OU football names Jackson Arnold starting quarterback for Mississippi game

Posted by Admin October 22, 2024 Football

NORMAN — Jackson Arnold is OU football’s starting quarterback again.

Head coach Brent Venables said Monday night that Arnold will start Saturday in the Sooners‘ game at Mississippi.

Arnold replaced Michael Hawkins Jr., who turned the ball over three times early in the first quarter, against the Gamecocks and tossed for 225 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers.

Venables said postgame last Saturday the decision to replace Hawkins with Arnold was “pretty easy.”

“There were some that was good and some that wasn’t,” Venables said Saturday of Arnold’s performance. “But he did a lot that was good today. We’ve got to be good around him. I hate saying the same thing every time.”

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Arnold, OU’s starter to open the season, was booed and benched in the second quarter of a home loss to Tennessee on Sept. 21. He said following the South Carolina game that the past few weeks have been the toughest for him mentally in his life.

Arnold played in his fifth game last Saturday, burning his redshirt.

“A lot of soul searching, a lot of diving into what I really care about, what I really care for,” Arnold said of the past few weeks. “I leaned heavily on my relationships: family, friends, God and all the above. … It’s character building, that’s what I see it as. I trust the plan that God has for me, just going out there preparing the same way.”

Arnold will get another opportunity as the Sooners’ starting quarterback against Mississippi at 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN.