The moment that Oklahoma freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold stepped onto campus, he became one of the most well-known people to call Norman home.
As a five-star signal caller out of Denton (TX), Arnold is expected to be the next Heisman contender in a long lineage of top-notch quarterbacks in OU football lore.
However, he is still a freshman, and making the jump from high school to Division I football is a difficult transition. But for Arnold, enrolling in the spring at Oklahoma is already paying dividends.
In the midst of his first fall camp with the Sooners, Arnold is already starting to get comfortable.
“[Fall camp] has been awesome so far," Arnold said. "(OU coach Brent Venables has) done a great job taking care of the players. Obviously, I wasn’t here last year but the schedule from what I’ve heard (hasn't been) easy on the players but (it's) a lot more taking care of the players.
"So, it’s been a great fall camp. We’ve learned a ton, installed a ton and compared to the spring I feel so much more comfortable. Well, it’s not even comparable, honestly. Like coming in the spring was the biggest advantage ever. Because now, I’ve got the plays down, now it’s just going out and executing.”
Because of the valuable experience that he's been able to gather over the last few months, Arnold says the game is starting to slow down for him.
"I noticed it today, honestly," Arnold said about the change of speed. "I felt really comfortable today, especially after (Saturday's) scrimmage. I thought I had a pretty decent scrimmage and the game kind of feels slower for me today and it's been feeling that way in camp. We go good-on-good every day and that's something I didn't do in high school. The only game reps I got were actual game reps but now I'm getting game reps in practice and that's just slowing the game down tremendously and will only help me when I do step into that role in the future."
Despite being a highly-touted five-star QB, Arnold recognizes that there are still some thing he's got to improve on, because under Brent Venables, there's no room for complacency.
But Venables has liked what he's seen from the highly-touted freshman.
"Jackson is anxious and eager," Venables said. "He’s willing to be led as well, willing to learn and grow. He didn’t come in as a guy that has all the answers. I love that. Humility but ambition too. He’s very ambitious. He’s trying to create an opportunity for himself and a role for himself and be the guy. I love that."
Arnold said he's been primarily focused on improving his mechanics.
“Right now, it’s more on the field stuff," Arnold said. "Whether that’s footwork or certain ways to move in the pocket. Working on pocket presence and awareness, things like that. There’s always mental stuff off the field that I need to get better at but I’d say right now, on the field, it’s footwork, pocket presence, stuff like that.”
Sometimes, the only way to work on that sort of thing is just to do it live, and his experience to this point is helping Arnold become more comfortable with that reality.
“Yeah, knowing the playbook is huge but it’s also the experience too. Just going through Spring, playing against our defense, seeing what our defense runs, fronts, coverages, all that. Getting used to that, has helped me out tremendously this fall camp.”
