Well, Jackson Arnold transferred from Oklahoma with the hope of better days. But poor Arnold. It’s not that he did not reel in praise from Hugh Freeze’s squad. However, he always had to share his spotlight with somebody else. Either it was the new transfers or Deuce Knight. As analyst Lindsay Crosby stated, “If I say there legitimately could be like a legit quarterback competition in spring and in fall, like obviously Jackson Arnold’s the favorite, but there is a world where Deuce Knight just looks fantastic and gets into the conversation.”

However, gradually, Arnold started to find his well-wishers along the way. As Josh Pate once said, “Jackson Arnold does not have to live up to what he was as a high school recruit. Five-star plus kind of guy for Auburn to be successful. My guy just has to lock in and not turn it over.” Maybe that’s because he has proved himself during his seven games as a backup at Oklahoma and lone start in the Alamo Bowl. 44 of 69 passes (63.8%) for 563 yards and four touchdowns. Not eye-popping, but not terrible either. Here comes some more motivational juice for Arnold.

On the College GameDay podcast, Pete Thamel and Rece Davis came up with some interesting segments. Well, Arnold could not make it to either Davis’ or Thamel’s list of Top 5 quarterbacks. But so what? He found his name mentioned in a special category- ‘Rece and Pete’s sleeper QBs for the ‘25 CFB season.’ Davis stated: “Here’s my sleeper. And the reason I bring up Mateer is because of the guy that he’s going to replace. Watch out for Jackson Arnold. Very talented guy at Auburn. They’ve got a very good young receiving core and they are probably and there is some pressure to produce offensively and win there. So he would be my sleeper.” Things are all jumbled up when it comes to Freeze’s quarterback room. 

In the case of the QB race, Coach Freeze has got five-star freshman Deuce Knight and Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels. And, now that Davis has mentioned how Arnold might be a sleeper quarterback, it would remind Freeze of his old statement. During the Senior Bowl, Auburn head coach said Arnold’s arrival would make for a perfect fit in the Tigers’ offense. “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.” But even if Freeze is in two minds whether to hand over the starting role to Arnold, there is not much to worry about. 

If we take a look at Auburn’s history, legendary signal callers Cam Newton and Nick Marshall did not start their college careers at Auburn. However, both players would go on to lead the Tigers to conference titles and national championship appearances. After Davis, Arnold found himself on another list of another analyst. 

CBS Sports bets big on Jackson Arnold

“How am I supposed to know if you’re a good cook at all when the fridge is full of moldy milk, bread that’s hard as a rock, it’s stale… all we got is like some Gushers and some orange juice?” CFB analyst Josh Pate joked in one of the episodes of his podcast, and it was a message for the Arnold haters. It was his way of saying Arnold didn’t have much to work with. Oklahoma’s offensive line was shaky, their pass protection inconsistent, and the run game didn’t get going until midseason. Well, we could see the result.

Arnold got sacked 34 times. However, Pat sounded hopeful that his Auburn chapter is not going to be the same. Now, Carter Bahns of CBS Sports included Arnold in his list of quarterbacks that could ‘silence critics’ in 2025 by having a breakout season. The analyst sees the quarterback ready to flip the script that he had shown in Norman. He stated, “There might not be a better buy-low candidate in college football than Arnold. He massively upgraded his situation with the transfer from Oklahoma to Auburn, trading a porous offensive line and injury-riddled receiving corps for a supporting cast that features some of the best wideouts in the nation. So many of Arnold’s struggles in his first year as a starter can be attributed to factors outside of his control. It is hard not to envision him taking a step forward with his new team.”

Well, Jackson Arnold has already proved himself as a solid passer. Here in Auburn, the quarterback can count on a variety of receivers who will be in a position to make plays from various depths on the field as well. The first one in the trusted list is Eric Singleton, who is a threat both behind the line of scrimmage and from deep, while wideouts Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons are reliable targets on deep routes. Is Auburn where Arnold finally flips the script on his misunderstood reputation?