Oklahoma-Arizona Alamo Bowl: One Big Thing — Jackson Arnold

The Sooners' freshman quarterback is in charge of the offense starting tonight, and his coaches can't wait to see what he can bring to the table.

SAN ANTONIO — Well, Oklahoma has a 5-star quarterback again.

It became a routine thing under Lincoln Riley, bringing in such impressive recruits like Kyler Murray, Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams, that it feels like a long time since the Sooners have had a former 5-star recruit starting behind center.

It’s only been two years — on the dot, actually — since the Alamo Bowl was Williams’ last start as a Sooner QB.

But it feels longer.

Still, Brent Venables and his new offensive coordinator can’t wait to see what the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year can do tonight against Arizona as he replaces Dillon Gabriel as OU’s starter in the Alamo Bowl.

Gabriel was always viewed as a kind of placeholder, a paperclip to keep the 2022 and 2023 seasons together while OU found its next big-time QB. Gabriel was a little bit more than that, of course, but even he realized his best opportunity to have a big final season in college was go head off elsewhere — Oregon, in this case — and led Arnold spread his wings.

The future is now. The Jackson Arnold era has begun at Oklahoma.

“It's been awesome,” Littrell said Tuesday. “Jackson is a phenomenal young man, extremely hard worker. He's going to put in all the time it takes to prepare the right way each and every week, even though he wasn't the starter most of those games this year.

“Like I told him, we're both getting our first start together. It'll be an amazing time. No one better to do it with.”

“He's been around the game since he came out of his mama's womb,” Venables said. “Been throwing the ball around since then.”

Venables said he expects big things from Arnold in the poise and composure and leadership and maturity department, and told a story about what he used to think quarterbacks should be — and why Arnold isn’t that.

“He's got a great demeanor to him,” Venables said. “I think when I was a young coach, I thought the quarterback had to be like the middle linebacker, rah-rah, emotional. After I coached Sam Bradford on the scout team — who later become the No. 1 pick in the draft — I learned quickly as I tried to get Sam to do it like I wanted him to do it: maybe his way is better.”

Arnold, Venables said, is “very cerebral, consistent, same guy every day. Puts the work in. Just a fantastic teammate. Very highly recruited, well thought of, yet there's no entitlement whatsoever in Jackson. He's got the instincts that you want him to have, the poise, whether it's the ability to climb in the pocket, patience, trust guys around him, throws open with great anticipation, all the skills you want a guy to have.”

Venables said as Gabriel’s backup, Arnold might have two or three bad practices where, ‘Boy, you leave a little bit to be desired.’ Now (in a month of practices as the starter), if he had a bad play, he doesn't have a bad series. If he had a bad series, he doesn't have a bad day. He's quickly able to regain his composure and not let a bad moment really affect him.”