Auburn Tigers HC Hugh Freeze Reveals No. 1 Priority of Fall Camp

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze and his new-look team are heading into the 2025 football season with optimism, not just for the season but specifically for the deep quarterback room on The Plains.

Freeze has not one or two, but three talented quarterbacks waiting for an opportunity to revamp the Auburn football program.

It’s been clear from the beginning that quarterback Jackson Arnold, who transferred from the Oklahoma Sooners, will be the starter for the Tigers. After Arnold, it leaves two talented quarterbacks on deck, Ashton Daniels from the Stanford Cardinal and true freshman Deuce Knight.

This year may feel different for Freeze, starting out having more than enough talent at the helm, unlike his past two seasons, when he struggled for any offensive consistency with Payton Thorne.

Arnold comes to Auburn with SEC experience and some very well-versed dual-threat ability that helped defeat in-state rival Alabama last year. Daniels comes with being the star in the Cardinals’ run game, while Knight brings wide eyes to the Plains with a strong and accurate arm.

Freeze now has options this year to be paired with talented wide receivers from Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton Jr., to Malcolm Simmons and Perry Thompson. Having the talent, this year could be a different story for Freeze and his offense.

However, Freeze has voiced that he will not put any of his quarterback options out there if he feels they’re not prepared for the moment.

“I don’t really want to throw Deuce out there and call (only) quarterback runs," Freeze said. "Not that he can’t do it, but you want him to be ready for all that. You look at certain roles or certain situations, and I think there’s two different deals going on. If I need somebody to go in and throw a vertical route, Deuce may be the better option there. So I think everything is situational there,” Freeze said earlier this week.

Freeze’s main focus is making his quarterback confident, because he believes they’ve already got the skill set.

“The number one priority of practice is for our quarterback to leave that field confident,” Freeze said. “I think we got to be really intentional about what we are doing in this period and making sure our quarterbacks have an adequate chance to really be prepared to have success in it and not try to win a drill but try to get better in every scenario…”

He continued, “I think the worst thing we could do for any quarterback and Jackson [Arnold] in this case is to go out and practice this afternoon, and we have scripted plays that have zero chance of success because obviously we’re not game planning right now for our defense…”

Freeze believes his new starter is in a solid place of understanding what he and his offense need.

“I think he’s [Jackson] in a good spot. We’ve obviously had a ton of walkthroughs prior throughout the summer. We had one last night; we watched it this morning. He was 100% in setting the protection's accuracy..”

However, Freeze still believes that there are things that need to be talked through with Arnold when in an actual game plan situation.

“‘Alright it’s third-and-one, you know coach tell me your mind right here when you have this run called and it has RPOs on it..what are you thinking?..’ Well, it depends on field position, score of the game, are we going for it on 4th down…so there’s a lot of things we still need to talk through…there’s some of those things where we really don’t know eachothers…or he doesn’t know exactly what I’m thinking yet.”

It is now 27 days until Arnold will take the field in Waco, Texas, against the Baylor Bears defense, along with the possibility of others making their debut in the quarterback room. For now, Freeze has ample quarterback options, and it’s time to see the execution he’s been talking about.