Auburn coach Hugh Freeze has seen Jackson Arnold's 'swagger' return
ATLANTA, Georgia — Hugh Freeze certainly liked Jackson Arnold’s potential coming out of high school.
The former five-star prospect was the 2023 Texas Gatorade Player of the Year and became one of Oklahoma’s most highly-touted signees. But things fell apart for Arnold and the Sooners last season, and the quarterback entered the transfer portal at the end of the season.
Auburn was quick to jump at Arnold in portal and landed a commitment from him in December. Freeze knew Arnold had struggled during his one-year stint as the Sooners’ starting quarterback, but he still had confidence that he could be a great SEC quarterback.
That’s what Freeze has seen from Arnold in the last few months.
“You’re doing this speed dating here (in the portal) and things weren’t great statistically or whatever performance-wise,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days. “Then you have to do a deep dive into why was that, and can I get past whatever that was. When you evaluate it, you said it, he had several different play callers, injured offensive line and receivers, and yet when you pull all of his throws, I still saw that there it is, that’s what I saw. There it is again. He still has that about him.”
“Then you look at his toughness, and in the Alabama game putting his team on his back with his legs, and I mean, he had some tough runs. So I knew he had the toughness to him. And now it was just a matter of, man, let’s give this guy a restart and let him regain his swagger and confidence, and I knew that the receiver room we had could assist in that, and it did pretty quickly when he found out, man, I make a good throw in this area and this one-on-one, our guys are making plays. I’ve seen that swagger and confidence come back pretty quickly.”
Arnold is feeling quite a bit of confidence, too.
The Texas native, heading into his third collegiate season, acknowledged that last season was a struggle for himself and the Sooners. He entered the year as the starting quarterback before he was benched after three first-half turnovers against Tennessee. Michael Hawkins Jr. drew the start over the next three weeks — including in the win over Auburn — before Arnold eventually regained the starting job.
Arnold was pivotal in the Sooners’ 24-3 win over Alabama but struggled against Missouri and LSU late in the season. He appeared in 10 games, finishing with 1,421 yards, 12 touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 62.6% of his passes.
Though Arnold had his struggles, the OU offense was disastrous for most of the season. In addition to significant injuries along the offensive line and at wide receiver, former OU offensive coordinator Seth Littrell was fired midway through the season.
“Last year was tough, obviously not ideal whatsoever,” Arnold said. “I think perseverance was a big thing I learned last year, kind of fighting through the tough times. We did play in some big games last year. Now I fully understand what it’s like playing a long SEC schedule against some good teams, playing in those tough games where it’s extremely close and you have to kind of grind it out.
“But I think last year taught me a lot, being able to persevere and really sticking to those tough games.”
The Sooners will get their first look at Arnold very early this fall. Arnold and the Tigers will come to Norman on Sept. 20 to kickoff SEC play for both teams.
“It’ll be a fun game,” Arnold said. “Extremely excited for that one. No animosity whatsoever. I just think it’s going to be a fun environment to go and play. I really enjoy playing in that stadium.”
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