Kentucky will face Auburn's backup quarterback on Saturday

Does the curse of the backup quarterback still haunt Kentucky? We’re about to find out. On3’s Chris Low is reporting that Auburn plans to start Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels over Jackson Arnold on Saturday. Daniels took over for Arnold last week vs. Arkansas and led the Tigers to their first SEC win.

According to Low, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze informed the team of the decision today. Arnold has started all eight games for the Tigers this season, but was benched in the second quarter of the Arkansas game after throwing a pick-six to give the Razorbacks a 21-10 lead. Daniels came in and went 6-8 for 77 yards, adding 35 more yards on the ground, to guide Auburn to the wild 33-24 victory.

Arnold and Daniels have been splitting reps in practice this week. Daniels started for two years at Stanford, excelling in the wildcat package. The dual-threat has over 1,400 career non-sack rushing yards and 4,000 career passing yards with 29 total touchdowns (20 passing, 9 rushing); however, ball security is an issue, as he has totaled 20 interceptions and 15 fumbles. The Arkansas game is his only appearance of the season thus far.

Adam Luckett broke down Auburn’s quarterback situation in his scouting report earlier this week:

Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold (6-1, 219, Jr.) started the first eight games for Auburn this season. The former Elite 11 MVP has passed for 1,263 yards on 6.1 yards per attempt with a 63.3 completion percentage and has chipped in 429 non-sack rushing yards on 5.0 yards per rush. However, Arnold has struggled to drive the ball down the field consistently and that led Freeze to making a position change last week. Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels (6-2, 219, Sr.) stepped in and led the offense on multiple field goal drives. The fourth-year player has 20 career starts to go along with 4,063 passing yards (61% completion rate, 6.7 yards per attempt, 21 touchdowns) and 1,430 rushing yards (5.7 yards per rush, 45 missed tackles forced, 9 touchdowns) but has struggled with ball security (20 interceptions, 15 fumbles in 1,279 snaps). The backup also has had issues driving the ball down the field in the vertical passing game (21.4% completion percentage of 98 throws of 20-plus air yards). Daniels likely matches what Arnold has done, but he’s probably not elevating the vertical passing game that has struggled, and ball security could become a liability.

Kentucky’s run defense has been one of its strengths this season — and the secondary has been leaky as of late, to say the least — so hopefully, the Cats can take advantage of Daniels’ ground game tomorrow or force him into some bad decisions.

Kentucky vs. Auburn: How to Watch, Listen

• Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET
• TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers, Cole Cubelic)
• Local Radio: UK Sports Network (Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro, Dick Gabriel)
• AM: 840 WHAS, 630 WLAP
• FM: 98.1 WBUL
• Online: iHeart Radio
• Sirius XM: 374 (UK) or 113 or 190 (Auburn)

You can also follow along on the KSR LIVE BLOG, which will start a few hours before kickoff, and join the conversation on KSBoard.

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