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National Signing Day: Why Jackson Arnold Draws Comparisons to Past Oklahoma Greats

Arnold's high school coach likes how the game comes easy to the Sooners' new QB, how he loves to work, how he enjoys competition, and how he has become a natural leader.

John E. Hoover

In this story:

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s quarterback of the future officially arrives on Wednesday — his signature, anyway — so naturally there are comparisons to the past.

It’s National Signing Day, the first day of the early signing period, and for Jackson Arnold, the future is now.

Arnold and two dozen other future Sooners will sign National Letters of Intent today. The signing class starts the day ranked No. 8 nationally, but has room to climb. The Sooners’ 2023 class consists of 13 defensive players and 10 offensive players. There are, according to 247 Sports, eight 3-stars, 13 4-stars and two 5-stars — including Arnold, the highest-rated player in the class and the Sooners’ seventh-highest rated prospect in the last 20 years. The signatures will begin rolling in around 7 a.m. and Brent Venables will stage a press conference at 10:35 to discuss the newcomers.

Expect Venables to get a lot questions about the Sooners’ latest, greatest quarterback.

To watch Arnold play, to watch him interact with his teammates or fans or his coaches is to invoke memories of Baker Mayfield. When the 6-foot-1, 205-pound gunslinger scores a long touchdown, finds the nearest camera and throws the Horns down, it’s easy to say maybe he’s got a little Mayfield in him. He flexes, he fist-pumps, he high-fives. He sprints around celebrating, and it naturally reminds some OU fans of Mayfield.

But to watch Arnold carve up Texas high school defenses week in and week out — easily, fluidly, almost effortlessly, running, throwing, playing the game he loves — conjures images of another former Sooner great:

Sam Bradford.

“I think that's a much more applicable (comparison),” said Arnold’s high school coach, Reed Heim.

Jackson Arnold and his parents, Sharon and Todd, at the Landry Award ceremony.
Jackson Arnold and his parents, Sharon and Todd, at the Landry Award ceremony :: Screenshot / CBS 11 Sports Dallas

Once he put aside basketball and golf and hockey — yes, hockey — and just focused on football, the game came easily to Bradford. So easily, Bob Stoops nicknamed him “Big Easy.” And yet, Bradford carried the reputation around the Switzer Center as one of the team’s hardest workers.

That’s the combination every football coach wants. It’s the combination that inevitably produces greatness.

The game seems to come easily for Arnold, too, smooth and confident behind center, in absolute command of the offense, manipulating defenses as he needs to — and then letting his prodigious talents take over like he did this year for Denton Guyer, leading the Wildcats to a 14-1 record.

Heim knows what he’s talking about. He was a graduate assistant coach at Baylor in 2009, and he watched up close Bradford’s one full game that season, the year after he won the Heisman.

Bradford hurt his shoulder in the 2009 season opener against BYU, and he was lost for the season after reinjuring it against Texas.

Jackson Arnold won the Elite 11 Finals MVP.
Jackson Arnold won the Elite 11 Finals MVP :: Ryan Chapman / AlolSooners

But the week before the Red River Rivalry, on Oct. 10 in Norman, Bradford dominated the Bears. Bradford finished with 389 yards and a touchdown as the Sooners rolled 33-7.

“The only game he played,” Heim said. “He didn’t even warm up and he came out and smoked as for about 400.

“I think yeah, I would say he’s more Sam Bradford as far as probably the mental approach to it.”

Heim admits he doesn’t personally know either Bradford or Mayfield, but he sees less of some of Mayfield’s outward traits in his own QB than others do.

“Baker may have been a little bit edgier,” Heim said. “… Baker’s story is, you know, goes on as a walk-on and I think he always carried a — and he still does — he carries a ‘I’ll show you.’ You know? And I think Jackson is, ‘I love to compete. I want to beat you. Not to prove to everyone that I am something that other people don't believe I am.’ I mean, he knows that he's a good football player, but it's more about just the pure competitiveness just wanting to go compete.”

Arnold has all the stats. As a senior, Arnold completed 69 percent of his passes, threw for 2,859 yards and 31 touchdowns and was intercepted just three times in 274 attempts. He also rushed for 667 yards and 17 touchdowns.

He has all the accolades. He won the Tom Landry Award as the top prep player in North Texas, and won the MaxPreps Texas High School Player of the Year. He was MVP of the Elite 11 Finals last summer. More awards will be coming his way.

But what stands out the most to Heim is Arnold’s intangible qualities, like leadership.

“It’s very much a lead-by-example,” Heim said. “Now, he will talk and he'll get ‘em going. Just, for us, at this level, when you’re a high school kid, when you compete like he competes in whatever, whether it's trying to break a tackle or pulling the zone read and carrying it and trying to extend the play on the balance — he’s just always competing. And that energy and that spirit is what made our team function, and also just what made our kids believe so much in him.

“It’s just like, ‘This guy, we know we got a good one.’ He is always competing, always trying to put us in the best position, whether that's throw it, run it, whatever. And we feed off that energy. And he’s not a bad vocal leader by any means. But I think it was just more of his spirit and that energy that he brings to the table is what our kids fed off of.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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