Hugh Freeze laments decision to play 'long game' with Ashton Daniels, plan to redshirt

While looking for answers in the Auburn quarterback room, Hugh Freeze made a splash in the transfer portal when he brought in Jackson Arnold. But he added another transfer in former Stanford QB Ashton Daniels, and Freeze hoped to play the “long game” with a redshirt plan.

However, things changed over the course of the year, and Daniels passed Arnold on the depth chart to become the starter. While looking back on his tenure during an exclusive interview with AuburnSports’ Justin Hokanson, Freeze acknowledged he could have handled things differently.

Freeze said the plan was for Daniels to take a redshirt and gain another year on The Plains. But as things went along, he and the staff noticed the way Daniels escaped pressure in the pocket. From there, Auburn made an adjustment, though Freeze admitted there were other ways to approach the situation.

“You watch the Vandy game and I knew Ashton was going to play really well. We can talk about that forever, the decision to hold him and redshirt him because I wanted to play the long game,” Freeze said. “But he didn’t get there until July. So you already have your mind set. And Jackson did really well in practice. … All that time, you’re starting to see Ashton in practice and say, ‘Holy cow. This guy’s going to extend plays for you. He’s not going to take a lot of sacks.’ Then, you’re also looking at we’re five games in and we can preserve his redshirt where we have him for a full year.

“Looking back, was that a mistake? We can rehash all of that and would’ve, should’ve, could’ve. There’s a lot of things. I probably should’ve let [Derrick] Nix handle a lot of the play-calling. There’s a lot of things that you just go back and you second-guess because it didn’t get us to where we all wanted to be.”

Daniels wound up appearing in just four games, meaning he can still preserve a redshirt. During that time, he threw for 797 yards and three touchdowns, to two interceptions, while adding two rushing touchdowns. Arnold, meanwhile, threw for 1,309 yards and six touchdowns over 10 games to go with 311 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.

Despite Arnold’s up-and-down year, though, Hugh Freeze made it clear it was not entirely the Oklahoma transfer’s fault. There were other factors in play, as well.

“Let’s be clear, this is not a beat up Jackson deal,” Freeze said. “It’s never, always the quarterback. There are other factors. I mean, he missed a touchdown throw here at Oklahoma to a wide open Cam Coleman. Those plays you’ve got to make to win games. And he would say that too. And there’s also the Missouri game where we have what? Eight drops? Then there’s moments in the Georgia second half where he misses open guys, or the protection is not great, so it’s a combination of all those things.

“But certainly, it didn’t work out to the to the level that he nor I both expected for him and our team. And that’s that’s why I’m sitting here.”