Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: OU’s top 2023 recruit becomes a Sooner next month

By Chip Rouse

The Tulane Green Wave is painted on the field of the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla. on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021. The logo was painted in preparations for the NCAA football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Tulane University Green Wave that was moved from New Orleans to Norman due to hurricane Ida.Tulane Logo
The Tulane Green Wave is painted on the field of the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla. on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021. The logo was painted in preparations for the NCAA football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Tulane University Green Wave that was moved from New Orleans to Norman due to hurricane Ida.Tulane Logo /
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Chances are, one of the first signed letters of intent faxed back to the Oklahoma football office on Wednesday will be from 2023 recruit Jackson Arnold.

Arnold, the No. 5 quarterback in the 2023 class nationally and the No. 1 overall prospect in the state of Texas, has been 100 percent committed to the Sooners since giving his verbal pledge to head coach Brent Venables almost a year ago to the day.

The top recruit in the Sooners’ 2023 class played his final high school football game last weekend. His Denton Guyer Wildcats fell 47-28 to DeSoto in the Texas 6A-II state semifinals. In just a few short weeks, he will be enrolled at the University of Oklahoma as the next chapter in his life journey begins as an OU Sooner and the Oklahoma quarterback of the future.

Arnold finished his senior high school season with 3,476 passing yards and 33 touchdowns with just three interceptions.

Although the incumbent at the quarterback position for the Sooners, Dillon Gabriel, has not revealed his future plans, the expectation is that he will return next season and that Arnold will learn under him and be groomed to take over the job when Gabriel departs.

Gabriel was Arnold’s host when the former took an official recruiting visit to OU this past June. “Hanging out with him there, we got closer,” Arnold said in a recent interview with Eli Lederman of the Tulsa World.

The two have texted each other after football games this fall, and Arnold looks forward to growing the relationship he has built with Gabriel when he officially arrives on campus in January.

Before he arrives at OU, though, has another commitment to fulfill. He will captain Team Speed and play in the Under Armour Next All-American game on Jan. 3 in Orlando, Florida. Six other Oklahoma commits have also been invited to play in the game.

Interestingly, Arnold and Gabriel both committed to Oklahoma only a few weeks apart at the beginning of 2022.

“He’s gonna hopefully stay another year,” Arnold said about the opportunity to work with Gabriel, “and I can just learn under him and pick up tendencies he does and stuff like that to help me out and win the starting job the next year.”

Another big reason that Arnold has been sold on Oklahoma from the beginning is because of the relationship he already had with Sooner offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. Arnold had been high on Lebby’s radar when the Sooner OC was in the same role at Ole Miss. Before arriving at Ole Miss. Lebby was the offensive coordinator at UCF and coached Gabriel in his freshman season.

Arnold’s transition to the next level of his football and academic journey begins on Wednesday when he signs to play football at Oklahoma.

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