Just five games into the season (if not earlier), Auburn fans were already calling for Jackson Arnold to transition from QB1 to the bench. After an abysmal offensive performance against Texas A&M, the crowd was pretty much ready for him to leave the stadium entirely.
After the Auburn Tigers lost 16-10 to the Texas A&M Aggies, CBS Sports analyst Josh Pate had the perfect take on the Jackson Arnold situation:
"The Jackson Arnold experiment is just a failed experiment," Pate said. "It’s dead in the water. I have no idea where they’re going to go from here."
Pate is 100 percent correct. Hugh Freeze and the rest of the Auburn staff bought into Arnold, plucking him out of the transfer portal from Oklahoma. Fans bought in after Freeze repeatedly talked about how much promise the young QB had.
Now, the Tigers are 3-2 overall and have kicked off conference play with two consecutive losses (to Arnold's alma mater and the Aggies).
Pate said it best, the Jackson Arnold experiment is dead in the water. It is time to move on.
Who are Auburn's back up quarterbacks?
There are two main characters in Arnold's shadow right now: senior Ashton Daniels and freshman Deuce Knight. While Knight was a four-star prospect, Daniels is expected to be the true backup quarterback because of his experience at the collegiate level.
Over the last three years, Daniels played for the Stanford Cardinal before transferring to Auburn after last season.
As the starting QB in 2023 and 2024, he racked up 3,947 passing yards and 20 touchdowns, alongside earning nearly 1,000 rushing yards and finding the end zone six times on the ground.
The next stretch of games is no laughing matter for the Tigers. They host No. 12 Georgia next, followed by No. 19 Missouri. Then, Auburn has to visit the Arkansas Razorbacks before hosting the Kentucky Wildcats.
Not to mention, Auburn has to visit No. 16 Vanderbilt and play No. 10 Alabama in the always-contentious Iron Bowl.
Simply put, Freeze and his staff have to figure out the quarterback situation, and they need to do it really, really quickly.