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Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold Wins Gatorade National Player of the Year

The Sooners' new quarterback won the award Thursday over co-finalists Arch Manning and Malachi Nelson.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma landed the big one in quarterback Jackson Arnold.

On Thursday, Arnold landed the big one in bringing home the Gatorade National Player of the Year Award.

Gatorade named Arnold its national high school football player of the year a week after he won the award as the top player in the state of Texas.

He won the award over co-finalists Arch Manning, who’s headed to Texas, and former OU commit Malachi Nelson, who’s headed to USC.

“It means a lot,” Arnold said. “It’s the most prestigious award that a high schooler can get, and to see my name etched with other high schoolers that have won this award, it’s pretty special.”

Arnold, who will enroll at OU for the spring semester, is Oklahoma's first high school signee to be named the national player of the year by Gatorade. Kyler Murray, who won the 2018 Heisman Trophy at OU after beginning his career at Texas A&M, was named national player of the year in 2014.

Arnold was presented with the trophy Thursday afternoon in a surprise appearance by 11-time NFL Pro Bowler and former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten.

“Walking though those doors and seeing Jason Witten," Arnold said, "and seeing that pallet of Gatorade was just pretty special.” 

“Incredibly proud of Jackson,” said OU head coach Brent Venables. “Being named national player of the year is obviously quite an honor. But he's even more impactful and every bit as achieved off the field, as a leader and a person who stands for what's right. Couldn't be more proud of him and thankful that he's chosen Oklahoma. He's going to lead our 2023 recruiting class into the future. The best is yet to come for him, no doubt.”

Arnold led Denton Guyer to a 14-1 record and the state semifinals as he threw for 3,476 yards and 33 touchdowns (with just two interceptions) and also rushed for 921 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Arnold has maintained a 4.5 weighted GPA while serving as an officer in the Texas Young Men's Service League, which offers opportunities for mother and sons to perform community service.

A consensus 5-star and top-13 prospect nationally, Arnold is OU's seventh highest-rated recruit in program history according to 247Sports' composite rankings. He is rated as the No. 8 overall prospect nationally by ESPN, No. 11 by 247Sports, No. 12 by On3 and No. 13 by Rivals, and is rated as the top quarterback in the nation by ESPN and a consensus top-five quarterback recruit. 

He was named Most Valuable Player of the 2022 Elite 11 Finals and won the 2022 Tom Landry Award as the best high school football player in north Texas.

At the Under Armour All-America game in Orlando last week, Arnold completed 12-of-23 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown and led all rushers with 50 yards on five carries.

Arnold's team went 28-3 in his two seasons as a starter at Denton's Guyer High School and compiled more than 7,000 passing yards and 67 passing touchdowns to eight interceptions (8.4-to-1 ratio). He also rushed for 1,580 yards and 36 touchdowns over his junior and senior seasons, leading Guyer to a 2021 Texas 6A Division 2 state championship appearance and a 2022 semifinal showing. 

OU Athletics contributed to this report.

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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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