Though it took nearly a month since he entered the transfer portal and reports popped up of supposed interest in LSU and Wisconsin, this seemed to be the move all along. He traveled to visit USC several weeks ago and though other schools creeped into the discussion a chance to reconnect with the coach that recruited him to Oklahoma appears to have been too good to pass up.
In the story from ESPN, Williams tells Thamel:
I wanted to go somewhere I thought would provide me with the best development both on and off the field. Getting to know Coach Riley and gaining familiarity with his offense definitely played a part in my selection, as well as already knowing some the guys on the team. – Williams to ESPN’s Pete Thamel
The Williams contingent had made it clear along the way that their goal was to be put in the best position to be selected high in the NFL draft when his time comes to declare. While Riley’s offenses struggled the last two years to put up the same efficiency and scoring numbers that they did during the Heisman run of his tenure at OU, Riley can point to Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hurts as evidence of his ability to put players into the NFL.
Whether the next couple of seasons for Caleb Williams at USC puts him in a position to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft comes to fruition remains to be seen. Former Sooners quarterback Spencer Rattler was supposed to be the next big thing as well and Riley had to replace him with Williams. Now Rattler has transferred to South Carolina to recover his draft stock that took a hit in the 2021 season.
Caleb Williams certainly makes things interesting in the Pac-12, but doesn’t necessarily make USC the favorites. They’ve got some rebuilding to do after going 4-8 in 2021.
The Oklahoma Sooners moved on quickly after Williams announcement to enter the transfer portal by bringing in former Jeff Lebby quarterback from UCF, Dillon Gabriel. Gabriel, who has started three seasons in college football has averaged more than 300 passing yards per game in his career and should be the Sooners starting quarterback in 2022.
Oklahoma has also landed four-star quarterbacks in the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes in Nick Evers and Jackson Arnold.
Despite Williams’s transfer to USC, the Sooners remain in a strong position to put a great offensive product on the field after Lebby helped turn Ole Miss and Matt Corral around the last two seasons, turning Corral into a first round pick in the 2022 NFL draft.
Caleb Williams joins former Sooners Mario Williams and Latrell McCutchin with the Trojans as they seek to rebuild USC.
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ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg says that the biggest challenge for OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is to keep OU a destination for quarterbacks.
If the biggest challenge coming in was to keep Oklahoma a popular destination for quarterback and offensive skill players as ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg writes, then consider new OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby’s first month and change a success thus far.
OU flipped and signed 2022 four-star quarterback Nick Evers away from the Florida Gators. Then, Lebby landed one of the most highly-regarded quarterbacks out of the transfer portal in UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel.
To top it all off, Lebby and Oklahoma also added a commitment from class of 2023 four-star quarterback Jackson Arnold out of Denton Guyer in Texas.
But Oklahoma also had to offset the impact of Riley’s departure for its offense. The Sooners need to remain an attractive program for quarterbacks and other offensive playmakers, which is why Lebby’s hiring will be so significant. Lebby has been part of dynamic offenses at Baylor, UCF and most recently Ole Miss. He has coordinated top-four offenses in each of the past three years. But he also has worked alongside offensive-minded head coaches (Art Briles, Josh Heupel and Lane Kiffin).
Oklahoma provides him a new degree of autonomy.
Lebby’s arrival is off to a promising start. Oklahoma added quarterback transfer Dillon Gabriel, who initially committed to UCLA but switched to OU after Caleb Williams entered the transfer portal. Gabriel played under Lebby at UCF in 2019, passing for 3,653 yards and 29 touchdowns. Lebby also has helped fortify Oklahoma’s quarterback room for the future. Oklahoma landed ESPN 300 quarterback Nick Evers, a Florida commit, just before the December signing date, and recently added Jackson Arnold, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback and No. 43 overall junior for the 2023 class. Lebby inherits an offensive depth chart that took several hits after Riley’s departure, but if he can get through 2022, better days are likely ahead.
He also should benefit from Oklahoma retaining four offensive coaches from Riley’s staff, including longtime Sooners assistants Bill Bedenbaugh (started as offensive line coach in 2013) and Cale Gundy (has coached OU’s wide receivers or running backs since 1999). – Rittenberg, ESPN.
