Through three games, one of the biggest visible improvements the Auburn Tigers have made from last year to this year has been their ability to take care of the football.
Jackson Arnold has managed to get through all three of the opening contests without throwing an interception, something that has set the Tigers up for success early.
Arnold has gone 48-of-69 on passing attempts for 501 yards and four touchdowns. He has added 192 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, making him the Tigers' second-leading rusher behind standout running back Jeremiah Cobb, another member of Auburn's offense who is off to a fast start this season.
From the coaching staff to the roster, confidence in Arnold is high heading into conference play.
"He’s been very solid," head coach Hugh Freeze said. "The first game obviously was what it was, and he did what he needed to do for our team. Second game, he completed 80% of his passes or so, that’s pretty good. He’s taking care of the ball. Last week, his passing stats weren’t great, but some of that was some drops, too, that we had. I thought his decision-making was really good."
Freeze acknowledged how Arnold is performing well in the biggest areas that are used to determine how a quarterback is playing, record and turnovers.
"Number one, again, it starts with how do you judge a quarterback, and that is wins and losses and the turnover battle," Freeze said. "I think he’s done those extremely well, and he leads our team well. He’s got this competitive spirit about him, and it’s going to be needed in the upcoming games for sure."
While Arnold is yet to face an SEC opponent, he does have the win over Baylor under his belt. Freeze is intrigued to see how Arnold performs against a highly-touted Oklahoma team this week.
"I think he is in a good spot," Freeze said. "Obviously we haven’t been tested like we're getting ready to be tested, so we’ll see how he performs against some of the best teams in the nation the next few weeks, starting Saturday.”