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AROUND MIDDAY SATURDAY, Jackson Arnold will hop off a bus and stroll into Gaylord Household – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
He’ll know his manner round however will not take the acquainted route towards the house locker room. Nor will he placed on the crimson and white Oklahoma jersey. As an alternative, he’ll swimsuit up for Auburn and start ultimate preparations for a sport brimming with emotion and nostalgia.
Arnold, ESPN’s No. 2 recruit within the 2023 class, was alleged to be the subsequent nice quarterback at Oklahoma, which has produced three Heisman Trophy winners, a Heisman runner-up and a sequence of all-league and All-America picks since 2015. However a tough 2024 season led him and the Sooners to half methods. He entered the switch portal and located a brand new group. And, like many transfers, Arnold will now line up towards his former group.
“He is very mature and he does not give any credit score to any noise or discuss,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze stated. “He is a professional. All of us perceive folks may cheer for him, boo him, no matter it’s. I feel he is mentally robust.”
Arnold’s scenario has turn into a weekly prevalence round school soccer, even within the younger 2025 season. Final week, Duke quarterback Darian Mensah returned to New Orleans and confronted Tulane, the group he helped to a 9-2 begin final season earlier than touchdown an NIL cope with the Blue Devils that would pay him $8 million over two seasons.
When Kansas State and Arizona met final Friday in Tucson, security Gunner Maldonado and huge receiver Tre Spivey had been suiting up for various units of Wildcats. Maldonado is in his first season at Kansas State after 4 with Arizona, and Spivey is in his first with Arizona after two with Kansas State.
Earl Little Jr. transferred from Alabama after the 2023 season, slogged by a 2-10 marketing campaign with Florida State final fall after which opened this season on Aug. 30 towards his former group, recording a team-high 9 tackles because the Seminoles shocked the Crimson Tide.
Switch reunions at the moment are baked into this period of faculty soccer, requiring a fragile but intentional strategy from all these concerned as they attempt to not solely get by the video games however come out with wins.
“This isn’t new,” Duke coach Manny Diaz informed ESPN earlier than the Tulane sport. “There have been guys by the years we have had which have confronted a former group, and definitely in professional sports activities, this occurs on a regular basis. In case you deny the emotional half, then you already know you are doing your self a disservice, however when you acknowledge that the feelings are what they’re, then it is nonetheless only a sport.”
WHEN A TRANSFER reunion looms, coaches and gamers are always taking the emotional temperature. Florida State’s Little needed to hear concerning the Alabama sport all through the offseason.
“I had folks coming for my neck day by day, speaking concerning the huge sport or what I used to be going to do and the whole lot, however I did not hearken to the skin noise,” he stated.
Arnold, who did not meet with reporters this week, had an analogous response when requested about Oklahoma following Auburn’s win towards South Alabama. He stated he isn’t on social media, joking that “there is no noise for me.”
The emotional element is heightened for these video games and can’t be ignored. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian stored a watch on defensive lineman Hero Kanu within the leadup to the season opener at Ohio State, the group Kanu performed for in 2024.
“I attempt to get a fairly good sense of the texture for our gamers all through the summer time, all through fall camp,” Sarkisian stated. “Then, I attempt to monitor the participant that [game] week, and if I really feel like they’re getting out of character, I tackle it. If I really feel like they’re practising effectively, they’re being themselves, I do not tackle it. Typically you can also make one thing out of nothing once you begin to do issues like that.
“With Hero, I believed he was in an awesome place going into the sport, and I believed he performed effectively within the sport. I by no means addressed it with him one time.”
Freeze did not play school soccer, however he has been by an expertise just like what Arnold will undergo this week. As Liberty’s coach in 2021, he returned to Ole Miss, the place he coached from 2012 till being fired shortly earlier than the 2017 season.
“That entire week, it was a problem for me not to consider a few of that,” Freeze stated. “I do know the identical might be true for Jackson. … My recommendation to him is to only maintain the concentrate on our group. That was my recommendation to myself. It isn’t about you. It isn’t about me. It is about our group making ready to go in to play.”
Little centered on holding “a peaceful thoughts” when he arrived at Doak Campbell Stadium for the opener towards Alabama. When Florida State’s defensive backs started warmups, he bumped into some former Alabama teammates and others from this system whom he knew from his time there.
They briefly exchanged greetings.
“No dangerous blood in any respect, it was all good vibes,” Little stated.
Weeks after Stanford fired coach Troy Taylor, huge receiver Tiger Bachmeier and his youthful brother, Bear, an incoming freshman quarterback, entered the switch portal. As BYU got here into focus as their doubtless vacation spot, the Bachmeier brothers instantly observed that the group could be internet hosting Stanford in Week 2.
As quickly as BYU completed its season-opening win towards Portland State, Tiger Bachmeier sensed what was coming.
“You begin to get a little bit of anxiousness, not nervousness or nastiness,” he stated. “You possibly can’t actually clarify it. There’s one thing eerie and peculiar concerning the feeling.”
Though Bear Bachmeier would find yourself beginning for BYU, he had been at Stanford for only some months. Tiger, in the meantime, had began 13 video games for the Cardinal and earned his pc science diploma there in 2½ years.
“You construct lasting relationships, after which once you pull the plug on that, it is positively an emotional factor,” Tiger Bachmeier stated. “It was extra indifferent for Bear.”
Arizona coach Brent Brennan stated it is essential to acknowledge that transfers have a spread of experiences with their former groups and people they left behind. When reunion video games come round, his message is similar: No matter how issues went earlier than, the main target should stay on the present group and its mission.
