Jackson Arnold credits his experience for making him a better leader

Perhaps no position on a football team is more intertwined with leadership than quarterback. At the same time, not every quarterback is a natural leader. For some, like Auburn Tigers transfer Jackson Arnold, it’s something that they work hard to achieve.

Over the years, Arnold has seen his ability as a leader improve. That’s something that he attributed to experience at SEC Media Days. It’s also something he hopes will now let him hit the ground running with the Tigers in 2025.

“I think it’s just really experience,” Arnold said. “This is about to be my third year of college. I’ve played a full year of SEC ball. Had it under my belt. I think the guys on the team respect that. Not only that, I feel like I came in and really wanted to establish myself early on and made sure in the spring everyone knew that I was going to take control of this team and lead them.”

There was a specific goal when it came to becoming a leader at Auburn for Arnold, too. He wanted to find a way onto the team’s leadership council.

“I thought I did a pretty good job of that in the spring. We initially had a leadership council when I came here in the spring,” Arnold said. “And I wasn’t on it. I made sure that was one of my goals for the summer was to be on that leadership council.”

Arnold went to Oklahoma out of high school as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2023. He’d ultimately appear in 17 games during his time at Oklahoma, including 10 starts. He was also benched at one point during the 2024 season. During that time, he’s completed 62.9 percent of passes for 1,984 yards and 16 touchdowns to six interceptions. He’s also rushed for 560 yards and four touchdowns.

Now, Arnold joins an Auburn team that has been looking for answers at quarterback. This, coming after a season where Auburn was 28th in passing offense nationally, averaging 263.9 yards per game. However, the Tigers’ 13 interceptions as a team were 97th nationally and did a lot to hurt Auburn in close SEC games.

Brent Venables: Jackson Arnold ‘dealt a really bad hand,’ had ‘no chance’ to be successful at OU

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables had the chance to share some thoughts on Arnold at SEC Media Days. There, he praised the young quarterback, emphasizing that he feels Arnold was dealt a bad hand in Norman.

“Unfortunately for him, everything around him wasn’t helping him be successful. So he had no chance in some ways, under the circumstances, and (got) dealt a really bad hand,” Venables said.

“Sharon and Todd, they’re amazing people. Hate what happened. We wanted to keep him, we tried to keep him, but I think he just needed a fresh start. I don’t want to speak for him, but he was wonderful. Never once was I disappointed in him. He handled one of the toughest moments of his athletic life in an amazing first-class way. And I know this without reservation, he’s going to play this game a long time at a really high level.”