Oklahoma Starting 11: Quarterback Dillon Gabriel

SI Sooners Examines OU's Best and Brightest Players on the 2022 Roster Heading Into Spring Practice. Today: No. 1, Dillon Gabriel.

It can be argued that Dillon Gabriel isn’t the most talented football player on the Oklahoma roster. It can be argued that he’s not the most dynamic playmaker.

But what’s beyond discussion is that the Sooners’ new quarterback is the most important player on the team — at least, he needs to be when spring practice opens on Tuesday morning.

Elite quarterback play is more important than ever in college football, and Sooner Nation has been spoiled by the best of the best. From Josh Heupel to Jason White to Sam Bradford to Landry Jones to Baker Mayfield to Kyler Murray to Jalen Hurts, no school has produced more decorated and accomplished players at the position than OU.

Now — with footprints from the last two starters still fresh in the Owen Field grass — Gabriel steps into the spotlight.

Is he an upgrade from Spencer Rattler or Caleb Williams? Not according to their recruiting profiles. Rattler and Williams were consensus 5-star prospects, can’t-miss talents with rocket-launcher arms and mercurial personas to match.

Gabriel is none of those. His arm is strong enough, but it’s comparatively understated. He plays with a distinct self-confidence, but he doesn’t need a trailer to haul his ego. His recruiting profile was that of a 3-star kid from Humbletown, Hawaii (actually, Mililani), not of a big-city, 5-star prima donna.

But Gabriel may be more football player than quarterback — and that’s saying something, because he’s become a very good quarterback.

Dillon Gabriel via Twitter

“Obviously, I wish I could see him throw,” said head coach Brent Venables. “I haven't been able to do that. I've seen video like probably everybody else. So when we were in the recruiting process, it really didn't take much recruiting.”

It wasn’t always that way for Gabriel.

As a high school prospect, Gabriel ranked 758th in the nation in the 2019 class, according to 247 Sports. He was only the ninth-ranked player out of the Island State and the No. 27-ranked pro style quarterback that year — the same year Rattler ranked No. 11 overall nationally and No. 1 among pro style QBs.

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The 6-foot, 186-pound Gabriel had offers from USC and Georgia, but they both added other high-profile targets to their QB-rich rosters, and Gabriel ended up going to Central Florida, where he was recruited by — and, for one year, coached by — Jeff Lebby.

“The great thing about him walking in the door right now, there's a couple of things,” Lebby said last month, “but one is the production. The guy's averaging over 300 yards a game, three touchdowns a game in 26 starts. You can't argue that piece of it.”

After replacing injured McKenzie Milton, all Gabriel did as a true freshman in Orlando was direct an offense that ranked second in the nation in total offense (540.5 yards per game), fifth in scoring (43.4 points per game) and eighth in passing (316.7 yards per game).

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He ranked fourth nationally in yards per completion (15.48), 13th in passer efficiency rating (156.9), 13th in passing yards (3,653) and 17th in passing touchdowns (29).

The following year, after Lebby went to work for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, Gabriel threw for 3,570 yards and 32 touchdowns with just four interceptions. In just 10 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Gabriel posted seven 300-yard games and four 400-yard games.

He ranked second in the country at 373.9 yards per game total offense, fourth in TD passes (32), 12th in yards per completion (14.40) and 16th in passer efficiency rating (156.29).

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The left-hander put up 417 yards and four touchdowns against Georgia Tech, 408 yards and four TDs against East Carolina, 601 yards and five scores against Memphis and 422 yards and five TDs against Tulane.

While Lebby certainly appreciates Gabriel’s productivity, the coach said his favorite thing about Gabriel is less tangible.

“This guy knows how to operate,” Lebby said. “He knows how to walk in the building every single day, have great ownership of how he's gonna operate, how he's gonna take command of the offense and what it means to be a quarterback. To me, that is huge and that is critical as we set the tone and the standard of how we're gonna do things with coach Venables (and) myself, the things that we're gonna do offensively.”

In 2021, Gabriel was on his way to another huge season when he suffered a broken collar bone in Week 3, ending his season and ultimately sending him into the transfer portal. He eventually chose Lebby and OU after a near stop at UCLA.

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READ MORE: Oklahoma Starting 11

• No. 11: Brayden Willis
• No. 10: Jeffery Johnson
• No. 9: Andrew Raym
• No. 8: Michael Turk
• No. 7: Eric Gray
• No. 6: Key Lawrence
• No. 5: DaShaun White
• No. 4: Woodi Washington
• No. 3: Marvin Mims
• No. 2: Jalen Redmond
• No. 1: Dillon Gabriel

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Now Gabriel is the Oklahoma QB, something that Venables on Monday acknowledged is no small feat.

“He’s a leader, he's a worker, he's very ambitious and he's self-driven,” Venables said. “Very humble, incredibly confident. Great self-awareness. Understands where he needs to get better. And that's just through conversation. But guys follow him. The best of the best make others around them better, and he's intentionally done that through relationships and through work. But he's a good athlete, got good quickness. Very, very competitive, ultra-competitive and just got a great sense of humility to him that is fun to deal with.

“But man, he's a pro in every way. Just, he knows he's got to be the example as one of the leaders in this program, as a potential face of a program like Oklahoma. Being the quarterback at Oklahoma is a big deal, man. It's a big deal. He knows it and he values it and he respects it. And so he just works hard every day.”

Gabriel has made improvements since coming to Oklahoma. He’s become a stronger leader, a trusted teammate and he’s shown his receivers that he can sling the football, too, although winter offseason workouts were not structured by the coaching staff.

“So how do we get that done?” Lebby asked. ‘Well, it's Dillon being able to be out there with those guys, coach them every single day, and again, understanding the expectation of how we're gonna operate once we get going in spring ball. It's invaluable.”

That structure starts in earnest on Tuesday.

“He's betting on himself,” Venables said. “And so he's fearless. He's got a go-for-broke mindset, a go-for-broke attitude. And I'm really excited to see him go to work.”