The one thing that undeniably followed QB Jackson Arnold to the Plains from Norman is the doubts about his performance after an underwhelming season with Oklahoma. Auburn desperately needs a winning season, and with the future of the Tigers essentially hinging on Arnold's success rate this season, the concerns only seem fair.
Surprisingly, though, head coach Hugh Freeze is hardly worried about Arnold's terrible turnover rate from the previous season.
Instead, he blames the other factors that were at play offensively, on top of Arnold's poor performance, which led to such a lackluster season.
“I just think it was very difficult circumstances, which all of us walk through at times. Where, I mean, what’d he have, three different coordinators in one year? And, all of the receivers were injured, some of the O-line was injured. And, it just, I think it was an unfortunate circumstance and I don’t know that it’s really anybody’s fault. It just, it was a thing that I think kind of compiled," Freeze said on See Ball, Get Ball with David Pollack.
Freeze studied the Sooners' film to identify what went wrong with the QB there, to identify the mistakes he should avoid with his offense with Arnold leading it.
Fortunately, after analysing hours of tape, Freeze doubled down on his confidence in the QB. It was the same qualities that stood out to him when recruiting the QB as a high-school prospect.
"Yeah, well, truthfully, it comes back to what I saw from him out of high school. I just thought he was elite. I thought, I mean, obviously, he was Gatorade Player of the Year and, you know, maybe the number one quarterback in the country coming out of high school, and everybody wanted him. And I thought he had all of the natural ability that it takes to run the offense I want to run," Freeze explained.
Working with a different offense might eliminate some semblance of doubt, but it will be Arnold who will have to put in the work in the end.
On top of that, the QB has mounting expectations, much more than last season's, to lead the Tigers to be a winning program this season and possibly end Freeze's College Football Playoff curse while he is at it.
Only time will tell how well he delivers to the massive expectations this season.