With the talented quarterbacks that Oklahoma has brought into the program, it’s apparent that Lebby can land highly sought-after signal-callers. While OU lost the commitment from 2023 wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr., it looks like the Sooners may soon be adding a commitment from 2023 wide receiver Ashton Cozart based on recent recruiting projections.
The continuity with the coaching staff helped the Sooners retain and sign running back Gavin Sawchuk and wide receiver Nicholas Anderson. Oklahoma also flipped and signed wide receiver Jayden Gibson from Florida, so the early returns are that OU is going to continue to find talented skill talent.
The best way to remain an attractive destination to quarterbacks and offensive skill talent? Recapturing the Big 12 title, making a College Football Playoff return and doing so with an explosive offense.
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ESPN’s Bill Connelly included a potentially “wild Big 12 race” as one of his top storylines to watch in the 2022 college football season.
For the first time since the 2014 college football season, somebody other than Oklahoma won the Big 12 Championship. Of course, that was the Baylor Bears by virtue of their 21-16 win against Oklahoma State in the 2021 Big 12 Championship.
While winning their respective power conferences, Georgia (SEC), Michigan (Big Ten), Pittsburgh (ACC) and Utah (Pac-12) combined to win five conference games by one score. Baylor played five such conference games and won four, including a conference championship game won by five points and 1 inch. Big 12 runner-up Oklahoma State won two, lost two others and won all four of its nonconference games (including the Fiesta Bowl) by one score as well. Iowa State lost four one-score Big 12 games, and Texas lost five.
Tight games were rampant in the Big 12, in other words. The conference ended up with five teams ranked between 12th and 21st in SP+, plus two more in the top 50. Having no elite teams but lots of good ones means endless wild finishes, and unless Texas enjoys a massive second-year leap under Steve Sarkisian or Oklahoma does the same in Brent Venables’ head-coaching debut, we should see more of the same in 2022. And just imagine what will happen when the league adds Cincinnati, BYU, Houston and UCF in the coming years. – Connelly, ESPN.
Oklahoma may or may not stick around and play a Big 12 season with the additions of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to the conference, but the Sooners certainly appear locked into the Big 12 for 2022.
As Connelly writes, it should be a fascinating race in 2022. Baylor and Oklahoma State return their starting quarterbacks, Gerry Bohanon and Spencer Sanders, respectively.
It’s tough to gauge Texas this early, but the Longhorns did add 247Sports’ former No. 1 player nationally from the 2021 recruiting class in quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Kansas State added Nebraska transfer quarterback Adrian Martinez to go along with star running back Deuce Vaughn in its backfield, so the Wildcats could be a dark horse candidate to contend in 2022. TCU brings back quarterbacks Max Duggan and Chandler Morris, while Texas Tech has young signal-caller Donovan Smith.
Then, there’s Oklahoma with first-year head coach Brent Venables.
With UCF transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel arriving in Norman, Oklahoma will have a starting quarterback that has made 25 career starts entering 2022. The Sooners have a defined No. 1 at wide receiver, junior-to-be Marvin Mims, too.
Oklahoma addressed its 2022 NFL draft defections up front by adding Tulane transfer Jeffery Johnson and Hawaii transfer Jonah Laulu. OU also brought in Wyoming transfer C.J. Coldon, Trey Morrison and Kani Walker in its defensive backfield.
OU was several special teams gaffes and one failed final offensive drive away from beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater to play Baylor in the 2021 Big 12 Championship.
There’s all sorts of way-too-early predictions out there from a variety of media entities. Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan ranked OU No. 2 in his first 2022 Big 12 power rankings behind Baylor.
All of this is to say that Oklahoma shouldn’t be discounted in any conversations about who will emerge as the 2022 Big 12 champion.
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A deeper look at five personnel issues Brent Venables needs to focus on as the Sooners head into the 2022 season.
After a coaching search that almost had the entire state of Oklahoma in a complete state of panic, the Sooners finally found their man with a very familiar name. Brent Venables leaped from being a longtime assistant with stops at Oklahoma and Clemson to becoming the new headman in charge of the Oklahoma Sooners.
