In a very tumultuous offseason, the Auburn Tigers lost their starting quarterback of the last three seasons, Bo Nix. He opted to enter the transfer portal and head west to Eugene, Oregon. Ironically enough, former Oregon Ducks quarterback Robby Ashford wanted to return home to Alabama, as he transferred to Auburn.
Ashford wasn’t the only quarterback that decided to come to the Plains, former Texas A&M Aggies passer Zach Calzada also chose to play for the Tigers. He was the quarterback of record when the Aggies and Tigers faced off in November of 2021.
Calzada bested Auburn that day but suffered a shoulder injury during the game. It is that shoulder injury that kept the new Auburn signal-caller out of the spring game. Head coach Bryan Harsin laughed a bit about the situation.
“Somebody was asking me last night: It’s funny, because in a way, the game he played against us is when he really got banged up, and now we have him on the roster, right?” Harsin said. “So you’re sitting there kind of looking at it like, damn. It’s just kind of one of those things that you hope he hadn’t gotten injured, and he could have gotten some more reps in the spring. But he’s really been pushing himself and studying and preparing, so now it’s just a matter of letting him get out there this summer.”
There hasn’t been a decision made on the quarterback battle between Calzada, Ashford, and TJ Finley. It seemed as though Harsin wasn’t in a big hurry to make a decision as they waited on their new quarterback to get medical clearance to compete for the job.
“It’s full-go,” Harsin said. “He’s got to be ready to play. If he’s one of the guys that we kind of narrow it down and he’s one of the top guys, then we’ll get him ready to play.”
With summer workouts approaching, it is the perfect timing for the news. We are getting closer to a decision being made and Calzada has as good of a chance to start as anyone. It might come down to Calzada or Ashford but…