Alabama Welcomes Familiar Face To Tuscaloosa For Season Opener

T.J. Finley will take on Alabama for the third time with his third different school to open the 2024 season.

Auburn Tigers quarterback T.J. Finley (1) warms up during the A-Day spring football game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, April 8, 2023. / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Alabama football program welcomes Western Kentucky into Tuscaloosa on Saturday for the first time since hosting the Hilltoppers in 2016. There'll be a slight sense of familiarity on Saban Field in Bryant-Denny Stadium despite not meeting in seven season as several coaches and players have faced each other a few times before.

Western Kentucky named transfer quarterback T.J. Finley its starter for the upcoming season on Monday. Saturday's start in Tuscaloosa will mark Finley's third college game with his third different school as the former 3-star quarterback is on his fourth school in five years.

Finley is 0-2 in two starts against the Crimson Tide, losing a 55-17 game as a freshman playing for LSU and losing 24-22 in four overtimes as a sophomore playing for Auburn. He combined for 31/54 passes for 281 yards with three touchdowns and one interception across the two performances as a young quarterback with minimal receiving options.

In fact, Finley's familiarity with what he's facing runs even deeper than his reps against the script A. After leaving Auburn he transferred to Texas State where Finley found himself leading the Bobcats against Kane Wommack's South Alabama Jaguars in 2023. Finley sliced and diced Wommack's 4-2-5 "Swarm" defense to the tune of 19/28 passes for 368 yards with three touchdowns and just one interception while leading Texas State to a 52-44 win.

“Obviously, when a player has had experience playing against a team, there’s a certain level of comfort, especially if you’ve been in a stadium or whatever that may be. But then when you’ve faced a guy you’ve seen in real-time, how he responds to success, how he responds to adversity. Quarterbacks are so much of what progression does this quarterback go through? What is his presnap routine? What does his cadence look like? And so getting to see some of those things in real-time has certainly helped. I would probably say it helps on both sides in some ways," said Wommack on Monday.

“But really impressed with him a year ago. I thought he’s got a really good release. He can make all the throws. I thought he did a really good job of managing their offense really well. Took what was given early but can work through a progression. And so it’ll be interesting to see how Tyson and their staff utilize him maybe different than what GJ Kinne did or the Auburn staff before that or whatever it may be. But I think he’s got a skillset that you can utilize in a number of different ways.

“And then he’s a big son a gun, so he’s a guy that can fall forward and if he does, he’s gonna go for three or four yards just getting downhill. One of the things that we really lean into is what are their escape styles. He may have a very different escape style than what we’ve seen from Ty Simpson or Jalen Milroe, and those are things that we wanna get our guys very clued into as we’re getting ready to match these guys up from a personnel standpoint.”

Wommack found similar problems when matched up against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in at the end of the 2022 season as his Jaguars lost the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl 44-23 allowing 497 yards passing to then Hilltoppers quarterback Austin Reed.

Hilltoppers head coach Tyson Helton will look to draw upon the success he was able to find against Wommack by putting Finley into positions to succeed on Saturday night. Finley hasn't been much of a runner in college, tallying just 100 total yards in five years of action with eight scores on the ground, he's still a load to bring down at 6-foot-7, 250 pounds.

"He looks like an efficient passer. Very tall guy so it's going to be hard to match the hand. He's an efficient passer. I'm sure he's learning the offense pretty well so it'll be a challenge," said Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson.

Finley was able to find himself at Texas State last season, passing for over 3,400 yards with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Helton's guided his last two quarterbacks Bailey Zappe and Reed to three straight seasons of 3,300 or more passing yards as he looks to have the Hilltoppers in contention to win C-USA.

The Crimson Tide is a heavy favorite on Saturday, but Western Kentucky comes into Tuscaloosa with a commendable formula playing the season opening underdog role. The Hilltoppers coaching staff has success to lean on in lower levels as Finley and Helton both beat Wommack in their previous matchups while Finley has the big game experience of having taken on the Tide in SEC environments.

"I think we go into the game with the same mindset every time no matter who we play," said Alabama safety Malachi Moore. "He's a big guy, but in the SEC we play big guys and big quarterbacks all the time so we just need to go in there, have the best week of preparation we can have and go in there and execute on Saturday."