Auburn signs 23-year-old QB Cord Sandberg, who spent 6 years in the minors

The former four-star QB prospect played baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Auburn has just added some depth at quarterback, thanks to the late addition of 23-year-old Cord Sandberg to the Tigers’ 2018 class. Sandberg has a unique backstory — he’s a former 2013 Mississippi State signee from Manatee High in Bradenton, Florida, but he spent the last six years playing minor league baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Since he opted for baseball and never ended up playing college football, he has a full four years of eligibility left. That means he could be playing for the Tigers just before or after his 27th birthday in January — he could be nearly nine years older than some freshman who will arrive on campus in a four years! This is a bit similar to former Oklahoma State QB Brandon Weeden, who turned 28 during his senior year in 2011.

He announced that he’d be returning to college football earlier this month:

After his announcement, he had a pretty eventful recruitment in just a week. More from College and Magnolia:

After deciding to return to college football, he had only one week to visit his top programs. He whittled his list down to a final three of NC State, Auburn, and LSU. Sandberg visited all three programs this week before making his decision and will now enroll at Auburn and will be able to participate in fall practice. He’s essentially a late addition to the 2018 signing class and has four years of eligibility available.

Sandberg will join returning starter Jarrett Stidham, as well as back-ups Malik Willis, Joey Gatewood, and Devin Adams.

Per his MiLB bio, he spent most of his career in Class-A ball with various minor league teams affiliated with the Phillies. Over his minor league career, he batted .243 and had an OBP of .298.

This is certainly a pretty cool and unique story, and luckily for Sandberg he has a full four years to make his football dreams come true.