Jackson Arnold Holds Himself Accountable For Oklahoma's Offensive Troubles

The Sooners' sophomore quarterback prepares for this week's game with Tulane knowing he's made plenty of progress but still has a long way to go.

Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

NORMAN — Jackson Arnold isn’t looking ahead to SEC play. He’s not pouting about his uneven performances. He’s not counting his recruiting stars. And he’s certainly not beating his chest over Oklahoma’s unbeaten record.

“A win is a win, no matter how ugly it was,” Arnold said Saturday night after the Sooners hung on to beat Houston 16-12. “Believe me, it was ugly. But we’ll take it — 2-0.” 

Arnold, a sophomore who will make his fourth career start when Tulane comes to town this week, is trying to lead this OU team into the future. 

It’s been tough, though.

After hitting 17-of-25 passes for 141 yards and four touchdowns in a 51-3 wipeout of Temple on Aug. 30, he was 19-of-32 for 174 yards and four TDs against Houston.

Arnold has been sacked three times in each game, and Saturday night he threw his first interception of the season.

“Inconsistent,” head coach Brent Venables said. “ … Made some really nice plays, then at other times — we maybe tried to force it, you know, when you don’t have to.”

Through two games, Arnold ranks 13th among the SEC’s 16 starting quarterbacks in overall offensive grade, according to Pro Football Focus, with a rating of 74.2 — ahead of Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers and Kentucky’s Brock Vandagriff. 

On pass plays, he’s ninth in the SEC with a 75.5 rating, and on run plays, he’s 11th with a 60.4.

There’s perception that offensive coordinator Seth Littrell isn’t letting Arnold chuck it deep with enough frequency, but Arnold’s average-depth-of-target, per PFF, is 10.7 yards, which ranks seventh among SEC starters.

He’s also not gotten much help from his teammates. He’s tied for first among SEC starters with five dropped passes, and he’s tied for second with five sacks. He ranks third with 21 defensive pressures, and he’s sixth with defensive pressures that turned into sacks at 23.8 percent, per PFF.

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PFF reports Arnold’s efficiency rating under the NFL guidelines is 105.55, which ranks 10th among SEC starters, while his NCAA efficiency rating of 140.8 ranks 59th nationally and 11th in the SEC. (Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart leads the nation with a rating of 247.4.)

He’s 104th nationally (and 12th in the SEC) at 157.5 passing yards per game, ranks 112th nationally (and next-to-last in the SEC) at 5.53 yards per attempt and is 119th nationally (and last in the SEC) at 8.75 yards per completion.

Despite an overall downward trend in the analytics, Arnold does rank tied for sixth in the nation with six touchdown passes.

But no one is jumping up and down about that. Not when the Sooners’ offense has been unable to run the ball, unable to connect downfield, unable to sustain drives, unable to convert third downs — and Saturday, unable to generate more than one legitimate scoring drive. 

“Just a bad night in general,” Arnold said. “A lot of mistakes. A lot of sloppiness. A lot of misses by me.”

Historically, Arnold is the third-highest rated quarterback recruit in OU history, according to the 247 Sports database. The two Sooner QBs who rated higher than Arnold were Rhett Bomar and Caleb Williams, who each played but one year in the Crimson and Cream. Bomar and Williams combined for 23 games (18 starts) for the Sooners, completed 58.3 percent of their passes and totaled 3,930 passing yards with 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions (Bomar’s TD-INT total was 10 and 10). They both won a bowl game.

Bomar got kicked off the team by Bob Stoops, finished his career at Sam Houston State and scuffled around with three NFL teams in four seasons. Williams went to USC with Lincoln Riley, won the Heisman and became the No. 1 overall pick.

Arnold’s path is still ahead of him. The 5-star prospect from Denton, TX, has a live arm and shifty legs and appears to have won over his teammates after just three starts following behind Dillon Gabriel.

After throwing four TDs against Temple, several teammates said they liked what they saw from their young QB.

“I just looked him in the eyes and said, ‘I’m so proud of you,’ “ tight end Bauer Sharp said. “I saw confidence in him that was just, there was nobody getting in his way. He played free. He played loose. It was awesome to see for sure.” 

“I watched Jackson come in, he’s a great guy. He is a leader,” wideout Jalil Farooq said prior to the opener. “He’s becoming more and more of a leader, day in and day out. He’s leading the team. He’s taken over and I can see him being a future Heisman candidate.”

Linebacker Danny Stutsman said Arnold won over the locker room.

“Just everyone can really trust him and say 'We've got our guy,' " Stutsman said. ":And I think without a doubt in my mind he's going to lead us to everything we want to do.”

That’s a great first step — and a necessary one, to be sure. But the statues on the east side of Memorial Stadium show that the standard for Oklahoma quarterbacks is higher than just being a great guy and a confident leader.

Arnold acknowledges that he still has a long way to go.

“Just gotta stay calm and composed,” he said. “It’s tough.”

Littrell said “I’m the one” who needs to do a better job of putting Arnold in position to have success. That happens in practice with the plays he has Arnold work on, and it happens on gameday with the plays he sends in from the coaches box.

“Listen, Jackson knows,” Littrell said. “Right now, he’s the quarterback of this team, and so he’s going to take a lot of criticism when we don’t have success, just as I do. We’ve had a number of conversations about that. That's part of the position that we're all in.” 

Venables explained that being the quarterback is more than just taking the snaps and throwing the football, more than just watching film and executing the plays. And at Oklahoma, it’s more than just setting records and posing for the Heisman.

“You’re a leader. Guys are counting on you,” Venables said. “You can’t be over there just focused on just yourself when it comes to the leadership piece, but you gotta be a great example and you gotta have your head down and going to work every day, too. So that balance is really important. 

“And again, he’s a mature, tough guy, and so he’s handled all of it really well. Again, has had great self-awareness and has taken ownership where he’s needed to, and that’s allowed him to take the next step as far as his progression and development.”