When the starting lineups were announced inside Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night, the student section erupted upon hearing that Ashton Daniels would be the starter. Little did they know they would get the same result from someone with a different number on his back.
Daniels showed promise coming into this game after his performance last week, staying even-keeled and knowing how to get rid of the ball before being sacked and avoiding loss of yardage. However, he continued the trend of struggling to read the field and find the open wide receiver.
“I could be wrong on this, but it sure seemed like from the clips I saw, the times we had, we’ve got to turn it loose,” said head coach Hugh Freeze after the game. “And most of the time there wasn’t enough time for him to feel comfortable to turn it loose.”
Daniels completed 13-of-28 passes for 108 yards, though most of his impact came on the ground, rushing for 48 yards on 15 attempts. While the running backs didn’t have the same success converting big runs as they did last game, Daniels showed the ability to make those plays at times.
One would have thought the coaching staff would design more quarterback runs to play to Daniels’ strengths, especially on third downs to extend possessions and move the chains.
“A lot of critical situations, I think we’re struggling on, and in those situations in the SEC, you have to be able to go out there and convert to score points against any SEC defense because of how good they are,” Freeze said. “So, I think critical situations are probably the biggest area for us right now that we need to improve on.”
It got to the point in the second half that SEC Network’s Alysa Lang reported that if Ashton Daniels’ first drive of the half didn’t go well, the Tigers would bring back Jackson Arnold.
Sure enough, that’s what head coach Hugh Freeze decided to do. Yet in just a few short drives, he wasn’t able to create the spark Auburn needed, something he has struggled to do all year: move the ball when it really mattered.
Hugh eventually saw enough from Arnold to know that he still could not let the ball loose without taking a sack. The inability to avoid a tackle for a loss forced Freeze to “ping-pong” between quarterbacks and go back to Ashton to finish the last drive, a decision Daniels said he was prepared for.
“I mean, it’s not that difficult,” Daniels said. “You know when you’re prepared, you know whether you’re going to start or not. You’re prepared and at whatever time they need you, you know they’re going to need you and they’re going to throw you out there. And if you’re not prepared, then that’s on you. So you know just staying in that mental mindset of no matter what, you always be ready to go.”
Daniels would have one more drive for a chance to tie the game with a little over two minutes remaining. The Tigers went on a 49-yard, 15-play drive, but a last-second heave was intercepted in the end zone by Kentucky, giving the Wildcats a 10-3 win.
The Stanford transfer went 5-of-12 passing for 49 yards, throwing multiple balls out of bounds to avoid being sacked.
“Offensively, it’s just there are zero excuses of how poorly we’re playing at times, and we really struggled to protect tonight, they (Kentucky) did a really nice job,” Freeze said. “You have to give them some credit. But we have struggled offensively, and that is unacceptable the way we’re playing."
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