama we're something different and we're going to do things this way you're saying not just bring that mentality back to the current regime and the current state of all of Auburn's athletic programs but it's also an investment thing uh so to speak you're saying Auburn because I mean you look at right now I think a good example of like what's happening in college football right now in terms of like which teams are performing are the ones that are investing in like recruiting you look at what George is doing right now I mean they are just throwing loads of cash um at their at their recruiting programs right now so are you saying it's not just a mentality thing it's it's a commitment to to you know putting down the money putting your money where your mouth is if you're saying hey we want to be this then then you're gonna actually follow through with it well here's the problem is that we have already done that we built these wonderful football facilities that costs more than a dollar or two costs more than you and I make that's for sure and we've we've you know we've raid on things you know they're talking about working on plansman park now things are incredible if you haven't visited Auburn lately you should buy a ticket go watch game things are incredible down there they just said yesterday I think it was to spend what and I've seen my money on fixing pat down field at Jordan here so the money has been spent it's completely the Investments made it's just nobody's making the I don't know if the right word here is going to be emotional investment but it's like I said Auburn's almost apologetically in the state of Alabama right now where as recently as 10 years ago we were like hey we're just as good man we're just as good as every sport we're winning most of the sports we were and I don't I don't know what changed the other than like I said it went from we are not Alabama too we're not Alabama and that's acceptable do you think in Nick Saban some of these larger sports like let's just talk football for a second when Nick Saban eventually does retire and Auburn fans it is coming it will happen eventually he he can't he can't stay here forever do you think that there's currently like a sense of apathy in relation to the Crimson Tide and do you think that's going to disappear once Saban leaves I'm gonna go a different I think there is a current an apathy from the Alabama football fans who expect so much and then there is also and they're they're used to it they're trained to it so once Saban leaves because you can see his I don't want to say regression because he's probably going to end up being one of the greatest he is the greatest football coach that we've seen that's for sure I hate to say it but he is um when he leaves there's going to be a black hole there who wants to take that job who wants to follow Nick Saban in Alabama so they're gonna yeah yeah but good luck getting that good luck you know you know that might be a good thing to burn go ahead and burn him down for a couple years before you we can go out and see if you can find somebody yeah um but there's going to be a dip in the Alabama football program that somebody can come up there's going to be Talent there but a lot of that talent because of the portal now this is not 10 years ago because of the portal Nick Saban leaves you're going to see a whole lot of guys bail on that Alabama football team and it's just like oats with the basketball team or the baseball team they're just one little shred thing away of they're gonna go downhill it's a cycle it fluctuates of course but is Auburn prepared to take advantage of that is what we did know in Auburn is it ready to say to itself that this is unacceptable that's what my question was in the article is Auburn as an institution are they athletes are the coaches are the administrators are they willing to go hey this is unacceptable we're going to own it we're there with Georgia LSU and Alabama and it's time for us to show it yep and in something that's kind of been you know the thing that's identified the Auburn fan base and community and program over the last however long is is the family aspect the emotional side of everybody being together and and pulling in the same direction even though I would say 90 of the time that's not what what's happening behind the scenes um it's been the message and so I think trying to get get everybody in line and get everybody together and and moving one One Direction you mentioned you know maybe uh the emotional uh side of things is maybe that's not the most accurate way to describe it but I think it's all I think it's a very fair one I think it's just mentally getting yourself there uh for some of these things and then taking action on it so we'll see what happens this year uh with football basketball women's basketball baseball gymnastics um again want to want to shout out the the two programs here uh with the uh with the Auburn women's tennis and Men swimming uh that's a good equestrian don't forget a question don't forget the question because we ran Alabama out of the equestrian program they stopped it they were like we can't compete with auburn in 2020 they're like we're done let's quit they just quit and it's a Alabama horse school over here boys so yeah so we'll see what happens I I'm I'm intrigued to see what what Alabama looks like in some of their major sports uh this upcoming season because right now they've got some questions that that they need answers to and I'm not saying just because they have questions meaning that means there's going to be problems I'm just saying that you know there are questions that need to be answered and there has to be an adjustment uh for Auburn or excuse me for Alabama football specifically there has to be an adjustment for how they played on the road because you talk about mentality I mean this is something that several people have pointed out about that football program and about the basketball program there's not a lot of what's the word I'm looking for here I don't think it's consistency that I'm looking for cohesion cohesion and fight there's not a lot of either going on it it doesn't seem like they're where they have been and I'm not saying oh then they're going to fall apart and explode and Tuscaloosa is just going to disappear I'm just saying like there's there needs to be a reset and if there's not we're going to see some interesting things this year we already are Georgia's kind of put his foot down on all these topics and yeah nobody's keeping up and nobody's keeping up and we'll see if and man the the theme for Alabama in the past has been you know they they're always able to step up to the plate after things go bad and so you know it's back to back years where they've let one of their Rivals just kind of take things over and win the national title so Bama didn't even make it to the SEC Championship Game this year and that was with Bryce young I don't think they make it this year I think LSU makes it I think it's going to be a very difficult path for them to make it this year especially whenever you see how they played on the road last year if you see the same things this season it's it's going to be interesting so we'll we'll keep an eye on that and we'll have of course if Alabama does ever lose to Auburn in any sport you can probably check it out over at auburndaily.com we'll probably write about it if they lose in football or basketball oh we'll be writing about it so that that will be something that you need to check out there so I think that's going to do it for today's episode of the Auburn Daily Show really appreciate everybody watching out there again if you have not subscribed to the YouTube channel or the podcast feed please go ahead and do so you can follow the show on Twitter at the Auburn Daily Show you can follow me on Twitter at lance.underscore I did not pull up our Twitter handles today Matthew will you please tell everybody where they can find you underscore Matthew Jacobs underscore for the email yes sir and you can also follow us uh on uh I believe on Facebook as well uh if you would like to check us out over there so again that's going to do it for today's episode we will see you all tomorrow for another episode of the Auburn Daily Show hope you guys have a great rest of your day and God bless