David Pollack labels Jackson Arnold as Auburn's biggest question in 2025

The past five seasons have been unacceptable for the Auburn football program, which has posted five consecutive sub-seven win seasons for the first time since 1975-1978. In the three seasons where the Tigers have totaled six wins, they lost all three bowl games. To say third-year head coach Hugh Freeze is on the hot seat this season would be an understatement.

In an attempt to bring relevancy back to the program, Auburn hauled in former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold from Oklahoma this offseason. In two seasons in Norman, Arnold boasted 1,984 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. He added another 560 yards on the ground, along with four touchdowns.

His play didn’t quite equate success for the Oklahoma program however, as it was just 5-6 in games where he was the featured quarterback. Due to this uncertainty, David Pollack of the “See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack” labeled Arnold as Auburn‘s biggest question mark heading into the season.

“The biggest questions mark is Jackson Arnold and it’s not even close,” Pollack said. “Last year was tough. But I do think the one thing that I know about [Arnold] is that he’s an elite runner. And I do know Hugh Freeze with an elite runner at quarterback is a dangerous freaking animal. Because then he gets to the RPO games, the quick game. He changes tempo as good as anybody in the country with their green light and red light. They’ll come up to the line of scrimmage and go ‘fast, fast, fast’ but then they’ll wait for the last second on the play clock.”

“They just do a really good job of mixing and varying tempos. So I think that’s something you can lean on that Auburn hasn’t had. Payton Thorne was a good runner, but he wasn’t a great runner. Jackson Arnold is a great runner and you saw that against Alabama.”

In Oklahoma‘s 24-3 win over the Crimson Tide last season, Arnold rushed for 131 yards. It marked his third game with at least 75 rushing yards, as he also reached that mark against LSU (75) and Tulane (97).

“Here’s the thing… I like this Auburn team… I do,” Pollack continued. “I think the offensive line is really good. I think it’s deep. I think it’s experienced. You talk about the best 1-2 punch at wide receiver in the country, I will take Auburn. Because I love having variation of guys that can do different things. [Cam] Coleman at six-foot-four on the outside, like I can throw him the rock. [Eric] Singleton can win in here. I can put him on the same side. It’ harder to double those guys because they’re not the same type of wide receiver, which I think is really good.”

Arnold and the Tigers open their 2025 campaign at Baylor on August 29. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:00 CT/8:00 ET.