What a fascinating time to be alive on planet Earth!
Google just unveiled its latest quantum processor chip named Willow that (supposedly) makes a state-of-the-art supercomputer of today look like it’s from the Stone Age. The practical applications are staggering. There are drones the size of SUVs flying over New Jersey and no one seems to have any idea where they came from or what their purpose might be.
Of course, all that pales in comparison to the transfer portal and the way it has turned college football upside down. An entire starting lineup can disappear at a moment’s notice. Dynamic quarterbacks must be monitored 24 hours a day. If you turn your back, they might teleport across the country to a new team or to a rival in the same conference.
Unfortunately, no one is immune to the portal.
It can be offense, defense or special teams. Every position is vulnerable and a team’s record, good or bad, provides no medicinal value. Everyone will be affected by the transfer portal at some time or another. The only question is will they lose a player or gain a player?
I’ve been watching Auburn football for a long time and something happened this week I had never seen before. Starting quarterback Payton Thorne ran out of eligibility and would not be returning in 2025. Backup quarterbacks Hank Brown, Holden Geriner and Walker White all entered the transfer portal. The Tigers literally lost every scholarship quarterback on the 2024 roster.
Blue-chip recruit Deuce Knight will be on campus in January, but he is not expected to start as a true freshman. In fairness, it was no secret Hugh Freeze was going to look for a quarterback or two in the portal and that certainly had a lot to do with Brown and Geriner’s departure. It was only after Auburn signed Jackson Arnold from Oklahoma that White decided to leave as well.
However, this is modern-day college football. Again, I don’t like it, but it’s the reality of the situation. Until someone with a real measure of authority implements some sort of structure and enforceable rules, chaos will reign.
The Tigers have actually signed two quarterbacks from the portal in Arnold and Ashton Daniels from Stanford. Jackson Arnold was a Top 5 quarterback in the country coming out of high school in Denton, TX. He played high school football at the highest level in Texas against elite competition and ran an RPO system very similar (albeit less sophisticated) to the one Freeze runs on the Plains.
Arnold is extremely athletic and the true definition of a dual threat quarterback. He more than proved that he is capable of running the football effectively with the Sooners. He also has the arm strength to make every throw. Those are the reasons he’s a good fit with the Tigers.
Then again, there’s always a flip side to the coin. Arnold struggled with turnovers last year at Oklahoma fumbling the ball 12 times and losing six of them. He also had difficulty being proficient in the passing game at times. The Sooners’ offensive line was not very good, practically the entire receiving corps was injured and Brent Venables fired his OC halfway through the year.
Arnold was benched for a couple of games, but the offense was a train wreck and most of it was not his fault. While all of that is absolutely true, it also sounds a lot like the excuses that were made for Payton Thorne. Maybe all Arnold needs is a change of scenery.
He certainly has the talent to be elite, but his performance in 2024 was a disappointment overall. With all that being said, it doesn’t matter what my opinion of Jackson Arnold happens to be. Hugh Freeze needed to handpick the quarterback he wanted because it’s his job on the line in 2025.
If the quarterback play is subpar, the offense struggles and the W’s don’t materialize, Freeze will be looking for employment elsewhere. That’s the bottom line. He’s evidently put his money on Arnold. I hope he’s right.
Andy Graham is a co-host of Auburn Blitz and his column appears here weekly.