He takes over an Oklahoma program that was in disarray and reeling from the complete and utter shock of Lincoln Riley’s surprise departure following their final regular season against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Venables and the staff he’s assembled have plugged the leak in the 2022 recruiting class as they steadied the ship following Riley’s departure and the recruiting ramifications of that, they have used the transfer portal to their advantage to feel some holes left by the 11 starters that either transferred or declared for the NFL Draft and they have since started working on their 2023 class all while the current team begins offseason workouts under another familiar face in Head strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt.
All five points are very valid and hold significant weight as the Sooners begin to acclimate themselves. We’re going to grow through and take a look at each.
According to Athlon Sports’ early 2022 Big 12 power rankings, the Sooners will very much be back in the hunt of a conference championship.
The 2022 college football season is still a long ways off. Just 216 days away. Or, seven months and four days. Or, 30 weeks and six days. You get the picture.
Still, it’s never too early to start thinking about what the Big 12 conference will look like in 2022 and where the Sooners slot into that picture.
It’s been a busy offseason in Norman, but new coach Brent Venables has the pieces in place to push for a Big 12 title. Assuming Caleb Williams doesn’t return, UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel should take over the quarterback spot and reunite with his former coach (and coordinator) in Jeff Lebby. The Sooners lost running back Kennedy Brooks and a couple of linemen to the NFL, but Gabriel’s arrival should keep this offense near the top of the conference. Venables was one of the nation’s top defensive signal-callers at Clemson and should make an impact right away on this side of the ball for the Sooners. – Lassan, Athlon Sports.
Lassan had Baylor as his preseason No. 1 in his first Big 12 power rankings. After Oklahoma at No. 2, Lassan listed Oklahoma State No. 3, Texas No. 4, Kansas State No. 5, TCU No. 6, Iowa State No. 7, Texas Tech No. 8, West Virginia No. 9 and Kansas No. 10.
Now that Jaxson Dart has made his decision to transfer to Ole Miss official, Oklahoma knows that its starting quarterback will be UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel.
With 70 passing touchdowns and 8,037 passing yards over the course of his 25 starts with UCF, Gabriel brings a wealth of starting experience to his signal-calling duties in Norman.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby has historically featured his No. 1 wide receivers prominently within his offenses. For example, in 2019 with Gabriel directing his offense at UCF, wide receiver Gabriel Davis caught 72 receptions for 1,241 receiving yards and hauled in 12 touchdown grabs.
In 2020 at Ole Miss, wide receiver Elijah Moore reeled in 86 grabs for 1,193 receiving yards and caught eight touchdowns. Then, in 2021, Ole Miss wide receiver Dontario Drummond recorded 76 receptions for 1,028 receiving yards and snagged eight touchdown grabs.
There’s probably a happy medium to be found where receptions are dispersed a little more evenly. At Ole Miss, Moore and Drummond had 59 and 50 more receptions than the next-closest wide receiver, respectively. It wasn’t nearly as drastic in 2019 at UCF, where Davis’ 72 receptions were closely followed by Marlon Williams’ 51 grabs and Tre Nixon’s 49 catches.
It’s safe to say Lebby and Gabriel have their No. 1 target at OU in wide receiver Marvin Mims, though. Mims has been the Sooners’ leading receiver each of the past two seasons with 610 receiving yards in 2020 and 705 receiving yards in 2021.
Still, he only caught 37 and 32 receptions in those two seasons, so look for those numbers to radically climb upwards. The return of wide receiver Theo Wease and the potential emergence of wide receiver Jalil Farooq should have the Sooners’ receiving stable in good hands.
OU brought in Cal transfer McKade Mettauer who had 28 career starts at right guard to help offset the losses of Marquis Hayes and Tyrese Robinson up front along Oklahoma’s offensive line. It figures that he’ll be helping pave the way for either Eric Gray or Marcus Major at running back. The Sooners also signed a pair of four-star running backs in Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk.
Oklahoma’s offensive skill talent surrounding Gabriel should be one of its strengths heading into 2022.
Defensively, Oklahoma is replacing six starters. OU added experience along its defensive line via the transfer portal in Tulane transfer Jeffery Johnson and Hawaii transfer Jonah Laulu. That pair combined for 77 tackles and 6.5 sacks in 2021.
The Sooners also bring back defensive tackle Jalen Redmond who is ready for a starring role. In just eight games in 2021, Redmond finished with eight tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He’s registered 21.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks in his Oklahoma career.