Like different coaches, Brennan does not amplify the scenario, however he does not ignore it, both.
“It is perhaps a easy one-off dialog at the start of the week after which a reminder someplace late within the week,” Brennan stated. “You are making an attempt to maintain them locked into the group and what the group wants from them on that day, and simply making an attempt to assist them navigate any of the feelings they may have, and never letting that turn into both a distraction to your group or detrimental to their very own play.”
COACHES ARE TASKED with getting each participant able to carry out on sport days. They’re additionally making an attempt to realize each benefit potential, together with potential intel on the opponent.
“I might say there in all probability is [information gathering],” Florida coach Billy Napier stated, whereas including, “not that you’d discuss it [publicly].”
Final week, Arkansas confronted an Ole Miss group that added three Razorbacks transfers within the offseason: offensive lineman Patrick Kutas, cornerback Jaylon Braxton and tight finish Luke Hasz. Offensive lineman Kavion Broussard, in the meantime, got here to Arkansas from Ole Miss and has seen motion this season.
The transactions may have impacted each groups of their preparation, particularly since Arkansas and Ole Miss have the identical head coaches and first coordinators from 2024.
“I am certain that there is conversations happening about calls and educating and the way we did issues right here, possibly,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman stated earlier than the group’s 41-35 loss at Ole Miss. “… It isn’t simply Ole Miss, it is anyone that transfers, the place they may probably assist their group win a sport. So we definitely perceive that and are conscious of that.”
When coaches get data, additionally they should assess how a lot, if in any respect, to regulate their plans.
“There is a wonderful line in there, and typically you can begin to outsmart your self,” Sarkisian stated. “Each group you play is aware of that they’ve a participant that may be a former participant in your group. After which, OK, what do we have to change? What do we have to alter? Typically you will get that data after which a coach can outsmart you. … I simply suppose you need to watch out relating to making an attempt to get data for former gamers from a faculty, assuming they know that participant they usually can outfox us.”
How Oklahoma coach Brent Venables defends Arnold might be a serious subplot to Saturday’s sport. On Tuesday, Venables applauded Arnold’s early success with Auburn after a 2024 season wherein he eclipsed 200 passing yards simply as soon as.
Venables stated he sees “the identical man … with a wholesome soccer group round him,” referring to the surge of accidents that hit Oklahoma’s huge receiver group and different areas of the offense final fall. The coach additionally downplayed the potential benefit he can have in scheming towards his former quarterback.
“Guys can change from one 12 months to the subsequent,” Venables stated. “There’s loads that you do not know, since you’re not with them for the final eight months. … Jackson’s some of the proficient gamers in all of faculty soccer. He is can throw, he is acquired a giant arm, he can run, he is acquired an awesome capability intellectually and nice management abilities, he is been a winner his entire life. So I do not suppose there’s any type of benefit in anyway.
“He noticed our protection each single day in apply, so there’s going to be a familiarity to that.”
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BEFORE BYU HOSTED Stanford, Tiger Bachmeier’s Cougars teammates quizzed him about a few of Stanford’s gamers. Bachmeier, who describes himself as “fairly optimistic on everybody,” tried to focus on their finest qualities.
“I loved telling humorous tales concerning the guys and the recollections, character traits versus how he units blocks,” Bachmeier stated. “I do not know if that is what they had been on the lookout for. A few of these guys are my finest mates.”
After leaving for BYU within the spring, Bachmeier stayed in touch with a number of Stanford gamers. The correspondence dwindled throughout coaching camp. When sport week arrived, they merely wished one another good luck and requested if they need to take footage earlier than or after the sport.
One Stanford participant instructed a pregame prayer. Earlier than a sport final 12 months at Stanford Stadium, Bachmeier had met his brother Hank, a quarterback at Wake Forest, within the tunnel they usually prayed collectively. However the group prayer was tougher to coordinate.
“That was a extremely, actually bizarre ambiance throughout pregame since you’re making an attempt to remain centered and also you see your mates who you have not seen for 5 months,” Tiger Bachmeier stated. “You wish to say, ‘What’s up?'”
After the sport, Bachmeier acquired an opportunity to see huge receiver Myles Libman, security Charlie Eckhardt and offensive lineman Fisher Anderson — and take footage.
“All of us type of ran up to one another and gave one another hugs for 5 straight minutes,” Bachmeier stated. “That is what it is all about.”
Little hoped to see his Alabama mates after the opener, however Florida State followers had different concepts after the Seminoles’ 31-17 win.
“The sphere acquired rushed fairly rapidly, so I sadly could not go and holler at a few of my previous teammates,” Little stated. “All of the followers had been leaping on me. I could not say something to these guys.”
He reached out to some, however “they had been mad at me,” Little joked, including that the Alabama gamers did supply their congratulations.
“We missed one another,” Little stated. “When it was time to step on the soccer subject, it is battle. However on the finish of the day, I am nonetheless cool with these guys and have a lot respect for them.”
Arnold undoubtedly might be tracked earlier than, throughout and after Saturday’s sport, as many wish to see how he interacts with Venables and others from his time at Oklahoma. However gamers and coaches who’ve been by switch reunions say the trickiest half is the hours and minutes earlier than kickoff.
“There is no a technique that it goes down,” Diaz stated. “What I’ve discovered, greater than something is, as soon as the sport begins, the sport turns into concerning the sport, and everyone simply type of strikes on.”
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