"Fall" Camp 15: The Auburn players to watch this preseason
When the Tigers take the field for preseason practices later this week, here are the names we're going to be tracking the most.
AUBURN — From noon Monday to late Tuesday night, Auburn and its surrounding area will be under an official heat advisory.
The National Weather Service says to expect “heat index values up to 108” degrees, adding that “hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses.”
On Wednesday morning — hopefully after the hottest stuff has faded at least a little bit — Auburn football will open what is still being called “fall camp” on the Plains. Because nothing says fall and football like triple-digit temps, right?
In a weird way, it’s fitting that the Tigers will return to the practice field during the hottest stretch of what has already been a sweltering summer.
No, this is not a point to insert a cheap pun about the head coach’s last name. Instead, Auburn hitting the gridiron again is symbolic of the fact that it can’t wait around any longer. Even though things are uncomfortably warm around here, the real work of ending the program’s longest skid in the modern era has to get going again.
This time last year, Auburn felt like it had what it took to take a step forward under Hugh Freeze. Instead, it regressed in the win-loss column and didn’t even make a bowl game — although it had several clear-cut opportunities to win more than the five it got. Freeze’s seat might not be as scalding hot as any metal surface in the East Alabama sun right now, but it should be enough to make everyone involved sweat.
Freeze and his staff will oversee the preseason preparations of a roster that is, on paper, the best that Auburn has assembled since well before they arrived here. Since spring practices, the Tigers have picked up more reinforcements through the transfer portal and welcomed the rest of a second straight top-10 recruiting class. The Auburn contingent at SEC Media Days earlier this month delivered a message: It’s time to win.
Spring practices came and went earlier this year without much fanfare. Some of that is a function of four straight losing seasons, while some of it was a greater focus locally on the best men’s basketball team in school history. Freeze himself lamented the current setup of the calendar, hoping that the college game would take a page from the NFL and go with summer mini-camps and OTAs down the road.
The NFL, the biggest professional football league in America, has returned to the field for training camps all across the country over the last few days. Now it’s time for the second-biggest professional football league in America to follow suit.
Auburn players will report to camp Tuesday, with the first practice to follow Wednesday morning. The Tigers will have exactly one month to prepare for their 2025 season, which opens with a trip to Baylor on the final Friday night of August.
As we’ve done in years past here at The Auburn Observer, we’ll kick off the start of preseason practices with our “Fall Camp 15.” These are the 15 players that we’re going to be paying the closest amount of attention to during training camp. Some are projected starters. Others are brand-new to the team. And some are real wild cards.
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And, just to give you a sneak peek of where our minds are before the start of “fall” camp at Auburn, we’ll share the first one of our 15 before the paywall.
QB Jackson Arnold
While Arnold isn’t going to have to win the starting quarterback job in camp — he wouldn’t have gone to SEC Media Days if that was the case — this summer has only reinforced how much faith Auburn is putting in him this fall. Auburn’s quarterback play in recent years has been inconsistent, ranging from the occasionally explosive between the 20s to the usually inefficient in scoring situations.
Arnold had nothing short of a brutal 2024 at Oklahoma, posting some of the worst numbers in the SEC and the FBS as a whole playing behind a dreadful offensive line and throwing to the walking wounded at wide receiver. Auburn is banking on his former 5-star, National High School Player of the Year talent to come back after resetting his situation, his location and his supporting cast. It’s not a bad bet at all.
However, Auburn is going to need Arnold to be much, much, much better than he was at Oklahoma in order to take the step forward it needs as a program. A lot is riding on his performance in a quick-strike, RPO-heavy offense that should utilize both a loaded wide receiver room and his own dual-threat skill set. Stylistically, it’s a great match. But football isn’t played on paper.
There might be some intrigue to who will back Arnold up this fall between a fellow power-conference transfer and a fellow former 5-star. What’s infinitely more important right now, though, is how Arnold is going to perform in a high-pressure season for Auburn. These next few weeks need to be all about how well Arnold is meshing with his new team, because it could be the ultimate make-or-break factor.