Oklahoma football: ESPN writer projects Dillon Gabriel as the breakout QB in 2022
By Chip Rouse
Related Story. QB Dillon Gabriel a winner; Sooners will be, too, with him. light
Every year about this time the conversation and debate starts up about which college football players are the best candidates to experience breakout seasons come the fall, In recent seasons, it has been a string of elite Oklahoma football quarterbacks who have found themselves in this spotlight.
The college football staff at ESPN tackled this question recently and, in their own words, “broke down which players will break out.”
In the quarterback group, ESPN staff writer Mark Schlabach jumped on the Dillon Gabriel band wagon. Schlabach writes:
"“New OU coach Brent Venables hit a home run when he persuaded former UCF starter Dillon Gabriel to flip from UCLA to Oklahoma out of the transfer portal.“The move makes a lot of sense for both sides…Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby was the architect of UCF’s offense in 2019 (when Gabriel and was the starting QB and led UCF to the No. 2 offense in the nation based on average yards per game. OU’s offense ranked No. 3 nationally that season under Jalen Hurts)."
Sooner fans will get to see Gabriel in person at the OU spring game on April 23.
The fact that he is highly familiar with Lebby’s offense and has the experience of two seasons as the starter at UCF is a double bonus for the Sooners, who finished last season with two former No. 1 quarterback recruits in Spencer Rattler and freshman standout Caleb Williams, but lost both to the transfer portal.
Gabriel has impressed the OU coaches and has won over his teammates in the short time he has been in Norman.
“He’s got to me those special qualities,” Venables said in a press conference this week. “He’s very humble. He’s not loud and braggadocios and making any kind of proclamations. He doesn’t need to. He does it with his work, his competitiveness, his toughness.
He inspires, he encourages, he leads by example…and he has street credibility with the players because of what he has done at a high level,” the OU head coach said.
I can’t think of anything else you would want from your quarterback. Oh, and by the way, Gabriel has three years of eligibility remaining if he chooses to use them.