For the third time this offseason, the Auburn Tigers added a quarterback through the transfer portal. This time it is Tanner Bailey joining the Tigers’ quarterback room.
Bailey, who played two seasons at South Carolina before sitting out the 2024 season, announced his decision to come out of retirement from football and join Auburn’s program via his Instagram story.
“Back to the game I love, in the city I love. Let’s run it back … WAR EAGLE! Psalms 61:2,” Bailey said on X (formerly Twitter).
Bailey, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound redshirt freshman from Gordo, Ala., did not appear in any games for the Gamecocks in 2022 but was third on the depth chart. He appeared in one game in 2023, South Carolina’s 47-21 win over Furman. The only stat Bailey recorded was being strip-sacked for a loss of seven yards.
Coming out of high school, Bailey was a four-star recruit, the No. 220 player nationally and the No. 15 quarterback in the class of 2022 according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. Bailey chose to play for South Carolina over programs such as Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Indiana, LSU, Michigan and Oregon. Indiana and Oregon gave South Carolina the toughest competition to land Bailey’s talents.
Bailey joins former Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold and former Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels as players the Tigers have added to the position through the portal since it opened.
The race for the starting job is expected to be wide-open as the three transfers will compete with incoming freshman Deuce Knight. According to 247Sports’ composite rankings, Knight was a four-star recruit, the No. 33 player nationally and the No. 5 quarterback in the class of 2025.
Bailey is the 16th player to join the Tigers through the portal since it opened. Auburn has lost 19 players to the portal. Click here to read about all of Auburn’s portal additions and losses.
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