Woah! The temperature is rising in Hugh Freeze’s Auburn Tigers. The tables have turned. How? That’s because of their QB Jackson Arnold who came as the hot steal from the Oklahoma Sooners. However, it’s not going to be an easy ride ahead for Freeze’s QB. Arnold’s arrival comes with high expectations and a substantial financial commitment.
Already he has been hit with a $4.3 million QB warning. While Freeze is supposed to save Arnold from landing in the hot seat, he himself catches side eyes for his coaching.
How Jackson Arnold has too many things on his plate
Auburn is coming off a 5-7 record. They might be looking for that spark now that their former starter QB Payton Thorne is off to the NFL. Back in Oklahoma, Arnold had curated a decent resume for himself. For the Sooners, he came up with 1,421 passing yards, 12 touchdowns, and three interceptions. Yes, it was not perfect that’s why he decided to hit the SWAP button. Freeze opted not to take a transfer quarterback a year ago, and that ultimately hurt Auburn in 2024. Now that he has brought in Arnold, the spring will be an early test. On That SEC Football podcast, analyst Steven Lassan shares what the future has on hold for Freeze’s QB.
“To me, this is the one position [QB] that will make or break the season. How good is Jackson Arnold and can he play with a lot more consistency? Can he play with mistake-free ball that sometimes we didn’t see out of Payton Thorne?” Well, the Tigers fans might not have forgotten how Thorne threw a pick-six late in the fourth quarter that gave the Sooners the lead. And when it comes to inconsistency, Thorne has battled with it all his life as he landed in the No.13 slot after throwing only for 84 yards in the Music City Bowl back in 2023. Other than outdoing Thorne, Freeze’s QB will have to outdo himself.
As Lassan continued, “So I think how good is Jackson Arnold right away, how does he look a lot different than we saw at Oklahoma. That’s the key to the season.” The Sooners’ transfer fumbled three times in OU’s loss to Missouri, losing two of them including the game-ending scoop-and-score. This is just one instance of his year-long turnover issues. Now more warning awaits Arnold. As Greg McElroy hinted at undergoing the same fate as Spencer Rattler. Even though Rattler led the Sooners to their sixth straight Big 12 title in 2020 as a starter, he soon lost his starting job. Now what is at stake for Freeze?
HC Hugh Freeze faces the heat
Well, life got extra tough for Freeze. The Tigers HC had been battling against cancer. His professional front looks equally challenging. AS SEC Mike stated, “How big of a question mark is Hugh Freeze because again taking over play calling you know that that was supposed to save everything I thought they looked you know even worse at at times.” There were a few bad calls. One of them was when the Razorbacks’ Ja’Quinden Jackson was given a touchdown when he clearly didn’t break the plane of the goal line late in the game.
So, it’s clearly not the issue with talent. As Freeze’s boys thrashed Kentucky in a 10-24 heroic feat. As SEC Mike came to the conclusion, “They have a lot more talent than they’ve been showing, and clearly that is a sign of poor coaching.” There have been some good stats related to Freeze as well.
Under him, the Tigers were “third in the SEC in conference-only games, in yards per play last year 6.1.” However, the penalties, the turnovers, did taint Freeze’s image. Going by the numbers, the Tigers tied for dead last nationally in turnovers with 14, and 10 of them came against Cal and Arkansas in the last season. Can Jackson Arnold redeem himself and Hugh Freeze, or are they both headed for a downfall?
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