Cubelic shares thoughts on quarterback battle

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Head coach Bryan Harsin intends to use every bit of the final two weeks of preseason practice to evaluate the candidates for the open quarterback slot.

T.J. Finley, Zach Calzada, and Robby Ashford have all impressed Harsin in their own personal ways, but Harsin needs one of those players to take control of the offense, and show him why they are the best fit to take on the role of starting quarterback.

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While Harsin is still considering all options, those in the media are expressing their choices for starting quarterback, and why they are the best option. One of those is former Tiger and current SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic.

Cubelic was a guest on a recent episode of On3’s podcast “The Hard Count” with JD PicKell. While on the show, the topic of Auburn’s ongoing quarterback saga was discussed, and Cubelic was asked to share his point of view on the situation. His pick for opening day starter is a safe one, but has solid logic behind it.

“I think it’s T.J. Finley’s job to lose right now, mainly because he finished the season as the starter last year, and Calzada had shoulder surgery, so he didn’t get a ton of reps with the ones in spring ball,” Cubelic said, “As a matter of fact, anything that was live – which with a quarterback still aren’t live, but perceived to be live – and even in a lot of the seven-on-seven stuff, T.J. got a lot of the number one reps.”

While Cubelic believes that Finley has the edge to start the season-opening game against Mercer on September 3, he says that another candidate could step up later in the season, and ultimately take the job.

“I still think that (Zach) Calzada is more capable,” Cubelic said. “I think eventually he wins the job, but as of right now, I still think Zach’s got to go take it from T.J. if he’s going to be the starter game one and be the starter for the entire season.”

The next chance for an Auburn quarterback to create separation is Friday when the team holds its second scrimmage of fall camp.