OU got good news when linebacker DaShaun White announced his plans to return. White has made 36 career starts at Oklahoma and recorded 169 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss and five sacks.
On the back end, Oklahoma returns probable starters D.J. Graham and Woodi Washington at cornerback and Key Lawrence figures to start at one of the two vacated safety positions. The Sooners also added a trio of defensive backs from the transfer portal in Wyoming transfer C.J. Coldon, North Carolina transfer Trey Morrison and Louisville transfer Kani Walker.
In short, there’s a lot to be decided between now and the start of the 2022 season in terms of who will start for Oklahoma, especially defensively. OU used the transfer portal to effectively position itself to withstand NFL Draft and outgoing transfer portal departures. The Sooners are as good a candidate as anybody else to capture the 2022 Big 12 Championship in head coach Brent Venables’ first season at the helm.
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With the turnover the Oklahoma Sooners experienced this offseason, Bleacher Report described the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners as “resetting.”
Every team experiences turnover every season in college football. This year, the Sooners not only lost key players on both sides of the ball, they had a major shift in coaching personalities and philosophies.
In a sense, the culture is shifting at Oklahoma to fit the personality of its new head coach Brent Venables.
Brent Venables replaced now-USC coach Lincoln Riley. As of this writing, the Sooners have 10 outgoing — including star quarterback Caleb Williams — and nine incoming transfers. The 2022 recruiting class didn’t fall apart, but a handful of blue-chip prospects decommitted after Riley’s departure. What we expected to see at OU has changed dramatically; the offseason will be a much-needed time to reassess the wild two-month stretch in Norman. – Kenyon, Bleacher Report
Oklahoma looks to be in good shape ahead of national signing day and spring practice. At the same time, the coaching change has left people thinking Oklahoma’s in a situation where it needs to take stock of where it is. While the Sooners have experienced losses, they’ve had contingency plans for just about every one of them.
The Sooners are in a much better place than a lot of people want to give them credit for. Technically it’s a reset as they turned over all of the defensive coaching staff and brought in a new offensive coordinator. Despite the loss of Williams, the Sooners feel pretty good about where their offense is heading, especially with the returns of Theo Wease and Marvin Mims.
Sure they lost Kennedy Brooks to the draft, but they have two incoming freshman, Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk, who look as if they could be immediate contributors this fall. Combined with the return of Eric Gray and Marcus Major, and the Sooners running back situation is in a good place.
They’re projected to bring back three-fifths of their starting offensive line. Replacing Marquis Hayes and Tyrese Robinson’s experience will not be easy, but they have talent that’s been waiting for an opportunity, and they brought in a couple of offensive linemen through the transfer portal.
On defense, the Sooners’ strength looks to be at linebacker where they have as many as six guys that could be contributors in the fall, led by veterans DaShaun White and David Ugwoegbu.
With Woodi Washington, D.J. Graham, and Key Lawrence back, the Sooners are in a good place in the secondary. They’ve added experienced options through the transfer portal that could help mitigate the losses of Delarrin Turner-Yell and Pat Fields at safety.
The big question is who steps up to replace Nik Bonitto, Perrion Winfrey and Isaiah Thomas. Bonitto and Winfrey look like top 60 NFL draft prospects, and Thomas could very well push his way into that. That’s a lot of experience and production heading to the NFL. The Sooners have potential options to fill in in Ethan Downs, Clayton Smith, Reggie Grimes and Marcus Stripling, but at this point it’s simply projection.
The Sooners may be resetting. It happens with every coaching change. But it’s not like they don’t have a talented squad that’s capable of returning them back to the Big 12 championship in the fall.
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After putting their best foot forward, the Sooners come up short as former USC QB Jaxson Dart commits to Ole Miss.
The Sooners look like they will be striking out don’t their second transfer quarterback coup of the offseason after multiple sources report that former USC quarterback Jaxson Dart is transferring to Ole Miss and will be playing under Lane Kiffin.
USC transfer QB Jaxson Dart has committed to Ole Miss, @247Sports can confirm. The Rebels have had him in the boat for a few days, per sources.
