Quarterback Dillon Gabriel Puts Oklahoma In College Football Playoff Contention

After the 2021 season, quarterback Dillon Gabriel announced he was transferring from the University of Central Florida, where he had started for three years. There was no shortage of suitors even though Gabriel had sustained a fractured clavicle that September and missed the remainder of the season.

That December, Gabriel said he would play for UCLA. But just over two weeks later, he changed his mind and committed to Oklahoma, reuniting with Sooners offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who had the same role at UCF when Gabriel was there.

Gabriel’s first season at Oklahoma didn’t go as planned, as the Sooners went 6-7, their first time under .500 since 1998. But this year, Oklahoma is back among college football’s elite programs.

OU (6-0) is ranked fifth in the Associated Press poll following Saturday’s 34-30 victory over Texas in the annual Red River rivalry game. Texas (5-1) was third in the AP poll but fell to ninth after the loss.

The Sooners trailed by three points and had no timeouts when they regained possession with 1:17 remaining. They had blown a 10-point lead and hadn’t scored on their past four drives. But then Gabriel led the Sooners down the field, culminating in a three-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left. Texas got the ball back and completed two passes, but it couldn’t connect on a Hail Mary as time expired.

Gabriel completed 23-of-38 passes for 285 yards and ran for 113 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries. It was a much different scene from last year when Oklahoma lost, 49-0, to Texas in a game that Gabriel sat out.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma’s second-year coach, told reporters after Saturday’s game that “last year was an embarrassment” and “my hands are all over that,” but he praised his team for their performance in this year’s game, especially Gabriel.

“He’s the calmest guy I’ve ever been around at the quarterback position,” Venables said. “He’s got great belief in the players around him, he’s incredibly humble, you don’t see him ever tooting his own horn. He’s always trying to compliment and call someone else up. But he’s prepared. He’s worked really, really hard.”

Gabriel, a native of Hawaii, was the 20th-best pro-style quarterback in the high school Class of 2019, according to 247Sports. As a true freshman at UCF, he won the starting job, completing 59.3% of his passes for 3,653 yards, 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Knights went 10-3 and ended the year 24th in the AP poll, their third consecutive top 25 finish.

The next year, in a COVID-shortened season, UCF went 6-4 but Gabriel’s numbers were better as he completed 60% of his passes for 3,570 yards, 32 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

After that season, UCF hired former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn as coach, replacing Josh Heupel, who left for Tennessee. Despite the coaching change, Gabriel remained with the Knights and led them to two consecutive victories to start the season before sustaining an injury in the third game. He never played again for UCF as he transferred to Oklahoma, a program that has become known in recent years for its star quarterbacks.

Baker Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy in 2017, while Kyler Murray won the award a year later and Jalen Hurts finished second in 2019. Mayfield and Murray were No. 1 overall selections in the NFL draft, while Hurts was a second round pick and finished second in the NFL Most Valuable Player award voting last year.

No one was mentioning Gabriel as a worthy successor to those players last year when OU finished 6-7 and lost four of its final five games. Not that Gabriel had a bad season. He completed 62.7% of his passes for 3,168 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions and ran for 315 yards and six touchdowns. It’s just that the bar was set so high.

This year, Gabriel is in the Heisman conversation. He has completed 72.3% of his passes for 1,878 yards, 16 touchdowns and just two interceptions and run for 208 yards and five touchdowns. And fickle Oklahoma fans are no longer clamoring for Gabriel to be replaced by Jackson Arnold, a true freshman and the No. 8 overall recruit in the high school Class of 2023, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

After a bye this weekend, Oklahoma returns to action on Oct. 21 against UCF, Gabriel’s former team. The Sooners will be favorites in their remaining six games and face only one ranked opponent (No. 23 Kansas) the rest of the way.

If OU can win all of those games, it will finish the regular season undefeated for the first time since 2004 and advance to the Big 12 Championship game in its final season in the league. The Sooners could again face Texas in the conference title game in a matchup of two teams that are heading to the Southeastern Conference next year.

It is quite a turnaround for Gabriel and Venables, a longtime defensive coordinator at Oklahoma and Clemson who struggled last year in his first year as a head coach. The Sooners are in position to make the College Football Playoff for the fifth time in the 10-year history of the postseason format but first time since the 2019 season.

“There’s no limits on what this team can do, and no excuses, either,” Venables told reporters after Saturday’s game. “We’ve got everything that we need. We’re certainly not there. There’s plenty we’ll have to improve and get better at, but, boy, I’m just really thankful for our players and their effort. They were nothing short of amazing today.”