Former Oklahoma quarterback speaks about his time at OU during SEC media days
Arnold hit the transfer portal after the regular season ended, eventually landing with Auburn. The former consensus five-star plus prospect in the 2023 recruiting class out of Denton Guyer High School in Texas will be trying to regain the form that made him the Gatorade National Player of the Year, the Elite 11 winner, and one of the most sought-after high school quarterbacks in his class.
Naturally, questions on Tuesday were going to come up about his time at Oklahoma, and Arnold answered them with grace and poise. His pairing with former offensive coordinator Seth Littrell didn't work out as a myriad of injuries at wide receiver and along the offensive line derailed his development in 2024. However, specific performances in losses against Tennessee and Missouri in 2024, among others, stand out as games where Arnold really hurt Oklahoma's chances of walking away with a victory.
Arnold is trying to use that disappointing 2024 season, one in which he went from projected savior to benched to shaky starter to outgoing transfer, all in a span of three months, as a learning experience in his new home.
"It was tough, but it was a pivotal point in my life where you flip a switch and something wakes up inside you that makes you push and work a little harder," Arnold said to ESPN's David Hale. "It was a combination of a bunch of things. Everything that could go wrong went wrong last year. It's just part of the journey and something that had to happen to get me on this track now .. I'm not going to blame anything on my play last year, but I feel like now I'm in a situation where I can go out and thrive."
Arnold's performance was a big issue for Oklahoma last year. But, those are far from the only issues the Sooner offense had to deal with. A porous offensive line that was dealing with injuries couldn't protect the QB and couldn't open up holes in the running game. Wholesale injuries at wide receiver meant the passing game was stuck in the mud as well, and to top it all off, the Littrell promotion to play-caller didn't work out, one that head coach Brent Venables admitted to during the season. By the time Arnold was re-inserted as the starter, Littrell had been fired, and Joe Jon Finley had assumed play-calling duties in the interim.
Oklahoma's offensive turmoil and Arnold's performance had the former five-star quarterback looking for a new destination in the transfer portal. He believes he's a perfect fit in Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze's RPO-heavy scheme, and his head coach agrees.
"I thought he was the best player coming out [of high school], but so did everybody else," Freeze told Hale. "So you have to ask, what happened ... But, you combine all that (Arnold's high-level physical traits) with what I knew from high school and that he fits my ball-in-the-belly system and his mechanics and flipping his hips and getting the ball out fast, Jackson's really good at that."
On the flip side, it would have been easy for Arnold to come out on Tuesday and bash the program that is at least somewhat responsible for getting his career off track. However, Arnold didn't do that, demonstrating yet again the maturity and accountability that Venables and his staff admired about him coming out of high school. It's the same maturity he showed when, instead of pouting or shutting things down after being benched last season, Arnold kept working and eventually became OU's starter again later in the year. He burned through another year of eligibility to try and help the Sooners stack up some wins, and was the starter for the upset victory over Alabama.
Most players wouldn't have done that, and most wouldn't have refused the opportunity to go in on their former team with the cameras rolling. However Arnold's career went in Norman, he deserves credit for handling things the right way off the field.
Hopefully, both parties will benefit from the breakup. Oklahoma's new offensive duo of John Mateer and Ben Arbuckle figures to be a heavy improvement over the Arnold-Littrell pairing we all were excited about this time last year.
Additionally, Arnold should benefit from having better weapons and playing in a clearer scheme with the Tigers. After all, plenty of QBs have had success after leaving Oklahoma for other schools. Trevor Knight (Texas A&M), Spencer Rattler (South Carolina), Caleb Williams (Southern California), and Dillon Gabriel (Oregon) all had their best individual statistical seasons after transferring away from Norman.
Arnold is hoping to join those ranks at Auburn and get his once-promising career back on track.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
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