Tyler Jamal "T. J." Finley (born March 25, 2002) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

. Finley attended and played high school football at

Ponchatoula High School Ponchatoula High School is a public high school in unincorporated Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States, near Ponchatoula. It is operated by the Tangipahoa Parish School System. Ponchatoula High School is one of the largest high schools in ...

Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Tangipahoa Parish (; French: ''Paroisse de Tangipahoa'') is a parish located in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 121,097. The parish seat is Amite City, while the largest city is ...

and began his college career at

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

before transferring to

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

the following year.

Early years

Finley grew up in Ponchatoula, Louisiana and attended

. He passed for 2,736 yards with 23 touchdowns and five interceptions in his junior season. As a senior, Finley passed for 2,738 yards and 21 touchdowns and also scored eight rushing touchdowns. Finley was rated a three-star prospect and the best quarterback prospect in the state and committed to play college football at

as a sophomore in high school over offers from

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, and

College career

LSU

Finley enrolled at LSU a semester early in January 2020. He was named the Tigers' starting quarterback leading up to team's October 24, 2020, game against South Carolina following an injury to starter Myles Brennan. In his first career start, Finley completed 17 of 21 pass attempts for 265 yards with two touchdowns and an interception and rushed for 24 yards and a touchdown. Finley started five games and finished the season with 80-of-140 passes for 941 yards with five touchdowns and five interceptions. After competing with quarterbacks Myles Brennan and Max Johnson in spring practice, Finley announced he would be entering the transfer portal.

Auburn

On May 24, 2021, Finley announced that he would be transferring to

over offers from Alabama,

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

, and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. On September 25, 2021, Finley would come in in the fourth quarter for a benched

Bo Nix Bo Nix (born February 25, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Oregon Ducks. Nix played with the Auburn Tigers from 2019 to 2021 before transferring to Oregon in 2022. High school career Nix was born on February 25, 2000, in Arka ...

and throw the game winning touchdown versus

Georgia State Georgia state or ''variation'', may refer to: Primarily * Georgia State University ("State", "Georgia State"), a state university * Georgia (U.S. state) ("Georgia state"), a state of the United States of America Sports * sports teams of Georgia St ...

. Finley was named Auburn's starting quarterback for the Tigers opening game of the

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

season.

Statistics

References

External links

Auburn Tigers bio

LSU Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finley, TJ 2002 births Living people Players of American football from Louisiana American football quarterbacks LSU Tigers football players Auburn Tigers football players