Interesting hire there.
Assuming his qb from Wazzou comes with him, and Arnold might be looking elsewhere?
But also.... what type of offense does Arbuckle run?
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Interesting hire there.
Assuming his qb from Wazzou comes with him, and Arnold might be looking elsewhere?
But also.... what type of offense does Arbuckle run?
Air Raid. Comes from the Leach tree by way of Zach Kittley. And as I have been saying for the better part of 2 months, Jackson Arnold is transferring and he's transferring here. Lebby and staff have been in touch with Jackson and his father since after he got benched against Tennessee, which was the same day Shapen went down.
Fully expect it this week. He's going to know where he goes the second the portal opens. Auburn is trying to muddy the waters, as they are with every QB, so it may not be an immediate commit but it will come shortly.
As for MVB, as of now I expect he stays and battles with Kamario in 26. That was always the plan so I don't know how this changes anything.
So the plan I was told, and take it with a grain of salt because it was a month ago, was that we were bringing in Arnold. At that point, and this conversation has already happened if I had to guess, we would have talked to Van Buren to get his thoughts. If he was leaning towards leaving then we would bring Shapen back as an insurance policy. If Van Buren stayed and decided to battle Taylor for the job in 26, which was the plan when we signed him, then we would help Shapen get the extra year and find a transfer destination for him.
I'm not convinced that Jackson Arnold will beat out MVB anyway. Jackson really struggled this year. A lot of that had to do with Littrell as the OC and not Lebby, but his decision-making process was very slow. MVB throws a much better downfield ball than Arnold did this year.
He does throw a better deep ball than Jackson. But Jackson is better in the pocket, better with ball control, and honestly he is better running this offense. His decision making process was slow because Litrell was trying to make him something he is not with no receivers. Once Litrell was fired, they decided to become run heavy because they had no receivers but had good RBs and a line who could run block.
That's pretty much exactly what I was informed as well. Arnold is the only expected starter, if that comes to fruition like expected. MVB and Taylor fight it out for 2026 starting QB. I will say that I have not heard of us really going after any other impact QB's besides Arnold. So we feel very good about him or we will allocate that money elsewhere if we don't get him and run with the QB's we have, it sounds like.