Hugh Freeze a 'believer' in Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold, opines on Deuce Knight, Ashton Daniels
Hugh Freeze is hopeful that the Jackson Arnold that earned 5-star status in high school — No. 8 overall player and No. 4 quarterback in the 2023 class — returns to form at Auburn after two so-so seasons at Oklahoma.
“If you go back to his high school days, you don’t get to become the Gatorade Player of the Year without a great skill set. And when I see the way he functions with the fundamentals of that position, with what we want to do, it’s a pretty natural fit,” Freeze said while at Senior Bowl practice on Wednesday.
Arnold threw for 1,984 yards, 16 touchdowns, six interceptions, while completing 63 percent of his passes his first two seasons as a Sooner. He added 560 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
Arnold ultimately chose Auburn over Mississippi State during the transfer process. Arnold arrived on campus earlier in January and is expected to earn more than his share of repetitions during spring camp, as freshman Deuce Knight and walk-on Tanner Bailey are the only other primary quarterbacks on campus. Stanford quarterback transfer Ashton Daniels won’t arrive until the summer.
Knight is impressing Freeze early, too.
“I believe in Deuce,” Freeze said of his 5-star high school signee. “Deuce is, man, the maturity he has –even after we recruited him, I still wasn’t quite aware. He’s in there studying every day. He doesn’t want to wait around to be great. He’s trying hard now to soak up every drop of knowledge that he can.”
And while Daniels won’t arrive until after he graduates from Stanford this spring, Freeze sees value in the experienced quarterback. Daniels threw for 3,986 yards, 21 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in three seasons at Stanford, and impressively, rushed for 1,117 yards and nine scores as well.
“I mean, I’m really excited about Ashton. You put the tape on, I mean, this guy can really, really run, too. And I don’t want to say this as a slap toward anyone, but he didn’t have a lot around him, and he still produced significant, significant yards. I think he’s going to come in with a mentality, and he’s got, I mean, his knowledge of the game, his IQ is extremely high, and what a great kid and family comes from.”
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But back to Arnold, the Tigers’ odds-on-favorite to start next fall.
Arnold played in seven games during the 2023 season. He was expected to take over full time at Oklahoma after Dillon Gabriel transferred to Oregon before the 2024 season. Arnold played in 10 games last season, being benched at one point for freshman Michael Hawkins, before taking back over starting duties in October.
Despite a rough season in which Oklahoma fired their offensive coordinator Seth Littrell in late October, Arnold threw only three interceptions to 12 touchdowns. In his last five games played of the 2024 season, Arnold threw five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
“The unknown is, why he didn’t have the confidence? And I just am a firm believer that — I don’t know, I believe in him. I believe in our system and think he’s a really good fit for it, that we can restore whatever confidence he may have lost, for whatever reason,” Freeze said.
“It’s not for me to say, but I know that our receivers are like, ‘this is different. This ball’s a little, it’s spinning the right way.'”
