Oklahoma football: Two Sooners named to 2022 Big 12 Preseason Team
By Chip Rouse
Two Oklahoma football players have been named to the 2022 Preseason All-Big 12 Team.
QB Dillon Gabriel is the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year, and punter Michael Turk is on the Preseason All-Big 12 Defensive Team.
The number of Sooners named to the All-Big 12 Preseason Team is down considerably what it has been in recent years. A year ago, nine Oklahoma players (five on offense, four on defense) were named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team. In addition, QB Spencer Rattler was the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, and RB Eric Gray was the Preseason Newcomer of the Year.
Five Sooners were named to the 2020 All-Big 12 Preseason Team and six from OU in 2019.
Kansas State led all Big 12 teams with six players on the 2022 Preseason All-Big 12 Team, followed by Baylor with five, West Virginia four and Oklahoma State, Texas and Iowa State with three each.
Gabriel, a redshirt-junior, transferred from UCF, where in 26 games in three seasons he passed for 8,037 yards and 70 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. Gabriel, who throws from the left side, threw at least one touchdown in all 26 games he played in at UCF and passed for at least two TDs in 20 games. His 156.9 passing efficiency rating is seventh best nationally for quarterbacks who have played in a minimum 25 games in the last three years.
Turk averaged 51.2 yards on 35 punts last season, his first at OU after two seasons at Arizona State. He was an All-Big 12 First-Team selection in 2021. Twenty of his 35 punts last season went for at least 50 yards and 16 were downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. In just one Oklahoma season, Turk owns five of the top 14 single-game punting averages in Sooner football history.
Oklahoma also announced on Wednesday that Gabriel, WR Marvin Mims, defensive end Ethan Downs and cornerback Woodi Washington would join head coach Brent Venables at Big 12 Media Days in Arlington, Texas, on July 14.