The Oklahoma Sooners‘ talented young star quarterback, Jackson Arnold, participated in this year’s Manning Passing Academy. While at the event, the young star quarterback fielded multiple questions about the upcoming season, one of which was about his level of excitement as Oklahoma prepares for its inaugural season in the SEC.

“It’s extremely exciting, man,” said Arnold. “You know, everyone on campus is excited. I drive by this street called Main Street where a bunch of our restaurants, [and] you got people plastering up ‘we’re ready for the SEC’ on their things and stuff. So the whole campus is excited; the whole town is excited, and especially the team, we’re all excited.”

Oklahoma will make its official SEC debut on Sept. 21 when it hosts the Tennessee Volunteers. The Sooners’ first road game of the season will be the following week, when they travel to Alabama to take on the Auburn Tigers on Sept. 28. But is there an SEC matchup that Arnold is particularly excited to participate in? According to the Sooners’ starting quarterback, he is looking forward to their trip to Louisiana.

“I’ve always heard a game in Death Valley is awesome. I think they got rated the number one stadium in that the EA game. So, it’ll be a fun environment to play in,” said Arnold.

EA Sports college football ranked Death Valley, the home of the LSU Tigers, as the No. 3 stadium in the game. However, Arnold might get an opportunity to play in the No. 1 and No. 2 rate at stadiums next season: Texas A&M’s Kyle Field and Alabama’s Bryant Denny Stadium. Still, this season, Arnold and the Sooners will get the full-fledged SEC experience of playing in a night game at LSU to end the year. And if the Sooners and Tigers take care of business on the field, that could make for an enormous matchup with major College Football Playoff implications.

Arnold says Oklahoma wide receiver room ‘for sure’ gets underrated

Arnold is expected to lead Oklahoma into the SEC this season as the Sooners’ QB1, but questions surrounding who will best his weapons out wide remain to be answered.

Whoever it is, fans and the media shouldn’t overlook the Sooners’ wide receiving corps in 2024, according to the sophomore gunslinger.

“For sure, I mean that room to me is stacked,” Arnold told reporters at the Manning Passing Academy, addressing his underrated wideout room. “We’ve got, I want to say, two or three guys at each position they can go and compete at a high level. Compete at Oklahoma, go and score and I would feel confident throwing them a go ball for a touchdown.”