Berry Tramel
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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NORMAN — Jackson Arnold returns to Soonerland on Saturday. Alas, William Faulkner will not be there to chronicle the events. Understandable, since he’s 63 years dead.
That’s a shame all the way around, because Faulkner loved a good Southern saga. Thought up a bunch of them, en route to becoming one of America’s greatest fiction writers, and I don’t mean Barry Switzer’s pressbox crowd. Faulkner’s stories dripped with Southern mystery and intrigue and ghosts.
Just like Oklahoma-Auburn, which will be staged Saturday on Owen Field with the sound and the fury of a Southeastern Conference showdown topped off with a football twist that no one saw coming but is must-see TV. My pals at Saturday Down South even liken the Arnold reunion to Lane Kiffin’s return to Tennessee, which is high praise below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Arnold, the crown prince of Sooner football a mere 13 months ago, was banished from the kingdom by the end of November, and he’s resurrected his gridiron game at Auburn, which is as deep as it gets in the Deep South, a region that OU has attached itself to via conference realignment.
Don’t look now, but Arnold is playing some good quarterback for War Eagle. No one in Oklahoma thought such a thing possible, after a horrid 2024 season in which Arnold gave away a couple of games and won dang few. Three weeks ago, Arnold led Auburn to a rousing opening-night victory over Baylor, and now the Tigers are 3-0 and ranked 22nd in The Associated Press poll.
The Sooners don’t begrudge Arnold’s success.
“He’s a great guy,” said OU defensive end P.J. Adebawore. “He’s shown a lot of good stuff on tape. There’s no bad blood against him.”
Hard to hold a grudge when the Sooners have a quarterback that they, and everyone else associated with American tackle football, are quite smitten with. Glad to have you, John Mateer. So jealousy doesn’t describe the OU stance. Surprise nails it pretty well.
Arnold’s passing still isn’t world class, but through three games he’s completed 69.6% of his throws, for 501 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. Zero, nada, none. And Arnold has rushed for 192 yards and four TDs.
Of course, as Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.”
We saw some freeze and fear in Arnold last season. The Sooners’ hope is they see it again Saturday.
Brent Venables is uniquely built to flummox Arnold, knowing Arnold’s strengths and witnesses quite well. Not that Venables will cop to such a mission for his defense.
“We’ve gotta really stop the Auburn offense,” Venables said. “That’s the challenge.”
Still, this is quite the emotional game. Arnold was billed as the next big thing in Sooner quarterbacking. The guy to end the curse and become the first OU high-school recruit since Landry Jones to finish up as the Sooner starting QB. The devotion to the ideal of Arnold was such, Sooner fans didn’t even seem to mind Dillon Gabriel taking the Oregon Trail to make way for Arnold.
But like many things in the South, it was all a facade. Arnold was a bust. Southern discomfort is a real thing, and when everyone realized Arnold was ill-equipped to handle the calamity of injuries that struck his offense, 2024 quickly became a lost season. As I lay dying describes most OU zealots last autumn.
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze isn’t pretending this is just another game for his quarterback. He himself went back to Ole Miss, which he left in shame, and coached Liberty in 2021.
“That whole week, it was a challenge for me not to think about some of that,” Freeze said this week. “I know the same will be true for Jackson, but he’s very mature and he doesn’t give any credit to any noise or talk.
“I mean, he’s a pro. We all understand that people might cheer for him, boo him, whatever it is, but I think he’s mentally strong and is more about preparing. My advice to him is just keep the focus on our team. That was my advice to myself. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about our team preparing to go in to play.”
Mental toughness doesn’t sound like the Arnold we know. Maybe he acquired some in Lee County, Alabama. Arnold certainly was not mentally strong a year ago. A meltdown against Tennessee, a meltdown against Missouri. The former so much so that Arnold was benched mid-game; true freshman Michael Hawkins got the next three starts. Quick trivia: which three quarterbacks have won an Oklahoma-Auburn game?
Answers: Jack Mildren, Baker Mayfield and Michael Hawkins. Two all-time Sooner greats and Jackson Arnold’s backup. Told you this Southern Gothic stuff was rich.
Freeze said he hasn’t quizzed Arnold much about OU. They’ve gone over schematics, of course, but otherwise, about all that Arnold has volunteered is that the bench areas are incredibly tight. Danged straight. The sideline and the seats are incredibly close. There will be no sanctuary for Arnold from OU barbs.
But give Arnold credit. He can read a schedule. He knew the Auburns were headed to Oklahoma in 2025. Knew what the storylines would be. Knew what those tight sidelines could mean. And he signed up for the task.
There is honor in many a Faulkner novel. Honor and strange endings and tightly-twisted relations and the ever-present past. Just what you’d expect from Jackson Arnold’s reunion in another Sooner game of baptism into the SEC.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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Berry Tramel
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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