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Reports: Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold Expected to Enter Transfer Portal

The Sooners' 5-star recruit had an uneven sophomore year in which he was plagued by turnovers and ranked last among SEC quarterbacks in passing yards.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold
Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
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The Jackson Arnold era appears over at Oklahoma.

Matt Zenitz of 247Sports reported on Wednesday that Arnold is expected to enter the transfer portal when the window opens up on Monday.

ESPN's Max Olson also posted about the same time that sources tell him Arnold will enter the portal when it opens next week.

Zenitz said on a 247 Sports interview that Arnold met with Venables on Wednesday and informed Venables and the OU coaching staff that he would be entering the portal and his plan "at this point is to move on."

The Sooners’ 5-star quarterback played just two seasons in Crimson and Cream and had less than one full season as the starter if he does indeed enter the NCAA Transfer Portal and finishes his college football career elsewhere.

Arnold would become just the latest in a line of 5-star quarterback prospects who didn’t work out at OU.

The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Arnold was the Gatorade National Player of the Year coming out of Guyer High School in Denton, TX, but he never got any real traction in his two years as a Sooner.

In 2023, as Dillon Gabriel’s backup, then-offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby used Arnold early on mostly as a short-yardage runner, often exposing him to big hits. Late in the season, OU coaches intended to redshirt him. But that plan was abandoned when he had to come off the bench to replace an injured Gabriel in a tight victory at BYU.

In 2024, with Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley calling plays, Arnold opened the year as the starter, lost the job to true freshman Michael Hawkins in the first half of Week 4, then got it back in the first quarter of the Sooners’ Week 8 loss to South Carolina. Arnold had one of OU’s three 100-yard rushing games this season, and he posted highs of 225 and 224 passing yards.

Arnold played in 10 games and finished second on the team in rushing this season with 444 yards and scored three touchdowns on the ground.

As a passer, Arnold completed 62.6 percent of his throws (154-of-246) with 12 touchdowns with three interceptions.Β 

Arnold’s 142.1 passing yards per game this season ranks 115th in the nation and last among starters in the Southeastern Conference. Arnold’s 1,421 passing yards are the lowest by a Sooner since 1998, when freshman Jake Sills passed for 502 yards.

Arnold took over the starting job in a bad year: not only are the Sooners 6-6 for the second time in three years under Brent Venables, but the offense had to break in five new starters on the offensive line, and the receiver corps was without its top four players from last year and its top transfer for almost the entire season.

Arnold’s growth as a QB was further hindered by the promotion of offensive analyst Seth Littrell to quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Littrell, a former Sooner fullback, FBS coordinator and head coach at North Texas, had never coached quarterbacks before this season. When Littrell was fired in October, Finley moved over from from tight ends coach to full-time OC, and offensive analyst Kevin Johns stepped up as QB coach.

What held Arnold back the most, however, was his penchant for catastrophic turnovers. In addition to his three interceptions β€” one a pick-six by Tulane β€” Arnold fumbled 12 times and lost six this season. The rest of the team combined for 12 fumbles and six lost as OU led the nation in fumbles lost.

Arnold lost his starting job this season after three backbreaking turnovers in the first half of the Sooners’ SEC debut, a 25-15 home loss to Tennessee.

In last year’s Alamo Bowl, his first career college start, Arnold threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions and lost a fumble as the Sooners squandered an 11-point third-quarter lead and lost by 14.

Oklahoma would appear to have options upon Arnold’s departure.

Hawkins, from Dallas, seems to be first in line to start in whatever bowl game the Sooners finish the season at. Hawkins hasn’t declared his intentions yet to stay or go. Hawkins, the son of former OU cornerback Mike Hawkins Sr., played in six games and completed 62.3 percent of his passes (48-of-77) for 536 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. He also rushed for 143 yards and a touchdown.

Hawkins led OU to a stunning comeback victory at Auburn on Sept. 28 with a 48-yard touchdown run to start the game and a 50-yard pass to spark a late rally, then after an open date struggled mightily in a 34-3 loss to Texas. After his three turnovers β€” two returned for touchdowns β€” in the first five minutes of a 35-9 home loss to South Carolina, Hawkins was out of the lineup for the remainder of the season as Arnold took the reins.

It’s also widely anticipated that OU will soon land a high-profile transfer quarterback.

That could end up being Washington State starter John Mateer, a north Texas product who broke out with the Cougars this season under the tutelage of new OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. As of Wednesday afternoon, Mateer hadn't yet announced his intentions to either stay in Pullman or enter the transfer portal.

With Arbuckle coaching QBs and calling plays in Pullman, Mateer was spectacular in leading the Cougars to an 8-4 record against an Independent/Mountain West Conference schedule.Β 

Mateer, a third-year sophomore, is completing 64.6 percent of his passes for 3,139 yards with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He's also netted 826 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns this season as a true dual-threat QB. His 2024 rushing total ranks sixth in the nation among quarterbacks and 62nd nationally overall. He ranks fifth in the nation in total offense at 330.4 yards per game.

OU signed a quarterback, Jett Niu, in the 2025 recruiting class to replace long-time verbal commit Kevin Sperry. Sperry committed to OU in 2023 but recently decomitted from the Sooners and flipped to Florida State. On Tuesday, Arbuckle and Venables offered a scholarship to Niu, then an Oklahoma State commit, and on Wednesday he signed with Oklahoma.

Arnold follows in the footsteps of other 5-star QB prospects who didn’t make it in Norman.

He was preceded in recent years by Caleb Williams (2021) and Spencer Rattler (2019), who also arrived with much fanfare, quickly took over the starting job but eventually transferred out.

Other QBs who drew 5-star accolades and began their career at OU but finished somewhere else include Brent Rawls (2001), Rhett Bomar (2004) and Tommy Grady (2003). Blake Bell (2010), rated a 5-star by Scout, finished at OU as a tight end. Kyler Murray (2015) was a 5-star who signed with Texas A&M and played a year for the Aggies before transferring to OU and finishing his career as a Sooner.

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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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