With the losses of former top quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams, 247Sports named Oklahoma ‘losers’ of the 2022 QB carousel despite the addition of Dillon Gabriel.
While many within the Oklahoma community view the Sooners’ quarterback situation as a win, others around the college football world don’t share that same opinion. In a recent look at the offseason quarterback carousel, the Oklahoma Sooners were named losers by 247Sports.
In: Dillon Gabriel
Out: Caleb Williams, Spencer Rattler
This isn’t really about Gabriel, who ranks as a top-20 transfer for 247Sports and is someone I believe could enter the Heisman conversation. It’s about the past, present and future of the Sooners’ QB room crumbling in about a month. Rattler entered the 2021 season as the Heisman favorite. He’s gone. Williams played like a Heisman candidate as a true freshman and is the No. 1 overall transfer in the 247Sports rankings. He’s gone. And while 2023 five-star Malachi Nelson is not a transfer, the Sooners lost his commitment, too. In the span of the month, Oklahoma saw the best QB situation in college football fall apart. The Sooners have done an admirable job addressing the position and will be fine as long as Gabriel stays healthy. But it’s hard to consider the totality of what Oklahoma lost and not view the Sooners as an offseason QB loser.
Looking for a bit of hope Sooners fans? Gabriel has thrown 62 TDs to 11 INTs in his career playing within a version of offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby’s veer-and-shoot system. And he’s never had the type of skill talent that he’ll have in Norman. Gabriel is going to put up numbers. – Chris Hummer, 247Sports
In many ways, it’s kind of hard to disagree with what Hummer laid out right here. Gabriel is a highly capable quarterback who gets to reunite with Jeff Lebby, the offensive coordinator who helped jumpstart his college career. As a whole, though, the Sooners QB situation is in a worse spot than it was this time last year simply due to depth and less talent in the cupboard.
2022 four-star QB Nick Evers is on campus and preparing for his true freshman season. The Sooners have Jackson Arnold committed for 2023. After a rocky 2021 season cost the Sooners lost Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams, their QB whisperer of a head coach left, and former Sooners commit Malachi Nelson followed. All is not falling apart in Norman, but it would be ridiculous to suggest it’s better than it was six months ago.
The additions of Jeff Lebby led to the commitments of Dillon Gabriel and Nick Evers and with Lebby’s success with Matt Corral at Ole Miss, the Sooners are still in really good shape at quarterback even if the last few months have represented a net loss at the quarterback position. But as 2021 showed us, having the better quarterback doesn’t always lead to wins.
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