Dart visited Oklahoma shortly after he entered the transfer portal upon leaving USC. The Sooners did all they could to land the talented freshman QB. With Dillon Gabriel already committed and Gabriel’s relationship with Sooners’ OC Jeff Lebby, it makes more sense for Dart to head to Ole Miss. There, he’ll compete against fellow freshman Luke Altmyer as opposed to joining a race with a veteran QB who’s had years in the system he’s trying to learn.
USC transfer TE Michael Trigg, Dart’s former roommate, is also transferring to Ole Miss. Both were considered a package deal wherever they landed.
USC transfers Jaxson Dart and Michael Trigg are going to Ole Miss.
His decision is far from shocking. If Dart were to lose a QB battle to Gabriel, he would then have to have another competition next year against Nick Evers and new 2023 QB commit Jackson Arnold assuming Gabriel left for the NFL Draft after 2022.
It also clears the picture for Oklahoma this winter and spring as they get ready for an offseason where they will be installing a new defense and a new offense. Gabriel is the clear-cut number one guy and the battle for the backup begins.
Without Dart’s commitment, the Sooners need another quarterback sometime after the spring as they head into the summer.
Only one quarterback on the roster has taken meaningful snaps in college and it’s Gabriel. That just won’t cut it. Look for the Sooners to hit the portal whether it’s now or after spring practice to try and land another signal-caller (likely with experience) to join the room as they get ready for their first summer under Brent Venables.
Barring anything crazy happening this likely concludes Oklahoma’s frenzied shopping spree of the portal until after spring ball. Players across the country will likely re-evaluate where they stand in their current college programs before heading home for the summer.
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The Sooners 2021 season could be summed up with the QB play they received. We took a look at the 2021 QB room and look ahead to 2022.
With the 2021 season behind us, we can finally look back on the various position groups for the Oklahoma Sooners and assess how each group did. The Sooners entered the season as favorites to end up in the College Football Playoff. They struggled early to look the part of a national championship contender and eventually faltered late in losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State.
Of course, there were different subplots along the way, and one of them directly centered on the most critical position on the field — the quarterback.
The quarterbacks for the Sooners have been college football rockstars for years. From Baker Mayfield to Kyler Murray to Jalen Hurts, the Sooners have had no shortage of star power at the quarterback position. It continued in 2021 with Spencer Rattler and the incoming true freshman Caleb Williams. Both were five-star quarterbacks and top 10 recruits in their respective high school classes.
Spencer Rattler
Spencer Rattler entered 2021 with more hype than any player in the country. That’s not hyperbole or an exaggeration. Immediately after his final performance of 2020, in which he eviscerated Florida’s defense in the Cotton Bowl, he was pegged as the projected number one overall pick, the favorite for the Heisman, and as the QB poised to lead Oklahoma to its eighth national title.
Things never panned out that way. It started in the first game, on just Rattler’s second throw of the season. He fired a ball deep into coverage that Tulane intercepted. It would go on to start a wave of up and down moments that eventually led to Rattler’s benching in the Red River Rivalry.
Rattler’s numbers weren’t horrible on the season. 140/187 with 11 touchdown passes to 5 interceptions for 1,483 yards and a 74 percent completion percentage.
Rattler was the product of a shaky (at best) offensive line, some highly questionable playcalling and coaching, the weight of expectations he entered the season with, and NIL deals that added even more pressure to succeed. While Rattler displayed some flaws in his game, he is still a talented quarterback.
At times, he struggled with decision-making and trusted his all-world arm talent too much. And it cost him because either he lost his mechanics or believed he could throw himself out of any situation. Couple that with his offensive linemen not giving him inconsistent time to throw and Rattler not being an elusive, improvising, and scrambling quarterback, and he took sacks more than he would’ve liked.
On the flip side, his play-caller, QB coach, and head coach Lincoln Riley, never helped him out. Riley provided very questionable playcalling decisions like failing to utilize the run enough to force teams out of the two-high shell coverages they ran against Oklahoma. They were begging the Sooners to run on them, but Riley never committed to it enough to make teams respect it. As a result, it was tough for the Sooners to make many explosive plays in the passing game.
It all came down to the Sooners game vs. Texas. The Sooners got into an early hole, and Rattler added to that with an interception and a fumble. He was benched and would never start again.
