Dillon Gabriel’s college football journey has taken him from Hawaii to Florida and now to the Palace on the Prairie in Norman, Oklahoma. It’s an insane journey if nothing else for the sheer differences in some of the stops he’s made along the way since high school.
He has no tangible results in Norman yet but that will change in under 10 days when Oklahoma laces up their cleats and straps on their pads up to take on UTEP for the first game of the season.
Gabriel is an experienced signal caller with a lot of snaps in Jeff Lebby’s offensive system. The system itself is predicated on tempo and the Sooners plan to play ultra-fast. Gabriel will have weapons like Marvin Mims, Theo Wease, and Drake Stoops out wide with Eric Gray, Marcus Major, and talented freshman running back Jovantae Barnes in the backfield with him.
All of these components make up a small part of the reason that Gabriel was named by Sports Illustrated as one of college football’s most intriguing quarterbacks for 2022.
The Sooners’ QB1 checks in at No.7 on the list behind Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Clemson’s DJ Uiagalalei, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall, and USC QB, Caleb Williams.
Here’s what Sports Illustrated had to say:
When [Caleb] Williams vacated the starting job at Oklahoma, Gabriel jumped at the chance to replace him. The former UCF QB was headed to UCLA in December, but decommitted from the Bruins in early January and redirected to Norman. The left-handed Hawaiian has thrown for more than 8,000 yards in college and reunites with his freshman-year UCF coordinator (Jeff Lebby) at Oklahoma. Gabriel is coming off a fractured clavicle and hasn’t played in a game since Sept. 17, 2021, but has drawn strong reviews through spring practice and the offseason with the Sooners. ‘Dillon Gabriel is a winner,’ Brent Venables said in July. ‘He’s a galvanizer of people.’ – Pat Forde, SI.com
Gabriel’s immediate buy-in to the Oklahoma program has endeared him to the fanbase in lightning time. His time is coming to show what he can do as the signal caller for a program of Oklahoma’s stature. He’ll take that first step against UTEP.
With his connection to the offense and the weapons around him, Gabriel has a shot to have a special season in a place where quarterbacks have shined the brightest over the last 5 or so years. His season-long journey as a leader for Oklahoma will be intriguing, to say the least.
[listicle id=68995]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.