All Sooners

Report: Oklahoma Quarterback Enters Transfer Portal

Davis Beville has reportedly decided to enter the portal on the same day he was officially named the Sooners' backup for the Alamo Bowl.

John E. Hoover

Report: Oklahoma Quarterback Enters Transfer Portal
Report: Oklahoma Quarterback Enters Transfer Portal /
In this story:

Oklahoma's quarterback room got some big news from the NCAA Transfer Portal on Saturday night.

Only minutes after he was revealed as the backup QB when the Sooners released their depth chart for the Dec. 28 Alamo Bowl, news broke that Davis Beville will reportedly enter the portal.

That's according to a report from On3's Pete Nakos, who reports on College Sports Business and the Transfer Portal for On3.

The news was later also reported by 247 Sports and Rivals.

It's unclear if Beville will be available to play in the Alamo Bowl against Arizona next Thursday. Only about 45 minutes before Nakos' tweet, Beville was announced as freshman Jackson Arnold's backup for the bowl game. Walk-on General Booty is listed as the third-string QB.

Sooners running back Tawee Walker previously announced his intention to enter the portal, but remains on the roster as the co-starter with Gavin Sawchuk on Saturday's two-deep. Walker, a walk-on, apparently will play in the Alamo Bowl and is welcome to return next season if he doesn't find the opportunity he wants, head coach Brent Venables said.

With Dillon Gabriel as the starter for the No. 12-ranked Sooners (10-2) and Arnold as the backup, Beville played in just two games season and got seven offensive snaps. He sustained a leg injury late in the Sooners' 73-0 victory over Arkansas State, then returned to action to clean up a 59-20 win over West Virginia.

He has not attempted a pass this season.

Beville, a fifth-year senior, is the 15th Sooner to enter the portal this month and the second quarterback.

The 6-foot-6, 226-pound Beville transferred to OU ahead of the 2022 season after playing at Pittsburgh for three seasons, including his redshirt season in 2019. He played in three games for the Panthers in 2021, including a loss to Michigan State in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, when he completed 14-of-18 passes for 149 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

Oklahoma Reveals Alamo Bowl Depth Chart

Beville was thrust into the spotlight in Venables' first season after Gabriel went down with a concussion at TCU. He completed 7-of-16 passes for 50 yards against the playoff-bound Horned Frogs as the Sooners lost 55-24, then drew the start the following week against Texas and completed 6-of-12 passes for 38 passes as OU was routed 49-0 by the Longhorns.

In his career, Beville has played in 16 games, completed 59.7 percent of his passes (37-of-62) for 339 yards with one touchdown and two INTs.

He originally met Venables as a high school recruit in Greenville, SC, while Venables was defensive coordinator at Clemson.

It now seems likely that Oklahoma will pursue another quarterback for 2024 in the transfer portal. Arnold will be a first-year starter, and he is scheduled to be backed up by true freshmen Michael Hawkins and Brendan Zurbrugg, as well as Booty, a junior college transfer last year.

That, however, could be a tough task as the starting job clearly belongs to Arnold for the next two seasons and it may be a challenge to convince a quality QB to come to Norman to be a backup.

Published
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.

Home/Football