The first offseason domino of Auburn’s quarterback situation for Year 1 of the Hugh Freeze era has fallen.

T.J. Finley, the former LSU transfer who started five games over the last two seasons, announced Tuesday afternoon he plans to enter the transfer portal as a graduate transfer next month upon completing his degree at Auburn. Finley’s decision to transfer, and the timing of it, was not unexpected given the current state of Auburn’s quarterback situation.

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Auburn’s recruiting under Hugh Freeze is “100 to 1″ change from previous coaching staff

Since taking over as Auburn’s coach at the end of November, Freeze has been meticulous in his evaluation of Auburn’s options at quarterback. The team returned a trio of scholarship quarterbacks from last season, with Finley, Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner all in the mix this spring. Freeze analyzed the film of each from last season but entered spring without preconceived notions of each quarterback; there was only so much he could gather from the film, given the other factors at play for Auburn’s offense — and the pieces surrounding the quarterback position — last season under the previous coaching staff.

Once spring practices began, Freeze, offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery and offensive analyst Kent Austin put all three quarterbacks under the microscope as the Tigers began to install a new RPO-heavy spread system. Freeze, for his part, was open with regards to his assessments of the quarterbacks — the good, the bad and the ugly. He did not shy away from criticizing their struggles in learning the new system, nor did he hesitate to point out the areas in which each made the most progress over the course of those six weeks of practices.

When spring ended April 8 with A-Day, all three quarterbacks seemingly finished where they began: Ashford was atop the pecking order after running the first-team offense during the spring game; Finley was second in the rotation; and Geriner was third, though he received some first-team reps that day as well.

Each of the three quarterbacks made strides in varying areas during those 15 practices, and Freeze said after A-Day that he felt “better” about the position heading into the offseason. Still, the first-year coach did not rule out adding another starting-caliber quarterback to the competition on the transfer market. When the post-spring transfer portal window opened April 15, the expectation was that Auburn would be on the hunt for a signal-caller—if the right one became available.

Through the first 13 days of that window, things were quiet on the quarterback front. The activity during this portal period was slower than anticipated, Freeze said last Tuesday, but that didn’t mean Auburn wasn’t going to stop looking for upgrades to its roster. Then on Thursday night, while speaking to reporters at the AMBUSH tour stop in Huntsville, Freeze addressed the status of Auburn’s offseason quarterback search.

“Truthfully, I haven’t seen one yet that’s just, ‘Bam, that’s the no-brainer, and he’s ahead of the ones we have,’” Freeze told reporters Thursday night before the AMBUSH tour stop in Huntsville. “I know some (fans) may not want to hear that because they think it’s just an instant fix. I get the tweets; trust me.

“Every time a quarterback goes in the portal, ‘There he is! There he is!’ Then I watch the film, and I’m like, ‘No, that’s really not the one I’m looking for.’”

However, he cautioned, that could change overnight.

Sure enough, it did. On Friday, a quarterback entered the portal that certainly fit the “no-brainer” category: Nebraska’s Casey Thompson, the former four-star quarterback who began his career at Texas before transferring to Nebraska last season. Auburn quickly reached out to Thompson, who started 20 games for the Longhorns and Huskers over the last two seasons and would be a sixth-year grad transfer.

Thompson reportedly visited Auburn over the weekend, though no commitment has come. The 6-foot, 195-pounder is a career 63.5 percent passer who has thrown for 4,829 yards, 47 touchdowns and 19 interceptions over the last four seasons while adding another 10 touchdowns rushing. As Nebraska’s starter last season, Thompson completed 63.1 percent of his passes for 2,407 yards, 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 10 games while battling through injury much of the year. The year prior at Texas, he completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 2,113 yards, 24 touchdowns and nine picks. He also averaged 8.45 yards per pass attempt over the last two seasons.

Thompson’s accuracy and yards per pass attempt are better than what Finley (62.3 percent; 8.1 yards per attempt) and Ashford (49.2 percent; 6.5 yards per attempt) produced last season. Paired with his experience at the Power 5 level, it would be easy to argue he’d be an upgrade for Auburn at the position — and at the very least a compelling piece to introduce to the competition this fall.

While Thompson would check a lot of boxes for Auburn at quarterback, he wasn’t the only intriguing option to hit the portal after Freeze’s last public comments Thursday night in Huntsville. On Sunday, Michigan State’s Payton Thorne—another multiyear starter in the Big Ten—entered the portal.

Reports have linked Thorne to Auburn in the 48 hours since he hit the market, and it’s easy to see why there would be interest on the Tigers’ end. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder is a former three-star dual-threat prospect who started all 12 games for the Spartans last season. A redshirt senior who should have two years of eligibility left (thanks to the COVID year), Thorne is a 60.9 percent career passer who has thrown for 6,494 yards and 49 touchdowns in 29 games—26 of which were starts for Michigan State. He’s one of the program’s career leaders in passing touchdowns (fourth), completion percentage (fifth) and passing yards (sixth), and he has five games with 300-plus yards through the air.

Thorne, who averaged 7.5 yards per pass attempt for his career, has 46 touchdowns against 21 interceptions the last two seasons while completing 61.5 percent of his passes for 5,911 yards.

If Auburn could land either Thompson or Thorne this offseason, it would certainly shake things up for the Tigers at the most important position on the field and potentially alter the program’s outlook for Year 1 of Freeze’s tenure significantly. Whether Auburn can reel in one of them remains to be seen, but it’s difficult to imagine Finley’s departure being the only domino to tumble for the Tigers at quarterback this summer.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.