Ad Disclosure
Paul Finebaum isn’t sold on Jackson Arnold suddenly revolutionizing Auburn’s passing game in 2025.
In other words, pump the brakes on the jubilation on the Plains, said the ESPN college football analyst during his weekly Monday morning appearance on the McElroy & Cubelic In The Morning show. Auburn announced on Saturday that it had signed the transfer quarterback from Oklahoma, and suddenly there was optimism that a talent like Arnold working with an offensive mind like Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze could work wonders next fall.
Arnold was a 5-star recruit out of Denton, Texas, and the No. 8 prospect in the country for the class of 2023. The 247 Sports Composite ranked Arnold as the No. 2 player from the state of Texas. But things didn’t work out in Norman, as Jeff Lebby, the Sooners’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach when Arnold arrived at OU, left to become the head coach at Mississippi State before the 2024 season, and Lebby’s replacement, Seth Littrell, was fired in October.
All of this led to Arnold transferring. He’s staying in the SEC, and Finebaum has mixed feelings about all of it.
“I think they have to be excited. It’s an upgrade over what the program has,” said Finebaum. “I think the real issue is what does it mean? You’ve been to Norman enough times to probably know he wasn’t getting the proper training, whether that cost him to leave — which you have to hope is that he turns into the antithesis of Bo Nix. What I mean by that is Nix was suffering where he was, meaning Auburn, he went to Oregon and became a first-round draft choice and a Heisman finalist. That is the hope for Jackson Arnold.”
Does Finebaum believe that hope will translate into real success in 2025?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Listen, his predecessor at OU did much better leaving. I’ve never been wild about what’s going on out there offensively, and I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. I don’t think it’s quite living up to the hype that some have made it out to be in terms of the highest-rated QB ever (for Auburn). We all know that means little, but I think it’s at least positive, and right now for Hugh Freeze’s program, that’s a plus.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
