Oklahoma football: Is redshirting QB Jackson Arnold a good or bad idea?

Oklahoma football coach Brent Venables may have tipped his hand last Saturday when he sent in redshirt senior Davis Beville to finish out the West Virginia game at quarterback in place of starter Dillon Gabriel.

Most every Sooner fan was expecting to see former consensus five-star recruit Jackson Arnold in that spot.

Arnold has played in four games this season but has taken very few snaps except in the season opener against Arkansas State, when he played the entire third quarter and the opening part of the fourth. Other than that, Arnold was used primarily in short-yardage “Belldozer”-type packages. His last appearance was against Iowa State in Week 5 of the season.

Four games in the limit imposed by the NCAA in order to preserve redshirt status.

It makes you wonder if this was Venables’ and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby’s plan all along, or if that is just how circumstances worked out.

Venables addressed the issue in his press conference earlier this week:

"“I don’t think we have any regret, and I don’t think we’d do anything differently to develop him (Arnold),” the Sooner head coach said. “I think you just have a process in how you develop and coach and bring him along, help him mature.“Everything, again, has it’s time. You know, we’re not good enough to look ahead like that. So he’s (Arnold) got to be prepared each and every week to play the schedule that we have right now because he’s still our backup quarterback.”"

To further complicate things, Venables did not dismiss the idea that Gabriel could decide to return for one more season. This is probably a remote possibility at best, but Gabriel does have another year or eligibility if he chooses to use it. My guess is, if he were to play one more season it would be somewhere else.

Redshirting is always a possibility with every young quarterback, but the circumstances of the season don’t always allow for it. For example, had Gabriel been hurt like what happened last season, the Sooners would have immediately turned to Arnold as the backup.

“You always are looking at Plan A or Plan B, best case scenario, worst case scenario,” Venables said, ” but he’s (Arnold) still been able to take all the (practice) reps in case something unforeseen happens. He’s got to stay ready.”

Arnold played 32 snaps against Arkansas State and completed all 11 of his pass attempts for 114 yards and a touchdown. He was in for just six snaps in Week 2 against SMU and totaled 20 snaps, 14 of which were run plays, the next week against Tulsa. In the Sooners’ blowout win over Iowa State, Arnold was in for just four plays, and he handed the ball off three times.

With Arnold being the Sooner quarterback of the future and the heir apparent to Gabriel, who most likely will end his time at Oklahoma after this season, you would think the Sooners would want to give him as much game action as practical this season to get him prepared to hit the ground running in 2024 when the Sooners move over to the SEC.

The other side of the argument has merit as well in that having a player of Arnold’s talent and ability available for three and even four full seasons (with a redshirt year) is a luxury few teams have in college football today. Of course, there is no assurance that Arnold, should he live up to the high expectations everyone has for him, would not get the itch to take his game to the next level.

If Arnold were to stay at Oklahoma for at least three more years, it probably will result in some fallout in the quarterback room. The Sooners already have consensus four-star quarterback Michael Hawkins and three-star QB recruit Brendan Zurbrugg committed as part of the 2024 class and consensus 4-star QB Kevin Sperry, out of Carl Albert High School in Oklahoma City, pledged to the Oklahoma’s 2025 class. Something is likely to give within this group if Arnold were to stick around for three-plus seasons.

“You’d like to (redshirt him) if you can this late,” Venables said this week. “Never say never, but that’s kind of the intent right now.”

The Sooners have already locked in a postseason bowl appearance by virtue of their eight wins. If, for whatever reason, Gabriel were to opt out of the Sooners’ bowl game, Arnold is the logical replacement. The good news with that is the bowl game does not count against his four-game redshirt restriction.