Oklahoma 2024 Report Cards: QBs Failed, But Never Really Stood a Chance

Jackson Arnold was a 5-star recruit and the Sooners' next big thing, but with injuries all around, poor offensive line play and inept coaching, he and Michael Hawkins were not good.

Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

What chance, really, did Jackson Arnold ever have?

Arnold came to Oklahoma as the Sooners’ next big thing, a 5-star recruit who would start for two years and contend for space in Heisman Park and lead the Sooners to SEC glory and ultimately become a legend in Crimson and Cream.

Instead, Arnold is another uncomfortable OU footnote: a 5-star prospect who never came close to living up to the hype and, ultimately, yet another Sooner expatriate who burrowed out of an untenable situation via the NCAA Transfer Portal.

And it was hardly all on Arnold.

An unprecedented and unfortunate run of injuries at the wide receiver position — at one point the Sooners’ top six wideouts were all hurt — and an historically bad offensive line derailed whatever development Arnold had hoped to make in his first season as the starter.

But then that was all compounded by inept coaching, and really, neither Arnold nor backup Michael Hawkins stood a chance in 2024.

Even so, Arnold could have done much, much more. His penchant for disastrous turnovers was striking and produced spectacular opportunities for the opposition. His inability or unwillingness to even attempt to deliver the football downfield kept the OU offense behind the chains all season. He failed to develop trust in either his blockers or his receivers — but then, who could blame him?

OU receivers dropped 20 passes in all this season on just 342 targets, a percentage of 5.85 that ranked near the very bottom of the SEC (only Tennessee at 6.40 and Georgia at 6.48 were worse), according to Pro Football Focus.

And despite often spectacular mobility and escapability by both Arnold and Hawkins, the offensive line gave up 3.85 sacks per game, which ranked dead last in the SEC and 130th in the nation out of 133 teams, per the NCAA.

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Read More Oklahoma 2024 Report Cards

• Dec. 30: Special teams
• Dec. 31: Defensive tackle
• Jan. 1: Running back
• Jan. 2: Offensive line
• Jan. 3: Defensive end
• Jan. 4: Linebacker
• Jan. 5: Tight end
• Jan. 6: Cornerback
• Jan. 7: Wide receiver
• Jan. 8: Safety
• Jan. 9: Quarterback
• Jan. 10: Coaches

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No quarterback could succeed under those conditions. Both positions were wholly unreliable — not just occasionally, but every play of every game.

Ultimately, quarterbacks are judged on their own stats and their win-loss record — neither of which were good.

Arnold went 5-4 as the starter (four non-conference wins), while Hawkins was 1-3 (all SEC and the bowl game).

Arnold’s 1,421 yards passing were the fewest to lead an OU team since 1998, when freshman Jake Sills led the Sooners with 502 yards, and Arnold's 12 touchdown passes were the lowest since 2013, when Blake Bell led the squad with 12 (the lowest total before that was Rhett Bomar’s 10 in 2005).

Speaking of Bomar, Arnold’s six fumbles lost this season (he fumbled 12 times in all) were the most by an OU quarterback since Bomar’s eight in 2005.

And Arnold’s .626 completion percentage was the lowest by an OU starter since 2014, when Trevor Knight hit 56.6 percent of his throws.

Arnold certainly had his highlights. He ranked second on the team with 444 rushing yards, which included a 25-carry, 131-yard masterpiece in the stunning upset of Alabama and another 75 yards on 17 carries at LSU.

His season-high passing came in relief against South Carolina, when he replaced Hawkins and threw for 225 yards. He also passed for 224 against Maine. 

But the highlights were too few and far between. Behind those two games, Arnold never threw for more than 182 yards in a game, and other than his four-TD performance in the opener against overmatched Temple, he never threw more than two touchdown passes.

Arnold ranked 118th in the nation and last in the SEC in yards per pass, averaging just 5.78. As a team, the Sooners ranked next-to-last in the nation in yards per completion, just 9.73. Overall, OU’s average of 4.81 yards per offensive play ranked 124th in the nation and last in the SEC.

After Arnold’s turnover struggles got him benched against Tennessee, Hawkins was a breath of fresh air as the Sooners nailed down their first-ever SEC win with a dramatic takedown of Auburn on the road. 

Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

He opened the game with a 48-yard touchdown run, then started an improbable “Sooner Magic” comeback with a 60-yard bomb. 

In the bowl game, when he was coached by incoming offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, Hawkins was turned loose and delivered a strong performance: 28-of-43 passing (with five drops, per PFF) for 243 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions, with 61 yards on 17 rushing attempts.

In between Auburn and Navy, however, Hawkins looked very much like a freshman, averaging just 147 yards with just one touchdown in his three primary outings (Tennessee, Auburn and Texas) but also enduring 10 sacks. His start at home against South Carolina — nine plays and three turnovers, two returned for Gamecock touchdowns — was the wrong kind of history and got him relegated back to the bench.

Brent Venables admitted in November that he made a mistake by promoting former Sooner fullback and recent North Texas head coach and 2023 offensive analyst Seth Littrell to quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Littrell had never coached QBs before, and he had never actually run his own offense (he was the play-caller for offensive gurus Larry Fedora and Kevin Wilson) — and his lack of experience was exposed each week in both areas before Venables fired him at midseason.

Joe Jon Finley replaced Littrell as OC and was a little better at times as the Sooners’ play-caller, but he was also worse at times, too — an obstacle from which OU quarterbacks could never quite recover. Arnold also experienced a performance boost when Kevin Johns was elevated to coach QBs after Littrell's dismissal (Johns had coached quarterbacks for 12 years when Venables added him last year as an offensive analyst).

Now, Arnold is at Auburn and Hawkins is back in the OU QB room, where he’ll learn from Arbuckle and compete with John Mateer — who teamed up at Washington State this season to produce an explosive, dynamic and consistent offense. Under Arbuckle, Mateer leads the nation in total touchdowns, and ranks fifth nationally in total yards.

The Oklahoma quarterbacks are almost guaranteed to be drastically better in 2025.

But 2024 will always stick in Sooner Nation’s craw as the year Venables let Dillon Gabriel go to Oregon in favor of Arnold, then hired the wrong offensive coordinator and ruined a 5-star QB prospect.

While OU quarterbacks were reaching new lows as they experienced unprecedented struggles, Gabriel won a Big Ten title, made the College Football Playoff, was named conference player of the year and went to New York as a Heisman finalist. 

It’s completely hypothetical, of course, but with six injured receivers, a completely rebuilt and underperforming offensive line and incompetent coaching, Gabriel’s final college football season wouldn’t have been nearly as good if he’d stayed in Norman.  

But surely, if he’d stayed and stayed healthy, Gabriel — the all-time NCAA FBS leader with 155 career touchdown passes and nearly 20,000 yards total offense in his six seasons — would have been much better than Arnold, who probably would have transferred anyway, which would have opened the door for Hawkins to be the backup and allowed him to compete with Mateer moving forward. 

Then, Oklahoma's future at the quarterback position might look completely different in 2025, or it might look pretty much the same. Either way, the Sooners need to move on quickly from the disaster that was 2024.

Sooners On SI grade: D-