Rattler would later transfer to South Carolina with tight end Austin Stogner where they’ll play under former Oklahoma tight ends coach and current South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer.
For Rattler’s career, he finished 361/515, a completion percentage of 70 percent to go along with 4,595 yards, 40 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
He was never as horrible as the college football world made him out to be, but he was not nearly as dynamic and on point as he was projected to be by the media. Factor in the fact that his supporting cast didn’t perform or coach up to par, and he probably did the best he could.
2021 Grade: C
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Caleb Williams
The other notable star quarterback of the 2021 Sooners was Caleb Williams, the five-star freshman of the 2021 recruiting class and the guy the Sooners thought would be taking over the reins heading into the 2022 season. That would have been the case had Lincoln Riley not left Oklahoma following their final regular-season game when they lost to the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Williams came into the Spring taking high school and college classes concurrently, all the while trying to learn the Oklahoma Sooners playbook. His journey to prepare for the 2021 season was absurd, and one he highlighted on “The Podcast on the Prairie,” a podcast hosted by Jeremiah Hall and Brayden Willis.
He got to Norman as an early enrollee, and he put on a show in the Sooners’ spring game. The performance was so good that it led people to believe they’re easily could have been a quarterback competition between him and Rattler.
Rattler would win the job, but as Rattler struggled through the teams’ first few games, the murmurs about wanting to see him replaced by Williams got louder.
They reached their peak on a Saturday night date in Norman against West Virginia. The Sooners were struggling offensively, and after a failed offensive series, chants of “We Want Caleb” rang throughout the stadium loud and clear enough for viewers at home to hear via TV.
His time would come in the Red River Showdown when he replaced Rattler after a few turnovers, and with the Sooners needing a spark in a game they trailed by three scores in. He would score on a 4th down scamper and eventually replace Rattler for the remainder of the game. Williams led the Sooners to their biggest comeback in the rivalry and would remain the starter for the rest of the season.
He dazzled against TCU and Texas Tech, throwing six touchdown passes against the Red Raiders. The team as a whole struggled against Kansas but found were able to score 35 second half points and closed out the game on a heads-up fourth-down conversion. With running back Kennedy Brooks stopped on the critical fourth-down play, Williams snatched the ball and spun forward for a key first down that helped the Sooners close out the game.
His first significant struggles happened against eventual Big 12 champions Baylor when he went on the road for the first time in a hostile environment. The Baylor defense harassed him and the Oklahoma offense en route to the upset win over the Sooners. He would struggle a bit more against Iowa State in the last home game of the year but made enough throws to help win the game and set up a do-or-die situation for the Sooners’ College Football Playoff chances in Bedlam.
A win would keep them alive, while a loss would eliminate them from going to the Big 12 Championship game.
He played well despite the Sooners’ offense disappearing in the third quarter entirely thanks to penalties, poor execution, and, again, bad playcalling. On his final drive of the regular season, he did everything possible to will the Sooners to a victory but came up short.
Following Riley’s departure to USC, the Sooners program was in a state of shock. Williams would stick around to start against the Oregon Ducks in the Valero Alamo Bowl. He dazzled against the Ducks but was very noncommittal to Oklahoma for 2022.
Ultimately, he would enter the transfer portal where schools like USC, UCLA, and Wisconsin are vying for his skills.
There’s no mistaking it. Williams is ultra-talented and offered the Sooners’ offense something Rattler didn’t, and that’s the ability to run the ball. It helped mitigate the up and down offensive line play and gave opponents another thing to think about.
His departure allowed former UCF quarterback to reunite with new Sooners’ OC Jeff Lebby. While it looks unlikely he returns, he brought energy, life, and some great QB play (at times) to the Sooners when they needed a spark and reason to believe they could still achieve the goals they had set out for themselves.
He experienced turbulence like any freshman quarterback but navigated it and ended the year on a high note. Wherever he is in 2022, that team will be better with him as their starting quarterback.
2021 Grade: B
2022 Projections
With neither quarterback on the roster heading into the 2022 season, the Sooners will turn the keys over to Dillon Gabriel, a one-time freshman All-American under Jeff Lebby. Lebby was Gabriel’s offensive coordinator at UCF, but most recently with Ole Miss, where he helped Matt Corral become a likely first-round pick.
