Oklahoma’s crown jewel of 2023 class, 5-star QB Jackson Arnold signs with the Sooners

Five-star QB and long-time commit Jackson Arnold signs with Oklahoma on Wednesday.

The early signing period is underway, and the Oklahoma Sooners’ [autotag]2023 recruiting class[/autotag] is beginning to put pen to paper.

Jackson Arnold has risen to astronomical heights since he committed to Oklahoma on Jan. 24. He’s officially a Sooner as he signed his national letter of intent Wednesday.

Arnold was 28-3 as a starter. He won Elite 11 MVP during the summer before totaling 57 touchdowns, 3,476 passing yards and 921 rushing yards as a senior in Texas’ highest level of football. He completed 68.7% of  his attempts and threw just three interceptions on the season. He also won the Landry Award, honoring the best player in North Texas, last week. On Tuesday he was honored with the Max Prep State Player of the Year award for Texas.

All of those accomplishments helped Arnold climb to the No. 7 player nationally on the 247Sports composite. He’s the fourth-ranked quarterback overall.

Prior to his meteoric rise, Arnold was ranked No. 47 overall by 247Sports. In just under 11 months, he’s risen 40 spots and is a consensus five-star with every major recruiting service.

Arnold was most heavily by Notre Dame and Ole Miss. Jeff Lebby’s prior recruitment while with the Rebels helped the Sooners land the now five-star prospect in the 2023 class.

Now that he’s a Sooner, what can we expect? Unless Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Dillon Gabriel decides to leave following Oklahoma’s bowl game, which seems unlikely, Jackson Arnold will not be starting in his first year with the Sooners.

Arnold should compete with Davis Beville for the backup QB job. If Beville’s performance in 2022 is any indication, Arnold should be Oklahoma’s QB2 when it kicks off next season against Arkansas State. Beyond that, Arnold will be the overwhelming favorite to take over the program in 2024, which could be the Sooners’ first season in the SEC.

Oklahoma’s future is riding on Arnold’s development. He seems poised for stardom and appears to have the head to handle whatever his career throws at him. Now the real fun begins as we watch his story unfold in Norman.

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