The team on The Plains has proven to be the latest winner of an offseason quarterback sweepstakes.
Earlier this month, Cord Sandberg announced his retirement from baseball after a six-season career spent entirely in the minor leagues. Simultaneously, the four-star member of Mississippi State’s 2013 football recruiting class announced that he would be resuming his gridiron career, confirming that he had already received a scholarship offer from Auburn and a pair of offers to be a preferred walk-on at two other SEC schools — Florida and LSU. The Gators are coached by Dan Mullen, who was the head coach of the Bulldogs when Sandberg signed with MSU in February of 2013.
In mid-July, to the surprise of some, Sandberg had whittled UF off a to-do list that had been pared down to Auburn, LSU and North Carolina State. Monday evening, Sandberg took to Twitter to announce that he had decided to join one of the two SEC teams with a Tigers nickname.
Absolutely humbled to have been given the opportunity to pursue a childhood dream of mine. After some visits and a lot of prayer I’m excited to announce I’m officially an Auburn Tiger! Fired up and ready to get to work! #WarEagle 🦅 @AuburnFootball pic.twitter.com/ot49iTRW9c
— Cord Sandberg (@sandberg_cord) July 30, 2018
In addition to the schools already mentioned, UCF and UCLA also expressed interest/extended offers.
Given that the 23-year-old Sandberg hasn’t played the sport since high school, it’s widely expected he’ll take a redshirt this coming football season; he would then have four years of eligibility remaining beginning with the 2019 season.
Coming out of high school in Bradenton, Fla., in 2013, Sandberg was rated as the No. 8 dual-threat quarterback in the country. Only three signees in MSU’s class that year were rated higher than Sandberg — defensive end Chris Jones, safety Ashton Shumpert and wide receiver Fred Ross.
In nearly 500 games at the minor league level, Sandberg, a center fielder, was a career .243 hitter with 29 home runs and 173 RBI. He finished with a slash line of .243/.298/.348.