Brent Venables explains why he's 'incredibly excited' about Jackson Arnold's talent

Jackson Arnold is Brent Venables’ guy under center this season. However, some have questioned Oklahoma‘s ceiling with him as the Sooners’ starting quarterback.

Seeing time in seven games last season while making one start in a losing effort in OU’s bowl game, the former five-star recruit has honed in on his skills offseason, according to his head coach.

“I’ve probably exposed to more negativity on why we can’t accomplish certain things this year because of Jackson and the bowl game and things like that,” Venables said during an appearance on SEC Now. “And I just look at the guys around him. They have got to play well.

“Jackson’s done a lot of great things since he’s been here, and just a young player who has started one college football game, [I’m] incredibly excited about not only his talent, but his work ethic, his instincts to play the game and his ability to lead. He’s just got great internal toughness to him. He doesn’t get rattled when things don’t go right. And that’s the game of football, not everything is going to be perfect.”

As a true freshman, Arnold’s lone start at the Valero Alamo Bowl game against Arizona saw Venables give him a heavy workload during the matchup. He ended up throwing 45 passes for 361 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions in a losing effort against a ranked Wildcats squad.

Venables pointed out that the offense had over 500 yards of production during the contest with Arnold at the helm, but the turnover bug was too much for the Sooners to overcome as the Arizona defense racked up six turnovers during the bowl game.

“This is a game that will punish you for the little things,” Vaneables said. “But he’s made great improvement and just going down all the categories that you would measure, I think we have a chance to have a really good unit surrounding Jackson. We’ve got a depth of running back, depth of receiver, transformed our position group at tight end, and I really like the leadership and the toughness of our offensive line.”

Fans were given another glimpse of Arnold during Oklahoma’s 2024 spring game, and it didn’t take long for Arnold to connect with junior wide receiver Deion Burks — who just transferred into the program from Purdue — for a 64-yard touchdown during the opening possession. The duo would hook up for another big-time scoring play, this time going for 50 yards in the second quarter. It’s a connection that Sooners fans may be hearing quite a bit this season.

The Sooners kick off their 2024 regular season at home against Temple during a special Friday night kickoff on Aug. 30 set for 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN.