Oklahoma Position Preview: Quarterback

Dillon Gabriel remains the starter, but Brent Venables and Jeff Lebby added major competition for the backup job after the spring game, and now must sort it all out.

On April 23, Dillon Gabriel finished his first spring at Oklahoma by lighting up Memorial Stadium.

Since that blustery day, the Oklahoma quarterback room has undergone significant changes.

Already sitting on an early enrollee in true freshman Nick Evers, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jeff Lebby added another arrival via the NCAA Transfer Portal, then added a junior college transfer.

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2022 Oklahoma Position Previews

• Tuesday: Running Back
• Wednesday: Linebacker
• Thursday: Offensive line
• Friday: Defensive line
• Saturday: Wide receiver
• Sunday: Cornerback
• Monday: Tight End
• Tuesday: Safety/Nickel
• Wednesday: Quarterback

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Gabriel is still the starter, just like when he played for both the Red team and the White team and connected on 19-of-28 passes for 280 yards and a touchdown.

But Lebby needs to confidently identify Gabriel’s backup as quickly as possible once training camp starts.

Is it Davis Beville? Beville played three years at Pittsburgh, was a spot backup last year, and announced on March 24 that he was entering the transfer portal. On May 9, Beville broke the news that he was transferring to OU.

Or is it General Booty? Booty lit up the junior college ranks at Tyler Junior College last season, then on May 14 — just five days after Beville’s announcement — that he was headed to Norman.

Gabriel, 6-foot, 205 pounds, was declared the Sooners’ starter essentially the day Caleb Williams loaded his trailer and left the OU campus. Williams entered the portal on Jan. 3, and actually lingered in Norman for another month before transferring to USC.

But it was no secret Williams was leaving — especially after Gabriel committed to OU also on Jan. 3 — which explains Lebby and Brent Venables’ commitment to Gabriel.

After Oklahoma’s spring game, Venables seemed overly pleased with that commitment.

“Such a selfless guy,” Venables said. “The game's easy for him in so many ways. Good decision maker. Quick decision maker. Plays with great anticipation. And it was really windy. When you're down on that field man, that's like a cyclone down there. And it's hard to throw a good ball into that wind. But did a really good job.”

The left-hander and 2 1/2-year starter at Central Florida showed his broad command of Lebby’s offense — and his eagerness to get better.

“I think there’s a lot to clean up,” Gabriel said after the Red/White Game. “There’s a lot of things I wish I had done differently and cleaned up. But the good part is, there’s just a lot of learning experiences from that, situational football that we can learn from. Two-minute, third downs, whatever the case may be. So I look forward to watching it. Just diving deeper into it and just learning from it.”

Gabriel is coming off a broken collarbone just three games into last year, so marking his backup quickly could be a massively important undertaking.

But Lebby may need to clear some space in the quarterback room first.

Remember, former Penn State transfer Micah Bowens is back for his second year with the Sooners. And walk-on Ralph Rucker, who won the third-team job behind Williams and Spencer Rattler last year, returned.

That’s six QBs Lebby has in his toolbox.

Gabriel’s 8,037 career yards and 70 career passing touchdowns speak for themselves. But Gabriel doesn’t mind speaking for Evers, the freshman from Flower Mound, TX, who had been committed to Florida before a coaching change in Gainesville.

Even as Lebby continues to fortify the QB room with transfers and recruits the future (5-star 2023 QB Jackson Arnold is regarded as one of the best five high school prospects in the nation), Evers is figuring out his place on the roster — and Gabriel, for one, is impressed.

“I think going through the process myself of being an early enrollee, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Gabriel said. “You’re an 18-year-old, away from family, trying to figure out life, trying to figure out school. And then meanwhile trying to figure out football. Managing all that, I’ve got a lot of respect for him because I’ve been through that process. But he’s super talented. He can throw it. He can do anything you ask of him. And he continues to attack every single day regardless of the ups and downs.”

Bowens, from Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman football factory, has the skill to play at OU. Maybe he climbs the depth chart as Lebby’s backup. Or maybe Lebby devises a specific package to utilize his speed and elusiveness. Or maybe Bowens switches positions to get his 5-foot-11, 187-pound frame on the field somewhere.

Booty is an intriguing prospect after completing 233-of-381 passes for 3,115 yards and 25 touchdowns with 11 interceptions last year last Tyler. The 6-3, 194-pound Booty has the arm, the pedigree and certainly the cool name to light up the Memorial Stadium scoreboard.

Beville might be the most intriguing prospect of the candidates to back up Gabriel. At 6-6 and 235 pounds, the fourth-year junior from Greenville, SC, played in just three games for the Panthers last season as a backup to first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett.

But Pickett opted out of the bowl game, and when backup Nick Patti was injured, Beville finished the Peach Bowl loss to Michigan State by completing 14-of-18 passes for 149 yards with one touchdown and one interception (a game-clinching pick six in the final seconds).

Venables said after the spring game that adding a transfer quarterback was a potential offseason priority, and it didn’t linger even three weeks before the Sooners added two.

Now, the obvious question — who’s the backup? — doesn’t yet have an obvious answer.