No Mystery: Jackson Arnold Will Start at QB for Oklahoma

Sooners head coach Brent Venables revealed Monday night on his weekly coach's show that Arnold will take over for Michael Hawkins.

Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

It’s certainly no surprise, but Brent Venables confirmed the obvious on Monday night: Jackson Arnold will start at quarterback when Oklahoma visits No. 18-ranked Ole Miss on Saturday.

When the Sooners and Rebels kick off at 11 a.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, it’ll be Arnold, not Michael Hawkins, taking the starting snaps.

“It’ll be Jackson,” Venables told “Sooner Sports Talk” host Toby Rowland.

Hawkins, a true freshman from Frisco, TX, started the last three games for OU but in the last one, a 35-9 loss to South Carolina on Saturday at Owen Field, Hawkins committed three catastrophic turnovers on the Sooners’ first three drives that put the Sooners in a quick 21-0 hole.

Arnold came in and helped stabilize things, although the OU offense continued a disastrous slide that ultimately got offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Seth Littrell fired on Sunday.

Arnold’s return to the lineup isn’t exactly redemption. He completed 18-of-36 passes against the Gamecocks for 225 yards and one touchdown — a 54-yard TD strike to Brenen Thompson. 

He did become the first Sooner QB this season to pass for 200 yards in a game. The deep ball to Thompson was OU’s second-longest pass play of the season and the longest scoring pass.

But he also endured eight of South Carolina’s nine quarterback sacks and was under duress on nearly every drop back. He engineered just two scoring drives on his nine offensive possessions.

Arnold, the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2022, came to OU last year as a 5-star prospect out of Denton Guyer. The coaching staff thought so highly of him, they were OK with two-year starter Dillon Gabriel entering the transfer portal — which he did, Gabriel’s mother has said, partially out of consideration for Arnold. Arnold has emerged as a Heisman frontrunner for No. 1-ranked Oregon.

But going back to last year’s bowl loss to Arizona, Arnold was inconsistent and suffered nine turnovers in his first five starts, including the three big ones that got him benched against Tennessee.

Hawkins provided a spark against the Vols with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, then ran for a 48-yard touchdown at Auburn and rallied the Sooners to a late victory over the Tigers with a 60-yard deep ball to J.J. Hester.

The wheels came off for Hawkins, however, in a 34-3 loss to Texas, and the ride crashed and burned with three early turnovers against South Carolina — two interceptions and a fumble, two of which were returned for defensive touchdowns — that put OU in a 21-0 hole less than five minutes into the game.