Will Ashton Daniels start for Auburn vs. Kentucky? Well...
Here's what we've heard about Auburn's quarterback situation, plus five more thoughts in the wake of the Tigers' road win at Arkansas.
AUBURN — After hearing from Hugh Freeze on Monday afternoon, let’s pick six more takeaways (see what I did there) from Auburn football’s 33-24 road win over Arkansas as the Tigers now turn their attention to another winless SEC team in Kentucky.
1: Don’t automatically assume Ashton Daniels will start at quarterback against Kentucky over Jackson Arnold.
Auburn was down 21-10 late in the second quarter Saturday after Jackson Arnold threw a devastating pick-six inside the Arkansas red zone. That prompted the Tigers to bench Arnold and replace him with Ashton Daniels, who hadn’t played this season.
Daniels didn’t lead Auburn to a touchdown drive, despite five more trips into the Arkansas red zone with him at quarterback. But Alex McPherson hit five straight field goals, which were enough to combine with a Rayshawn Pleasant pick-six to pull off the comeback victory in the second half.
Against Arkansas, Arnold went 7-12 passing for 73 yards, an opening-drive touchdown to Cam Coleman and the pick-six. That’s a completion percentage of 58.3% and a yards per attempt mark of 6.08. Arnold completed his first seven passes of the game, meaning he was unsuccessful in each of his last five attempts. He added six carries for 18 yards and was sacked once for a loss of 9 yards on a three-and-out.
Daniels, meanwhile, went 6-8 passing for 77 yards. That’s a completion percentage of 75% and a yards per attempt mark of 9.63. However, 48 of his 77 passing yards came on just one throw to Eric Singleton Jr. Daniels added seven carries for 39 yards, and his two sacks were for a combined loss of 4 yards.
While Auburn didn’t score a touchdown when Daniels was on the field Saturday, there’s no question that he played a better game than Arnold both through the air and on the ground.
However, Freeze did not say Daniels would remain the primary quarterback against Kentucky. Instead, he left the door open for Arnold to return to that role.