Dillon Gabriel’s Winding Path to Top-Ranked Oregon and Heisman Contention

The durable quarterback navigated two transfer portal moves, racked up career records and has the Ducks in the hunt for a national championship.

In his sixth year and at his third school, Gabriel has the Ducks undefeated heading into the Big Ten championship. / Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Across the Willamette River from the Oregon Ducks’ campus lies a sprawling set of football facilities that have risen up over the years in the shadows of Autzen Stadium. If you were to wander into the futuristic-looking Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, home to the No. 1 team in the country, chances are high you would be drawn to the school’s lone Heisman Trophy displayed in the main lobby.

Though the famous bronzed stiff-arm—won by quarterback Marcus Mariota a decade ago—is central to the exhibit and framed appropriately, it doesn’t take long before passersby turn their attention to the eight marble stones of varying height just to the side of the trophy. Each represents Mariota’s number that he wore during his time in Eugene, Ore., and the eight Hawaiian islands that the illustrious signal-caller calls home.

The display also offers a daily reminder to the Ducks’ current No. 8 behind center, fellow Oahu native Dillon Gabriel, as he enters the building—not just of his own home across the Pacific Ocean but of the standard set before him.

“[Mariota] was a guy I looked up to as a role model. When you’re growing up and you have that kind of direct example of a guy from Hawaii playing at a high level at the D-I level, and then you see them go to the NFL, it’s like you can see [the path] and you can believe it,” Gabriel said this week. “I’m very appreciative of him and how he represents himself, but also how he represents his family and his university everywhere he’s been. I think that goes to show he’s a guy who’s done it right the whole way and what a guy to look up to.

“People say not to meet their heroes or whatever, but gosh, I met mine. I’m very appreciative of him because he’s the same guy that represents the right thing.”

While the two have grown closer since Gabriel joined Oregon in the offseason—the senior even received permission from Mariota to wear his old number—the former’s path is far different from the one his predecessor took. 

To call it the road less traveled would be an understatement because it’s a path as unique as a fingerprint as he prepares to play in the Big Ten championship game on Saturday night against the Penn State Nittany Lions and is well positioned to make it to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Going back to his prep days, Gabriel looked up not just to Mariota, who played at rival Saint Louis School (home to another Oregon QB, Jeremiah Masoli) in Honolulu, but to McKenzie Milton. Long before he was leading the UCF Knights to an undefeated season, Milton was raising the bar at Mililani High, one of Oahu’s public schools that blossomed into a regular football contender thanks to his prolific passing. 

Gabriel wasn’t quite as successful upon taking over for Milton initially, earning only a modest amount of recruiting attention during his first two seasons as a starter at Mililani and holding only an offer from the Army Black Knights through his junior year. Even the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, where Gabriel’s father, Garrett, was a quarterback in the late 1980s, didn’t heavily pursue him. 

As a senior, though, Gabriel became much more than just a local star. He led his team back to the state title game, became the state’s high school career passing leader and was named Gatorade’s Hawaii Player of the Year in 2018 as interest at the next level surged. Offers from several major programs poured in, but Gabriel decided to get about as far away from home as you could possibly get while remaining in the FBS ranks to follow in Milton’s footsteps with the Knights in Orlando.

Gabriel started 12 games as a true freshman for UCF then earned All-AAC honors in his sophomore season. / Mike Watters-Imagn Images

Thrust into the starting lineup in his first game, Gabriel started 12 times as a true freshman and led UCF to a 10–3 campaign. He was statistically even better the following season in throwing for 32 touchdowns and just four interceptions as he earned second-team All-AAC honors, but the Knights took a step back to just 6–4 in the pandemic-impacted season. Then, a broken collar bone just three games into the 2021 season ended his season, and the junior eventually entered his name into the transfer portal. 

Gabriel’s first foray with the process did not lack for suitors, and he was among the highest-profile quarterbacks to take advantage of loosened eligibility restrictions. After initially committing to Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins, he eventually flipped his pledge and made his way to the Oklahoma Sooners. New coach Brent Venables not only needed a new quarterback after the departure of eventual Heisman winner Caleb Williams, but he also had a good idea of what kind of player he was getting after hiring former UCF assistant Jeff Lebby, Gabriel’s former quarterbacks coach, as the Sooners offensive coordinator.

