Hugh Freeze cannot let Kirby Smart beat him again in the transfer portal

Even with the College Football Playoff only a few weeks out, teams who are very much in it like Georgia are still carefully monitoring who all enters the transfer portal. Under Kirby Smart, Georgia has had its fair share of hits and misses in the transfer portal. For every Trevor Etienne, there is a Jamie Newman. At least Smart makes it a point to be part of the transfer portal era of college football.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hugh Freeze was not as aggressive in the transfer portal last offseason as he should have. Auburn could have upgraded over Payton Thorne at quarterback but ultimately chose not to. Thorne was not the biggest reason why Auburn did not achieve bowl eligibility this season, but a better quarterback may have gotten these woebegone Tigers to 6-6.

So keep that in mind when you read this. According to Pete Nakos of On3, Auburn and Georgia are the two schools to keep an eye on potentially landing former Oklahoma starting quarterback Jackson Arnold in the portal. Arnold spent his formative years in Atlanta before moving to Texas as a pre-teen. Georgia needs to replace Carson Beck after this year, while Auburn must do a bunch of something.

Auburn may have a more pressing need at quarterback than Georgia, but the latter is the better team.

Hugh Freeze cannot let Kirby Smart land Jackson Arnold in transfer portal

I don't know if Freeze enters next season on the hottest of hot seats, but his Auburn Tigers have to perform or else he is toast. Athletic director John Cohen did not leave his alma mater of Mississippi State University to go to Auburn to hire the former disgraced head coach at Ole Miss away from Liberty to not make noise in the SEC. This hire was supposed to instill fear inside of Auburn's rivals.

To be fair, Freeze has had to deal with the bare bones roster Bryan Harsin left for him. It was always going to take some time to flip the roster acccordingly. Since Freeze has won everywhere he has been before, I still have faith he will get this thing turned around. However, you need to start beating rival teams like Alabama, Georgia and LSU with some level of regularity. Arnold helps bridge the gap.

If Arnold were to transfer to Auburn, he would emerge as the favorite for the starting job next season. I am not entirely sure if he is as good as the hype surrounding him out of high school merited, but Arnold is still an upgrade over the current Auburn quarterback situation. As far as Georgia is concerned, the Dawgs still have Gunner Stockton, Jaden Rashada and a few others beyond Beck.

Arnold to Georgia may make the Dawgs strong and powerful, as well as Auburn weak and powerless.