With His Fifth School, Tulane’s TJ Finley Among Well-Traveled Quarterbacks

While he was not alone, JT Daniels became a well-known four-school quarterback when he transferred from West Virginia to Rice for the 2023 season. Jordan McCloud and Casey Thompson were among those who made the move to a fourth college football program in 2024. Then there is Clifton McDowell, who concluded his truly nomadic career last season with McNeese State, his sixth team and at seemingly every level imaginable.

Led by TJ Finley’s fifth collegiate destination, here are a handful of players who have hooked on with at least a fourth program since the end of last season.

TJ Finley, Tulane

It was late May 2018 when the much-hyped Finley committed to Ed Orgeron’s LSU Tigers. Hence, Finley began and, presumably, will conclude his collegiate career in the Bayou State after signing with Tulane in December. There was plenty of shuffling around in between.

The 6-foot-6 Finley started five games for LSU as a freshman during the pandemic-disrupted 2020 season. He lost the starting job the following spring practice and transferred to Auburn where he started six games over two seasons. Finley was back in the portal and landed at Texas State for the 2023 season. It was with G.J. Kinne’s Bobcats that he threw for 3,439 yards and 24 TDs while leading the program to its first bowl appearance, a win over Rice in the First Responder Bowl. That was Finley’s last game with the team.

Finley was on the move again and spent last year at Western Kentucky. An ankle injury sustained in the third game of the season shut him down for the duration and, yep, it was off to the portal once again. Tulane coach Jon Sumrall had a need for an experienced quarterback when Darian Mensah left for Duke and a reported $8 million NIL deal.

While Finley is at his fifth institution, here are a few QBs who joined their fourth.

Harrison Bailey, Florida

A highly touted recruit out of Georgia, Bailey started twice for Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee toward the end of his freshman season of 2020. He was behind Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III in 2021 prompting him to hit the portal before the season concluded. Bailey transferred to UNLV where he was a backup in 2022 and was on the move again and joined Jeff Brohm’s Louisville Cardinals as a preferred walk-on. He attempted 13 passes in two seasons before starting a Sun Bowl win over Washington in which he threw three touchdown passes and two interceptions. Bailey is back in the SEC with Florida and provides coach Billy Napier with a veteran backup behind DJ Lagway after DeShawn Purdie had a change of heart and opted for Wake Forest instead of UF. (Purdie was with three schools – Charlotte, Florida and Wake – in less than a month.)

Zach Calzada, Kentucky

One of the few pre-pandemic players remaining, the seventh-year senior began his career at Texas A&M in 2019. He got into three games that season, three more than 2020 when he did not see action. With Kellen Mond off the NFL, Haynes King took over Jimbo Fisher’s offense in 2021. However, King was injured early in the season, which opened the door for Calzada, who started 10 games and threw 17 touchdown passes. He threw three TD passes in wins against visiting Alabama and at LSU.

Calzada was in the portal a week or so following the win over LSU. He remained in the SEC when he signed with Auburn where his competition was none other than Finley as well as Robby Ashford. Calzada not only failed to win the job, but was third in the pecking order and did not see the field for the second time in three seasons. He headed back to Texas in 2023 to play for FCS member Incarnate Word where he threw 54 touchdown passes in 22 games the past two years. At Kentucky, Calzada is with his third SEC program and will compete with redshirt freshman Cutter Boley, who backed up Brock Vandagriff, who retired from the sport.

Timmy McClain, Bethune-Cookman

McClain started games on both ends of what was the War on I-4 rivalry. He started nine games as a freshman at USF in 2021 then transferred to UCF where he redshirted in 2022. He started three games for the Knights in 2023 when John Rhys Plumlee was injured. McClain, who grew up 25 miles outside Orlando, transferred to Arkansas State for the 2024 season and attempted only 21 passes as a backup to Jalen Raynor. With only 123 pass attempts in three seasons since starting at USF, McClain went to FCS member Bethune-Cookman where he will battle returning starter Cam’Ron Ransom.

Chandler Morris, Virginia

The son of former SMU and Arkansas coach, Chad Morris, began his career at Oklahoma before transferring to TCU. He spent three seasons with the Horned Frogs and was tabbed the starter in 2022 only to sprain his left MCL in the season opener. Max Duggan stepped in and led TCU to the national championship game. With Duggan off to the NFL, Morris was once again Spike Dykes’ No. 1 quarterback in 2023 before sustaining the same injury at the season’s midway point and ultimately ending his time in Fort Worth.

Morris transferred 40 miles up I-35 to Denton and North Texas where in 2024 he led the American in passing yards (3,774) and touchdown passes (31) in his lone season under Eric Morris (no relation). At Virginia, the Houston native will play for Tony Elliott, who replaced Chad Morris as Clemson’s OC when the latter left to take over SMU in 2015.

Reese Poffenbarger, North Texas

Speaking of UNT and Eric Morris, the coach reeled in Poffenbarger from Miami to compete for the job vacated by Chandler Morris’ departure. Poffenbarger saw limited action (20 passing yards) as a backup to Cam Ward with the Hurricanes last season after two outstanding years at Albany, including a 2023 campaign in which he led the FCS with 3,603 yards passing. The Maryland native began his career as a redshirt at Old Dominion in 2021. At UNT, Poffenbarger is easily the most experienced player in the QB room. Competition will come from, among others, redshirt freshman Drew Mastemaker, whose only career start was last season’s First Responder Bowl loss to Texas State when he totaled 448 yards.

Ta’Quan Roberson, Buffalo

Roberson is another pre-pandemic and seventh-year player with the distinction of having Power Five, Group of Five and independent programs on his resume. That is hard to do even by current portal standards since there were only three independents – two effective the 2025 season — when he was the starting quarterback at UConn in 2023, a season in which he attempted 338 of his 376 career passes and threw for 12 of his 13 TDs. Otherwise, Roberson saw limited action in three seasons (2019-21) with Penn State and one (2024) at Kansas State. With Pete Lembo’s Bulls, Roberson is easily the most experienced quarterback among a group that includes fellow senior Gunnar Gary, who backed up C.J. Ogbonna (expired eligibility) last season.

Thanks to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s lawsuit against the NCAA that challenged the institution’s eligibility rules with respect to former junior college players, Chandler Rogers could continue his career with a fifth school. After redshirting as a freshman at Southern Miss in 2020, Rogers played a post-pandemic 2021 spring season for Blinn (Texas) College, a JUCO. He transferred to Louisiana-Monroe that summer and played two seasons for the Warhawks prior to landing at North Texas in 2023. After totaling 34 TDs for the Mean Green, he transferred to Cal last year before entering the portal once again (where he remained as of Feb. 19) after attempting only 25 passes with the Golden Bears.