The Auburn Tigers are coming off their first conference win this season, but there are still lots of questions heading into Week 10. The biggest of them all is likely about who will be the Tigers' starting quarterback on Saturday night.
Jackson Arnold has been the starter for Auburn all season, but has started hot only to sputter out at the end of the last several games. Head coach Hugh Freeze was asked several times if he had considered a change at the quarterback position, but pointed to all of Arnold's great starts.
Former Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels has been waiting in the wings, and he finally got his shot on Saturday after Arnold threw an interception in the red zone.
Daniels provided enough spark on the offense to get the Tigers a win, but did he do enough to secure the job permanently? Freeze isn't sure yet, but he told the media on Monday that they will spend the week of practice letting the pair compete.
"I don't think there is any greater motivator than competition," Freeze said. "That's what it is — it's an open competition to see who prepares and plays the best. They both will split reps and we'll make a decision. There’s a lot of good things that both did. I thought Ashton (Daniels) showed an incredible amount of poise.
"I really only graded him on two minuses, but I thought he showed great poise and leadership at a difficult time to come in the game when the momentum had totally shifted the other way, and I thought he gave us a spark. Up until Jackson (Arnold’s) interception, I thought he played really, really well to that point. It’ll be exciting to see how they both respond and compete this week as we head into this game.”
The Tigers return to action against Kentucky in Jordan-Hare Stadium this Saturday at 6:30 p.m.