Oklahoma football: How ‘Quarterback U’ has gone from feast to famine
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football began the season with high hopes but at the same time holding its breath that starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel could stay healthy. Now we know why.
The Sooners have four scholarship quarterbacks behind Gabriel on the depth chart. Unfortunately, though, the drop off in talent and experience is dramatic.
You have to go back quite a few years to land on a time when the Oklahoma football program didn’t have a fairly solid backup quarterback ready to go in the event a talented Sooner starter went down or, for whatever reason, wasn’t available.
When Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford injured his shoulder in the first game of the 2009 season, freshman Landy Jones was the backup. By the time Jones’ career ended at OU, he was the Sooners’ career passing leader. In Jones’ final two college seasons, Blake Bell was the backup, and then Bell and Trevor Knight interchanged as starting QBs for the Sooners.
Baker Mayfield arrived in 2014 from the transfer portal but had to sit out a season before winning the starting job over Knight in 2015. Knight was Mayfield’s backup before transferring to Texas A&M after the 2015 season. Austin Kendall was Mayfield’s backup in 2016, but redshirted in 2017, turning the backup duties over to Kyler Murray, who had transferred in from Texas A&M.
Kyler was the starter in 2018, backed up by Kendall, who ultimately transferred to West Virginia after Jalen Hurts transferred to OU for the 2019 season.
You get the picture…and we haven’t even mentioned Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams, who were one and two and one in the OU quarterback room last season. The Sooners have not had a quarterback issue, either at starter or in the backup role, since Bob Stoops arrived in Norman 24 years
As another example of the depth the Sooners have had at the position in recent years, four former Oklahoma quarterbacks who were on the roster in the last three years are now or have started for other FBS-level programs: Caleb Wiiliams at USC, Spencer Rattler at South Carolina, Tanner Mordecai at SMU and Chandler Morris at TCU.
So, that brings us to the current state of affairs regarding the Sooners’ quarterback situation. Dillon Gabriel is an experienced starter. In two-plus seasons and 26 starts at Central Florida, he threw for over 8,000 yards and 70 touchdowns with just 14 interceptions. And he is extremely familiar with the new OU offense, have operated under it along with offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby when they were both at UCF.
The Sooners are in highly capable hands with Gabriel at the quarterback controls. But after Gabriel, there is an apparent dramatic drop off. The next three Sooner QBs on the depth chart had little or no experience at the top college level before arriving at Oklahoma, and that void has shown itself in the worst possible way in the Sooners last two games with Gabriel out of action.
Filling in for Gabriel against TCU and Texas, Davis Beville completed 15 of 30 passes for one touchdown and was sacked as total of six times in six quarters of action in the two games. In the Texas game, he threw only 12 passes total and only three that were as far as 10 yards.
Beville has the most game experience at this level of college ball, but he was No. 3 on the QB depth chart at Pittsburgh, so saw very limited action before arriving at OU. General Booty, who may have the best name in college football, had a year of junior-college experience before transferring to Oklahoma and Nick Evers was talented recruit, but this is just his first college season.
“It’s hard on our guys to be able to play the way we want them to play when, in all reality, they haven’t been here long,” said offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby in meeting with reporters on Monday.
Lebby was asked why he did not opt to change quarterbacks against Texas when it was obvious that Beville was struggling.
"“I truly believe there comes a lot of confidence through preparation,” he said. “And wanting to be able to call a play and know what the outcome is going to be.“We talk about predictable outcomes all the time. To me, that is critically important. You have to be able to take care of the football. You have to be able to call the play and know what’s going to happen before we snap the ball.”"
In the last two years, the Sooners have lost four quarterbacks to the transfer portal, all more talented than the group they have now behind Gabriel.
It’s very clear that the current lack of depth and experience OU has at the quarterback spot falls below the historic standard and expectations the Sooners are used to having at the position, and because of circumstances this season, it is costing them dearly.
Looking to the future, which doesn’t help their situation now, Oklahoma does have a quarterback commitment from a five-star prospect in its 2023 recruiting class. Jackson Arnold, from Denton, Texas, was the MVP of the Elite 11 quarterback camp this past summer and is rated as the fifth best quarterback prospect in the 2023 class. His arrival can’t come too soon.