Auburn adds Jackson Arnold to quarterback room

December 15, 2024 – AUBURN, AL – the Auburn Tigers are not in a bowl game; but they are busy trying to improve their roster for next season. Oklahoma Sophomore Quarterback Jackson Arnold has left the Sooners and is transferring to Auburn after just two seasons at Oklahoma.

Arnold has played in nine games for Oklahoma this season. Arnold had 1,421 yards in passing with 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions (Auburn had some QBs with 3 INTs in a game this year. He also showed that he can win with his legs - rushing for 444 yards and three touchdowns. 131 of those yards came against Alabama in November. Oklahoma's shocking 24 to 3 win over Alabama knocked Alabama out of the college football playoffs and made Oklahoma bowl eligible. Auburn has lost to Alabama for the last five years in a row.

"The fit he is for our offense and for Auburn, I couldn't be more excited," Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze told reporters. "He's a dual-threat guy who understands the RPO system extremely well and throws the deep ball extremely well."

Arnold played high school football at John H. Guyer High School in Denton, Texas. ESPN ranked Arnold as the number 3 recruit in the 2023 draft class. He has two years of college eligibility left.

Oklahoma will play Navy on December 27 in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Arnold will find spring practices at Auburn to be challenging with no clear established frontrunner for the starting quarterback job.

Senior Quarterback Payton Thorne is gone after a standout career at Auburn and Michigan State in which he amassed 10,961 yards passing and 1,068 yards rushing. His best season was 2021 in which he threw for 3,232 yards and 27 touchdowns. Michigan State finished 11 and 2 that season.

In the early signing period Auburn landed five star quarterback prospect Deuce Knight. Knight, rated as one of the top three prospects from the state of Mississippi, is a dual threat quarterback with 7,855 passing yards and 1,361 rushing yards in his high school career.

By the end of the year, freshman quarterback Walker White had passed more experienced quarterbacks Hank Brown and Holden Grenier on the depth chart and White got some playing time late in Auburn's win against University of Louisiana at Monroe. He had 2 completions for 16 yards on five attempts. White is a four star recruit from Arkansas.

Both Brown and Grenier have entered the transfer portal.

Auburn has finished with 7 losses in each of the last four seasons. Consistently winning the battles at the line of scrimmage has been a problem for Auburn over these past four seasons. Auburn has to have improved offensive line play if it wants to be competitive in the Southeastern Conference, no matter who the quarterback is.

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