Injuries hampered some of the early success in Norman, Okla., but Gabriel became Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year. In his redshirt senior season a year later, Gabriel showed what he was capable of when healthy and guided the Sooners to a 10–2 mark while leading the Big 12 in total offense and points responsible for. He memorably beat the Texas Longhorns and seemed likely to return as the program transitioned into the SEC.

Yet, that wasn’t the case at all. Lebby departed to become the head coach at Mississippi State. Five-star quarterback prospect Jackson Arnold appeared to be anointed as the next guy under center by the remaining staff at OU, too. 

Ever cognizant of the writing on the wall, Gabriel entered the transfer portal once again and quickly was snapped up by Dan Lanning to be Oregon’s ready-made replacement for recent first-round NFL draft pick Bo Nix. Things have gone swimmingly ever since, as Ducks fans rallied behind yet another prolific, pinpoint passer with surprising mobility who has the program on the brink of a 13–0 season for the first time in school history.

Gabriel showed off his mobility at Oklahoma before entering the transfer portal again and landing at Oregon. / SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

“I think if you look from my freshman year to now, just the type of player I am, more than just statistically [I’ve grown] as a leader, a person, a player, the way I throw it—all that,” Gabriel said. “We’re in an interesting time that’s all about results. So many people talk about the process, but aren’t patient enough. If you look at my body of work, I’m a guy who’s eager and wants to get better, but has had that time to develop and work. I think you see it over time. 

“If there ever is something to say about a journey and taking the time to develop, I think I’m a product of that.”

Recently named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, Gabriel is a statistical marvel in 2024 well beyond ranking second in the country in completion percentage. He is now the NCAA all-time career leader in total touchdowns (183 coming into this weekend) and ranks second in career passing yards, touchdowns and total yardage. 

Depending on how far the Ducks advance in the College Football Playoff, it’s possible he leaves the sport firmly atop all of those statistical categories—an incredible accomplishment even if it took a COVID-inspired sixth year of eligibility at a third school.

“There’s so much on the football side, but also in life. You get older, you get wiser. When you’re around more, naturally you’re going to gain more knowledge,” Gabriel said. “I’ve been lucky and blessed to be around great people and just learn from them. I’ve tried to be a sponge everywhere I’ve been. I’ve also tried to pour my everything into wherever I was in at the moment. I think that’s allowed me to get better every single year.”

Maybe the most impressive accomplishment for Gabriel—who will start his 62nd game on Saturday to become the all-time leader in that category for a quarterback, too—is how he has navigated the changing dynamics of the locker room at three vastly different schools. Though Milton was able to, in part, show him the lay of the land at UCF, Gabriel was dropped into an Oklahoma program undergoing a significant upheaval after Lincoln Riley took the USC Trojans job. Upon arriving in Eugene, he had to replace a top draft pick and keep a program humming as a national contender that was navigating a conference change.

So far, so good it appears.

“With Dylan, he’s just a guy who relates to a lot of us on a personal level, a guy who’s gonna keep it real with us,” Ducks linebacker Jeffrey Bassa said. “He’s never gonna give us no coach talk, no white noise. He’s always gonna keep it real with us. I think he does a really good job of bonding with everybody.

“Sometimes he’ll be kicking it with the special teams guys or he’ll be kicking it with some of the defensive guys in the locker room. Just a fun guy all around, a great guy that you want on your team and you want to be around.”

The winning doesn’t hurt either, with Gabriel’s play a good reason why Oregon survived early tests against the Idaho Vandals and Boise State Broncos. He threw for 341 yards and accounted for three touchdowns in the big win over the Ohio State Buckeyes at Autzen, which vaulted the program into the thick of the national title chase and came up clutch in engineering two fourth-quarter drives to beat a pesky Wisconsin Badgers team on the road last month.

“A lot of our team is veteran heavy and guys who have played a bunch of ball and have won a bunch. They’ve learned a bunch and know what it takes to win,” Gabriel said. “I think with all our experience combined, us kind of tag-teaming off each other and knowing when to lead, demanding what we need as a team, it helps me a bunch. They would say the same as well.”

It is still too early to say where the final destination lies for Gabriel or the Ducks, but having that institutional knowledge of winning sure appears to be an asset as the program navigates the unknown of a 12-team College Football Playoff and a postseason unlike any other in the sport’s history.

The good news is that Gabriel and the Ducks won’t lack for inspiration on the journey there, with a reminder of what’s possible for everyone—from Hawaii and far beyond—just a few steps away every time they show up to their home away from home.