AUBURN | Hugh Freeze didn’t have to look far to fill his quarterback room.

He already had a veteran SEC signal-caller on campus.

Tanner Bailey, who spent two seasons at South Carolina, has decided to join the Auburn football team after spending last year as a student at AU.

“I’m thrilled. A childhood dream come true for sure,” Bailey said. “But I think I have a completely different perspective this time. I put it up for reasons that didn’t really have to do with football. I wanted to get away from it. I thought it would be best for my personal growth.

“I feel like I’ve matured over the last year, not just physically but mentally and spiritually. But if you asked me as a 5-year-old what your life goal or dream was, it probably wouldn’t even be to make it to the NFL. It would probably be wearing an Auburn uniform.”

Bailey spent last year at Auburn and earned a degree in sociology in just five semesters at USC and AU in December. He plans to get a second degree in business administration at AU and then pursue a law degree.

Bailey has had conversations with Auburn’s staff in recent weeks, including Hugh Freeze.

“They want me to go a little bit off-script, a role player. And I understand that,” Bailey said. “I’m a big Auburn fan. For me it’s just going in and competing, that’s what they want me to do, and bringing some knowledge into the room.

“I just want to keep up and push the other guys and lead when I lead and follow when I need to. I just want to make our quarterback room better. If I do that, I’ll be a happy camper.”

Bailey’s father, Lance Bailey, was a quarterback under Pat Dye at Auburn in the 1980s and his grandfather, Ken Bailey, was a quarterback at Alabama under Bear Bryant in the late 1950s.

Bailey, 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, signed with the Gamecocks from Gordo (Ala.) High in the 2022 class. He redshirted his freshman season and played in one game in 2023 as a redshirt freshman.

As a senior at Gordo, he completed 131 of 217 passes for 2,401 yards and 33 touchdowns. He threw for more than 8,600 yards and 104 touchdowns during his high school career and was also the DH on Gordo’s baseball state championship team as a seventh grader.

Bailey was rated 4-star, the No. 11 pro quarterback nationally and No. 228 overall by the Rivals in the 2022 class.