Jackson Arnold opens up on how his mental health has improved since leaving Oklahoma for Auburn

Jackson Arnold entered the college football world as a highly recruited prospect for the Oklahoma Sooners. Now, after some less-than-stellar time in Norman, he’s joined the Auburn Tigers via the transfer portal for 2025.

As he adjusts to his new team, Arnold is in a much better place mentally, according to some comments he made at SEC Media Days earlier this week. Evidently, he’s ready to attack the sport with a new perspective at Auburn, and that could mean great things are on the horizon for the highly-touted quarterback.

“It’s been great,” Arnold stated, regarding the move from Norman to Auburn. “I think this off-season has been good for me mentally. Just kind of being a new place, getting a fresh start, being around new people, new coaches, new players. New scenery, too. Honestly, I think Auburn’s beautiful. It has great scenery.

“I think, for me, mentally, I needed to be in a new spot, to be around some other people in order to thrive. I feel like God put me in the great position that I’m in right now, and I’m super excited.”

That’s music to the ears of Tigers fans everywhere. It wasn’t all bad for Arnold at Oklahoma, as he joined the Sooners 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 benched at one point during the 2024 season, but Arnold returned to flash some talent afterwards. All in all, the quarterback completed 62.9 percent of passes for 1,984 yards and 16 touchdowns to six interceptions last season. He’s also rushed for 560 yards and four touchdowns.

Entering a new campaign, Arnold joins an Auburn team that has been looking for answers at quarterback for quite some time. Coming after a season where Auburn was 28th in passing offense nationally, averaging 263.9 yards per game, he’ll be hoping to change the game.

“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,” Arnold added, regarding how he’ll be a leader at Auburn. “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.”

All told, Jackson Arnold is saying all the right things thus far, but his fate will be decided on the field. Time will tell if he evolves into the tremendous college quarterback many expected when he joined Oklahoma at Auburn, or if the Tigers feature another rough go-round for him.

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.