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QB Jackson Arnold leading No. 16 Oklahoma into opener vs. Temple as Sooners settle into SEC

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QB Jackson Arnold leading No. 16 Oklahoma into opener vs. Temple as Sooners settle into SEC


Associated Press

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — It’s finally Jackson Arnold’s time.

The former five-star quarterback opens the season as No. 16 Oklahoma’s starter after waiting behind Dillon Gabriel last season. He will lead the Sooners against Temple on Friday night in his second career start.

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Arnold steps into a position that has produced like few others in college football. Oklahoma has featured Gabriel, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams at quarterback in the past decade. Mayfield and Murray each won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma and Williams played a year with the Sooners before transferring to USC and winning a Heisman there. Mayfield, Murray and Williams were No. 1 overall picks in the NFL draft.

Arnold understood the history when he signed. He hopes to someday have a statue at Heisman Park across from Memorial Stadium – an honor previously bestowed upon Oklahoma’s seven Heisman winners, including four quarterbacks.

“It’s a ton to live up to,” he said. “But at the same time, I want to create a name for myself, create a legacy for myself, and really, I don’t want to be compared to one of those guys. I want to be the best version of myself, and hopefully I can get a statue out there one day.”

Arnold passed for 361 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions in his first college start, a loss Arizona in the Alamo Bowl last season. He left an impression on Temple coach Stan Drayton.

“That was a very talented football player that we saw playing quarterback against Arizona,” Drayton said.

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Backup quarterback

Freshman Michael Hawkins won the battle with Casey Thompson for the spot behind Arnold.

Thompson has passed for 5,338 yards in a career that took him to Texas, Nebraska and Florida Atlantic before he landed where his father, Charles Thompson, played quarterback in the 1980s.

Coach Brent Venables considered it no small feat that Hawkins earned the spot over such a proven veteran. Venables said Thompson has been a great mentor for the younger quarterbacks, but Hawkins performed better overall.

“Mike has shown us a lot of things,” Venables said. “Tremendous playmaker, really focused and locked-in. Fundamentally sound. He’s got a big arm. He’s a quick decision maker. He can improvise and keep his eyes down the field. He can beat you with his legs. As I said, there’s not a route that he can’t excel in.”

Not naming a QB

Drayton resisted naming a starting quarterback between Forrest Brock, Evan Simon and Tyler Douglas. It wasn’t that he hadn’t picked one, it was that being undecided seems to have helped the Temple quarterback room.

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“What I’m not going to do today is announce a starting quarterback,” he said during his weekly availability. “I have a great competitive situation going on in that room right now, and I don’t want to lose that edge. Iron sharpens iron mindset, and everybody in that room is is getting better.”

Temple Tuff

Temple has named its Temple Tuff players as selected by their teammates who will wear single digit numbers this season.

This year’s honorees are linebacker D.J. Woodbury (0), receiver Ian Stewart (1), safety Andreas Keaton (2), defensive end Tra Thomas (3), cornerback Elijah Deravil (4), receiver Dante Wright (5), defensive tackle Latrell Jean (7), tight end James Della Pesca (8) and defensive tackle Demerick Morris (9).

Stewart is the only one returning from last season.

Anderson out

Oklahoma receiver Nic Anderson will miss the opener as he recovers from an undisclosed injury. The 6-foot-4 sophomore caught 38 passes for 798 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Oklahoma already had announced it had lost receiver Jayden Gibson for the season with a knee injury.

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Andrel Anthony, who led Oklahoma in yards receiving last season before being knocked out for the year with a leg injury, will be available.

Quotable

Drayton, after being pressed about the quarterback situation: “That’s for us, not for y’all. I apologize.”

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In

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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In


PORTAL TRACKER 

Oklahoma State’s newly constructed staff got on the board Saturday, picking up portal commitments on offense and special special teams, so how about some defense?

Three Big 12 defenders have been linked with Oklahoma State via the transfer portal over the past few days, including a pair of former OK Preps standouts. Here’s a look.

Kanijal Thomas, CB, Kansas State

Thomas is an Oklahoman, playing his high school ball at Del City. He visited Stillwater on Saturday, according to On3.

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He was a redshirt sophomore for the Wildcats in 2025, playing in seven games as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury saw his sophomore season end two games in.

Thomas played in eight games at K-State in 2025, finishing the year with five tackles, a PBU and a forced fumble. According to PFF, he gave up four catches for 21 yards this season on seven targets.

Now listed at 5-foot-11, 186 pounds, Thomas was a three-star prospect coming out of Del City in the 2023 class. He picked K-State over offers from OSU, Texas Tech, Iowa State and others.

Maurion Horn, CB, Texas Tech

Another Oklahoma kid, Maurion Horn has spent the past four seasons in Lubbock, where he has played in 30 games during that time. According to 247Sports, Horn will visit Stillwater on Monday.

He started all of Tech’s games in 2024, finishing that season with 56 tackles, three tackles for loss and five pass breakups. He played in seven games and dealt with some sort of injury, appearing on Tech’s availability report in Weeks 4, 14 and 15.

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Horn has been targeted 88 times in his career, per PFF, where he has allowed just 47 catches.

He was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class out of Broken Arrow. He ended up picking Tech over offers from OSU, OU, Texas, Baylor, Arkansas and others.

Braylon Rigsby, Edge, Texas Tech

Listed at 6-foot-2, 275 pounds, Braylon Rigsby will join his Texas Tech teammate in Stillwater on Monday, according to 247Sports.

He’s played in 26 games across the past two seasons in Lubbock, accumulating 25 tackles and three tackles for loss during that time.

Per PFF, Rigsby has 21 QB pressures in his career to go with two QB hits.

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He hails from Woodsville, Texas, which is near the Louisiana border. Rigsby was a three-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, coming in as the No. 861 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking.



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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma

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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma


Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.

Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.

News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.

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“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.

Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.

He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.

He has concerns about what comes next.

“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.

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The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.

“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.

Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.

Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.

A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal


Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.

Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.

At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.

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Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.

Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.

Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.

Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

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