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Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel Put up Big Numbers Early, Saved His Heroics for Late

The Sooners' star quarterback accounted for a school-record eight touchdowns, then literally went to battle for his favorite receiver.

John E. Hoover

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NORMAN — Dillon Gabriel has spoken many times about the reverence he has for names like Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield and Sam Bradford and Jason White.

But while those four quarterback greats have a Heisman Trophy and their own statue outside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, it was Gabriel who did something Saturday that none of them have ever done.

Gabriel accounted for eight total touchdowns in the Sooners’ 59-20 beatdown of West Virginia.

No other Sooner in history has ever produced more than seven TDs in a game. One was Mayfield at Texas Tech in 2016, when he threw for seven touchdown passes. The other was Murray against Baylor in 2018, when he threw for six and ran for one.

In the category of single game touchdowns, Gabriel moved his name above theirs with five TD throws and three TD runs.

“I don't look at it as above,” Gabriel said. “I just look at it as it's just the standard here. I'm blessed to be a part of it. Every day, you walk by Heisman Park and see those guys. For me, it's just chasing that standard and being a part of something greater than myself.”

8 for 8: Dillon Gabriel's eighth touchdown :: SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK

“He’s always had that confidence,” said wide receiver Nic Anderson, “but just to see him air it out like he did tonight, I mean the stats speak for themselves. He went off. Went crazy. Fed everyone.”

Gabriel ran for two TDs in the first quarter and threw for two more in the second quarter. He found Drake Stoops three times in the second half for touchdowns, then finished off his night with a fourth quarter TD run.

“Just a testament to his hard work and his preparation every week and how he approaches the game,” Stoops said. “He’s a tremendous leader and a tremendous quarterback and I’d go to war with him any day.”

“Just proud of him, man,” said offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who recruited Gabriel to UCF out of Hawaii, then recruited him to OU literally minutes before Gabriel transferred to UCLA. “Happy for him. And again, just, as you get on the back end of this season and there’s this ending stretch, we’ve got so much history together, you know, you want so much for him to finish the way we need to go finish — one week at a time and getting it done the way we know we have the ability to. And so for him to play the way he played tonight, for us to respond the way we responded was really good and a good step as we go on the road this week.”

Despite all the flashy numbers — 23-of-36 through the air for 423 yards and 11 rushes for 50 yards on the ground — Gabriel’s greatest highlight, the one that will endear him to fans even more than the eight touchdowns and 473 yards total offense, came after his third TD throw to Stoops early in the fourth quarter.

Stoops took a hard hit from WVU’s Anthony Wilson to give the Sooners a 52-20 lead, and Wilson stood over Stoops for a second as if celebrating the collision rather than comprehending the scoreboard.

Gabriel was having none of that. He raced into the end zone and went after Wilson, touching off a scuffle that almost erupted into an all-out brawl.

“That’s my guy,” Stoops said. “Dillon’s my guy for sure. I love that guy.”

“It's football. It's competitive,” Gabriel said. “If you want to watch tennis or watch something that's not as competitive, you can flip the channel.”

Gabriel later amended his tennis take to “not as physical,” but his point was well taken — and his insistence on fighting for Stoops remained firm.

“I’d just say in the game, with the ebbs and flows, that's my brother,” Gabriel said. “It's someone that I love a bunch. So seeing him go down and me questioning what it looked like from my angle, I had some words to say to him.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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