Sooners Dillon Gabriel, Michael Turk receive All-Big 12 honors despite no team selections

Oklahoma punter Michael Turk and transfer QB Dillon Gabriel received preseason Big 12 honors.

Football season is fast approaching and with that comes all of the preseason hype trains, preseason awards, and all the other preseason predictions that come with the days leading up to the actual season.

Oklahoma sent multiple guys to the NFL this past spring and while it’s an honor to see them live out their dreams it also means they have the hefty task of figuring out who are the next wave of stars they will be depending on this upcoming season.

After nine All-Big 12 preseason picks last year, the Sooners will only reload this year with two.

Two names that the Big 12 believes are due for great seasons is that of transfer turned starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel who was named preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year on Wednesday by the league office.

Gabriel, a transfer from UCF, has totaled 8,037 yards and 70 touchdowns against 14 interceptions in his college career.Β  He’s completing 60.7% of his passes and has rushed for 372 yards and eight touchdowns.

He has a strong relationship with Sooners’ offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby who was his coach for two years at UCF before Lebby would move on to Ole Miss. Much of Gabriel’s college success was under the tutelage of Lebby and with both reunited in Norman, it’s more than reasonable to suspect Gabriel could be in for a big year throwing to Marvin Mims, Theo Wease, Jalil Farooq, and other talented playmakers.

Gabriel becomes the second straight Oklahoma player to be tabbed preseason of the year as last year Eric Gray earned the honor. Gray and Gabriel figure to spend a lot of time together in the backfield as both look penciled in as starters at their respective positions.

Michael Turk also received preseason recognition which follows his 2021 season where he was named All-Big 12 First team at punter. Turk was a weapon for Oklahoma especially early on when their offense struggled at times.

His ability to flip the field averaging 51.2 yards on 35 punts was game-changing at times. Twenty of his punts went for at least 50 yards and eight went for at least 60, while 16 punts were downed inside the 20-yard line. He’ll be depended on once again to help flip the field and make things tougher for opposing offenses by pinning them deep in their territory.

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