TJ Finley heard every recruiting pitch about his talent and skillset as a quarterback, first as a highly rated three-star recruit deep in SEC Country and then after transferring from his hometown LSU to Auburn. So Texas State head coach GJ Kinne and offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich didn't base their recruitment strategy on that. But first they just had to get him in the building for a visit.

He announced his intention to transfer from Auburn on May 2. Texas State needed to add another body to the quarterback room following spring camp. So Kinne thought, 'Why not?' He asked around and got the 6-foot-6 quarterback's contact information and took a swing while on a date night in New Braunfels.

Finley already had meetings lined up with Power Five programs who were interested but Kinne and Leftwich wanted San Marcos to be his first stop, so he agreed. He never ended up taking the other visits. He visited Texas State on May 10, committed in person on the visit and then publicly announced his decision on Twitter on May 12, just 10 days after entering the portal.

“It was just kind of the confidence piece, like the confidence that he had that I could be able to flourish in this offense,” Finley said of what gravitated him to Kinne’s proposal.

But it wasn’t the praise that drew him in, it was the critique of his game and the thorough feedback that both Kinne and Leftwich gave him on his reps up to that point.

“I think (recruits) get enough of people selling them the dream and telling them how great they are,” Leftwich said. “They want a coach who they feel that … ‘This guy's watched every throw I’ve had the past three years. He knows what my weaknesses are in my game and how we can go about improving that.’”

The pair compiled a reel of Finley’s pass attempts ranging all the way from high school through his time at Auburn going over it with him, the good and the bad.

“What was the decision here?”

“What was the route here?”

“What made you go here?”

The questions came flooding in but that was all in attempt to convince the former SEC quarterback that they understood his talents and how to take them to the next level.

Their track record with Lindsey Scott Jr., now an offensive assistant at Texas State, was proof of concept. Here was another dual-threat transfer who had arm talent but only completed around 60 percent of his passes and threw 11 interceptions at Nicholls. In his final college season after transferring to UIW, he upped his completion percentage to 71 and reduced his interceptions number by three while also throwing nearly 200 more passes and becoming the most dominant offensive player in the FCS. Leftwich had also previously worked with Cam Ward, now starting at Washington State, who ran the triple option in high school and had very minimal passing tape coming out. It was just about putting the “right” system around them. And they felt that it was the same for Finley.

He ran RPO at LSU. He ran pro-style at Auburn. He knows that if he wants to make it to the NFL, he’ll have to know a little bit of everything anyway. So, he didn’t necessarily care about the specific scheme, he just wanted to be in a situation that highlighted his talent in ways that maybe hadn’t been thus far.

“The biggest thing is getting into an offense where I can showcase what I'm good at, where I can showcase the deep-ball accuracy,” Finley said.

Finley arrived on campus in July after he completed courses at Auburn in June. He picked up the playbook in three weeks so he could successfully compete for the starting job. He even connected, unintentionally at first, with former Texas State quarterback Shaun Rutherford, now a trainer in the Austin area.

“Who the hell is this big ass dude throwing,” Rutherford recalled thinking. It was Finley throwing a Bang-8 route to some wideouts at Rutherford’s facility. The pair connected afterward for a training session with Finley wanting to fine-tune his footwork.

“He's got probably a top-five arm in the country,” Rutherford said. “But one of his things is just being a lot smoother with his feet, his feet connecting towards throws, and tying his feet to his eyes. I mean, he's done a great job of that thus far this season.”

Rutherford remembers former Texas State quarterback and current UTEP running backs coach Barrick Nealy being a mentor-figure for him when he first enrolled in 2011. He wanted to provide that guidance option for Finley.

“He's been to every home game and some practices ever since and supporting me, helping me (and) hyping me up,” Finley said.

Texas State’s offense under Kinne and Leftwich has some variations on the traditional spread. The offensive splits are a bit wider and the wideouts are very stretched, perfect for someone with raw arm talent that can see the field well enough to connect on some of the vertical concepts.

“We've also got enough quick game built in, enough easy throws, to where you're gonna be able to complete a high percentage of passes,” Leftwich said. “I think a lot of that has to do with coaches being willing to adjust and to adapt the scheme to that quarterback. That’s what we did.”

Finley’s already eclipsed his passing yards in two seasons at Auburn (1,258) through just five games at Texas State (1,393) and is having his best completion season at nearly 73 percent. He’s also gained more confidence in the mental side of the game, learning to look off defenses and dictating whether a safety is a “zone-dropper” or “eye-dropper” in coverage.

“I kind of knew with the confidence that (Kinne) had, that as long as I came in here and showed him everything I could do and being coachable and learning from him and stuff like that, it could lead to where we are now,” Finley said.

This weekend the 6-foot-6 gunslinger makes his return to his home state of Louisiana. Texas State plays its second road game in Sun Belt play against the Ragin Cajuns just under two hours from Finley’s hometown of Ponchatoula. It’ll technically be his first start back in Louisiana since he started for the program over in Baton Rouge as an 18-year-old, just over 30 minutes from where he grew up. He was admittedly wide-eyed at the time. LSU had just won the national championship and here he was starting after Myles Brennan went down in Week 3.

“I had to go from high school ball where I'm the man and I know everything, and I'm the best on the field, to really be one of the youngest on the field having to lead a bunch of grown men and get them ready to play an SEC game,” Finley recalled.

The critics were loud both there at LSU and at Auburn. The SEC can be a passionate, albeit hostile, environment.

“Those comments are easy to block out when you have that strong of understanding and that strong of a relationship with God,” Finley said. “I think those comments get easier and easier to block out.”

Texas State is 0–9 all-time in football against Louisiana, who’ve been considered a benchmark of excellence in the Sun Belt. But the battle-tested quarterback who weathered the critics in the SEC has seemingly entered a new phase of his life and isn't fazed. Not only is he finding his groove, but he’s maturing. The latest way has been discovering his 'Why'. In September, he made it public that he and his fiancé, former LSU and Auburn basketball player Amoura Graves, are expecting twins. Everything used to be about just the journey to be great at what he did. Now he has a bigger purpose.

“Now, it has totally shifted,” Finley said. “Everything I do is for those two boys in her stomach. The way I walk, the way I talk, the way I greet people, the way I interact with people. I want to leave a positive name for my last name.”

His goal is still the NFL and thus far, Texas State is proving to be the canvas for his best work yet.

“That's my goal is to dominate this league and show everybody that we're for real,” Finley said.