The Auburn Tigers are officially 3-4 and have started 0-4 in SEC play for the fourth straight season following a 23-17 loss to the Missouri Tigers. Hugh Freeze's squad continues to find rock bottom, but Saturday Blitz's Nicholas Rome believes the biggest problem is Jackson Arnold. Against Mizzou, Arnold was 18/30 passing for 207 yards and an interception. Arnold had gone 324 consecutive passes without an interception before being picked off by Missouri’s Toriano Pride Jr.
Rome projects Freeze to get fired because of the team's offensive failures, but believes the talent he recruited has been "wasted" by Arnold's "inept" play under center.
"The Auburn Tigers came into the season with a ton of hope, and excitement as they added a talented group of transfers to an already talented roster. All of the talent, however, has been wasted by inept quarterback play as it becomes clear that Jackson Arnold is never going to live up to his 5-star hype. Hugh Freeze was on the hot seat last season and at 0-4 in league play Auburn may need to pull the plug," Rome wrote.
Talk about losing the plot.
Arnold was seen as a potential answer under center as recently as August. Against the Baylor Bears in Week 1 during a 38-24 win in Waco, Arnold legitimately looked like 2010 Cam Newton. Bad defenses can make an opposing quarterback look better than they are, but the difference between that player and the one who was sacked so many times (five) against Mizzou, and for so many negative yards, that he finished with 0.8 yards per carry, is night and day.
Arnold was once able to create offense with his feet. Now, when he moves the chains through the air, it almost comes off like opposing defenses are completely shocked he's even capable of doing so.
AU's offense looks tentative, confused, out of sorts, and like there actually is three different coaches calling plays. It's not working, and it's wasted the millions being spent on Arnold, and may have even set the former 5-star recruit back even more than his doomed Oklahoma Sooners tenure did.
Maybe Arnold has a future with the North Texas Mean Green, his hometown team in Denton. It doesn't look like he'll have much of a future on the Plains since Freeze is a sitting duck who may well be fired at any moment, and the next coach probably isn't interested in prolonging this failed experiment any longer.