TJ Finley’s claim to fame in college football discourse is his peculiar transfer portal journey. Starting as a freshman quarterback at LSU in 2020, he has since made stops at Auburn, Texas State, Western Kentucky, and Georgia State. Now, he has dropped to the FCS level, with the Incarnate Word Cardinals of San Antonio, Texas picking him up.
As if fate demanded it, Finley will face off against the Texas State Bobcats next season. They were the first team that treated him like a starter and gave him that type of workload back in 2023.
TJ Finley pulls some actual wizardry and Texas State is now up on Baylor 21-6 in Waco… 👀 pic.twitter.com/5ItLbhYjNL
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 3, 2023
Texas State gave TJ Finley his best season at the college level
Finley was brought in by first-year head coach GJ Kinne in the transfer portal to lead a revitalized team to new heights. Finley would repay Kinne’s faith in him, delivering an All-Sun Belt season while leading the team to their first-ever bowl game and victory. That season was also the only one that saw him start more than 10 games.
In 2026, the Cardinals will face off against the Bobcats, and Finley will be on the opposing sideline, trying to cause an upset against the team that he helped turn into one of the better G5 schools in the nation. Who would have thought in 2023 that the same program he helped build up would join a new-look Pac-12 just three years later?
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