With Jackson Arnold failing to be the quarterback that Auburn thought he would be when he came over from Oklahoma, Hugh Freeze made a crucial decision in Saturday's victory over Arkansas: bench Arnold and insert Ashton Daniels into the quarterback position.
The question some people have is why Daniels, the transfer from Stanford, and not the highly touted freshman signee Deuce Knight, entered the game. The Auburn coach spoke on that decision on Monday and was extremely clear that Knight might not be ready to take over yet.
"I don’t know that it’s fair to throw him in that right now," Freeze said. "He probably would handle it great. I’m certainly not saying we won’t. He’ll get a few reps, too. It’s really hard, really hard to try to do that with three guys right now. I do firmly believe there’s not many arms like Deuce Knight, and he’s got an elite one."
In his only action thus far this season, Knight looked like a true freshman thrown into the bright lights, completing 2-of-5 passes for 20 yards, while rushing for 16 yards in mop-up duty against Ball State. And while that was more than a month ago, there is a difference between facing the MAC-member Cardinals' second or third-string defense and then facing an SEC-level defense.
Not that Freeze doesn't think highly of the former 5-star recruit from Mississippi. It's just he doesn't think now is the time to put all of the pressure of saving Auburn's offense on the young man.
“I think I’ve said this publicly," Freeze said. "I mean it, I think Deuce (Knight) is the future of this program... Obviously, there’s a lot of other things that go into playing the position of quarterback and he’s quickly becoming better at understanding all of those. I can’t wait to see when he does get his opportunity.”