With no real movement in that regard, the Sooners will presumably do everything possible to get 2022 four-star Nick Evers, who enrolled early as ready as possible to be the backup in the event of a Gabriel injury. He’s talented, but he’ll be highly unseasoned. Behind him will likely be Ralph Rucker and Penn State transfer Micah Bowens who hasn’t quite materialized into anything but depth.
The Sooners will be fine at the position as long as Gabriel can stay healthy. A Dart commitment alleviates concerns about the depth at quarterback. However, until we know how that saga ends, it’s likely the Sooners will enter 2022 hoping for a clean bill of health is in the cards for Dillon Gabriel.
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The Oklahoma Sooners have done a nice job retooling their roster and find themselves 7th on 247Sports Transfer Portal Rankings.
The Oklahoma Sooners have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the transfer portal over the last five years. Despite what Bleacher Report said the other day, the Sooners continued to benefit from the portal this offseason as they look to retool their roster for the 2022 season.
In any transition of leadership, there’s bound to be some turnover and the Sooners watched Jadon Haselwood, Austin Stogner, and Mario Williams find new homes. Spencer Rattler was likely out the door regardless of the coaching change and Caleb Williams doesn’t come as much of a surprise. However, the Sooners did a good job targeting players in the portal that would fit what Brent Venables and his coaching staff were hoping to accomplish on both sides of the football.
With the addition of Dillon Gabriel, McKade Mettauer, and Daniel Parker Jr. on offense and a group of defenders to help mitigate the losses via the NFL draft and the portal, the Sooners look well-positioned to continue to contend for the Big 12 title and make a push for the College Football Playoff. With their offseason in the 2022 transfer portal thus far, the Sooners found themselves seventh in Brad Crawford’s transfer portal rankings for 247Sports.
Here’s what he had to say:
Oklahoma’s roster could’ve capsized following the departure of Riley to USC, but Brent Venables quickly re-recruited several players who were leaning and landed eight players via transfer that should aid in filling holes left by players who entered the portal and did not return. Oklahoma will be one of the more interesting powerhouses to watch next fall with new faces at several key positions, including quarterback with UCF’s Gabriel coming in. – Crawford, 247Sports
Despite the losses the Oklahoma Sooners suffered in the transfer portal after Lincoln Riley’s departure, they’re still the Oklahoma Sooners. They’re a team that will be in contention more often than not. With additions made, the Sooners seem more than capable of getting back to the Big 12 title game in 2022.
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As soon as Caleb Williams entered the transfer portal, the Oklahoma Sooners plan at quarterback immediately went into effect. Dillon Gabriel, the former UCF quarterback who had committed to UCLA, flipped his commitment to the Oklahoma Sooners and became the presumptive starter for first-year offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.
Though there’s been no official word Caleb Williams has found a new home, it’s expected he’ll find a new place to play. The Sooners aren’t all that concerned, having brought in Gabriel to lead the Sooners’ offense to kick-start the Brent Venables era.
Under the expectation Caleb Williams leaves the Sooners, having a proven quarterback will be a luxury for Brent Venables. The former OU and longtime Clemson defensive coordinator swiped Dillon Gabriel, who initially committed to UCLA after deciding to transfer. The left-hander had 8,037 passing yards and 70 touchdowns to only 14 interceptions in 26 games at UCF. – David Kenyon, Bleacher Report
While football is a team game, the quarterback is undoubtedly the most critical position. With Gabriel, there’s an argument to be made that the Sooners are in as good shape in 2022 as they were at quarterback in 2021 with Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams. His experience and production will help the Sooners weather the storm of the offensive transition they’re undertaking in 2022.
Of course, Oklahoma has made some solid transfer additions on the defensive side of the football, led by Jeffrey Johnson, Jonah Laulu, C.J. Coldon and Trey Morrison. Throw in Kani Walker, and the Oklahoma Sooners have added talent and depth to their 2022 roster. It all starts with the quarterback. Football is a quarterback’s game. Yes, it takes a host of other good players, but if the quarterback doesn’t play well, it is difficult to win.
The Oklahoma Sooners landed a quarterback who’s played a lot of good football in his college career. Gabriel’s experience with Lebby will help the Sooners adopt Lebby’s offense and return to contender status in 2022.
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