How Jackson Arnold 'Stayed Engaged' and Turned in Some Late Heroics to Beat BYU

After an injury to Dillon Gabriel took Arnold out of redshirt, two fourth-quarter throws and a late audible kept the Sooners in the hunt for a Big 12 Championship.

PROVO, UT — Not all young quarterbacks could have done what Jackson Arnold did for Oklahoma on Saturday.

Literally coming out of redshirt to replace a one-time Heisman Trophy contender on the road in a conference game in shabby weather conditions in front of a hostile crowd — and making tight, winning plays in the fourth quarter with both his arm and his feet — shows Arnold isn’t like other young quarterbacks.

“There was a lot to process,” Arnold said.

“Just loved his toughness and his effort, his leadership, his calmness on the phone between series when things weren't great for him and finding a way,” said offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby after Arnold replaced Dillon Gabriel and helped guide the No. 14-ranked Sooners to a 31-24 win over BYU. “That's what I loved more than anything.”

OU improved to 9-2 on the season, while BYU fell to 5-6. They both have an important game next week — BYU will try to get bowl eligible in Stillwater, while OU hosts TCU on Friday.

Head coach Brent Venables said Gabriel has an “upper body injury” but expressed confidence his starting QB “will be back and available pretty quick.”

Gabriel was the Davey O’Brien national QB of the week last week after eight touchdowns against West Virginia, and was playing pretty well this week — 13-of-21 for 191 yards and two touchdowns in the first half — before he seemed to take a shot to the head shortly before halftime.

Arnold came in to start the second half and completed 5-of-9 passes for 33 yards, while also rushing for 24 yards on eight carries.

Jackson Arnold changes the play / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

But Arnold’s biggest contributions came in the fourth quarter when the game was tied and the Sooners were desperate for a first down.

Early in the quarter, with the score tied at 24, he found Jalil Farooq on third-and-13 for a first down that set up a Zach Schmit field goal (he missed).

Then late in the quarter with OU clinging to a 31-24 lead, he found Farooq again on a third-and-8. That first down allowed the Sooners to kneel on the ball and run out the clock.

The real development for Oklahoma was Arnold’s ability to come to the line on the third-and-8 and change the play — he audibled out of Lebby’s call from the press box.

“He audibled,” said wide receiver Jayden Gibson. “He just audibled the play.

“We had some downfield play called, it was third and (long), and he checked it to slants. That may not seem like much, but just for him as a freshman to go into the game and be confident enough to check the play from what the OC called to what he thinks is best, and then deliver on that, get the first down that iced the game — it’s just little things like that I see in him that I know he’s gonna be a great player.”

It was a far cry from three straight handoffs and a punt that virtually lost the game at Kansas.

“I think it’s fair to say that we all learned through some adversity or some tough moments,” Venables said. “Having the confidence and the faith and calling those things — let’s go win the game.”

“That was a great, competitive play,” Lebby said. “We were getting pressure right there and Jackson did a nice job of putting it into a really tight window. And Jalil making a great play on it. Was proud of Jackson right there because he saw the pressure, saw the look and got to the exact right thing and spot.”

Arnold said he settled in after a couple of drives. He said on the first throw to Farooq, everyone saw man to man coverage across the board and knew what to change the call to.

“We thought they were going to max out zero on us so I just checked out of it,” Arnold said.

“It was talked about all week: if we get certain looks we need to check out of them. That was one of them.”

Arnold didn’t have to change the call on his second throw to Farooq, but he did have to get rid of the football on time and put it on the money. That’s exactly what he did.

“There's so many young guys that would've gotten into that situation and not done what he did on the last drive,” Lebby said.

Just last week, Venables announced the team’s plan was to redshirt Arnold. Only a “disaster” would make the coaching staff make a “hard right-hand turn” — but that’s what happened when Gabriel went down. OU is still in the hunt for a Big 12 championship, so Arnold had to be throw into the fire. It was his fifth game of the season, putting him beyond the four-game redshirt limit.

“What he's done every single day, every single week is he's stayed engaged and he's let himself get coached,” Lebby said. “He has prepared in a great way and he never knew when the opportunity was going to show up — and I'll be danged if it doesn't show up for the first time all day, again, Cover Zero, we're going to be hot, and he gets to exactly what we talked about during the week and that's at the most critical time of the game.

“But it's a credit to him and just staying the course and preparing as the starter when he's not the starter.”