Hugh Freeze has done well adding talent from the transfer portal all over his Auburn football roster in his three cycles in charge on the Plains. Unfortunately, one position has consistently given him fits, resulting in two losing seasons thus far.
That would the QB position.
In 2023, following the A-Day Spring Game, Freeze landed Payton Thorne, which seemingly solved the problem at QB caused by Robby Ashford and TJ Finley failing to nab the starting job. As a 6-6 regular season finish, with a loss to New Mexico State, showed, Thorne was not the answer.
In 2024, instead of finding an alternative, Freeze stuck with Thorne. A 5-7 finish later, and two seasons were now down the drain.
This cycle, Freeze landed Jackson Arnold from Oklahoma. Problem solved? AL.com's Peter Rauterkus isn't so sure.
Rauterkus believes that if there's a critique to be found in Freeze's transfer portal haul, it's the QB position. Freeze signed Arnold and Ashton Daniels via the portal, Deuce Knight for his 2025 class, and brought on walk-on Tanner Bailey.
Rauterkus wonders if Arnold was the right guy considering who else was available.
"If there’s a critique one could make about the offensive transfer haul, it’s at quarterback. As a former-five-star recruit, Arnold seems to have plenty of potential, but his one season as a starter at Oklahoma was up and down," Rauterkus wrote.
"He was benched at point, but was also given a depleted receiver core and an offensive coordinator who was fired midseason.
"When looking at the other quarterbacks available, players like Fernando Mendoza, Darian Mensah or John Mateer had more proven track records -- though Mateer would have been difficult to lure away from his coaches that he followed to Oklahoma -- but Arnold seems to fit Freeze’s system if he can reach that next gear."
John Mateer was the people's preferred choice, but as Rauterkus mentioned, Freeze never had much a shot since he wasn't going to hire Ben Arbuckle from Wazzu. Fernando Mendoza ended up at Indiana with breakout coaching star Curt Cignetti and Darian Mensah chose Duke almost immediately upon hitting the portal.
Arnold is a question mark but he undoubtedly sports a better pedigree than Thorne. It's a wait-and-see situation, but not everyone is as skeptical on Arnold as Rauterkus.
Some believe he did fill AU's portal needs. Again, wait and see.