Tag: max duggan

Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel ranked No. 1 Big 12 quarterback by Athlon Sports

Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel earned the top spot in Steven Lassan’s pre-spring, way-too-early Big 12 quarterback rankings.

Dillon Gabriel’s decision to transfer to Oklahoma has the Sooners in a great spot entering 2022. It means OU has a quarterback in place with 25 collegiate starts, over 8,000 passing yards and 70 touchdown passes to his name.

“It was a chance to play with a really good team. This school’s got a lot of history with quarterbacks, but also just with great players,” Gabriel said in his recent podcast appearance.

Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan projected who each Big 12 team’s starting quarterback would be and ranked the 10 quarterbacks. Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby already named Gabriel the starter on national signing day, so there’s no mystery in Norman.

Lassan ranked Gabriel as the Big 12’s No. 1 quarterback in his “pre-spring, way-too-early” Big 12 quarterback rankings for 2022.

After Gabriel, Lassan ranks Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders No. 2, Texas’ Quinn Ewers No. 3, Baylor’s Gerry Bohanon No. 4 and Kansas State’s Adrian Martinez No. 5.

In the bottom half of his Big 12 quarterback rankings, Lassan ranks TCU’s Max Duggan No. 6, Texas Tech’s Donovan Smith No. 7, Kansas’ Jalen Daniels No. 8, Iowa State’s Hunter Dekkers No. 9 and West Virginia’s Nicco Marchiol No. 10.

Here’s what Lassan wrote about Gabriel.

The transfers of Spencer Rattler (South Carolina) and Caleb Williams (USC) depleted Oklahoma’s quarterback room. However, the news isn’t all bad here for the Sooners. Although Williams will be missed, Gabriel arriving as a transfer from UCF softens concerns about this position. Also, Gabriel worked under offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby at UCF in ‘19, so the transition in scheme should be minimal. There’s a lot of new around Gabriel this offseason, so spring practice is all about acclimation and getting everyone comfortable in the new scheme. Developing depth behind Gabriel is a must. – Lassan, Athlon Sports.

OU signed four-star quarterback Nick Evers back in December. Evers is already on campus, so that should help Oklahoma in building that depth behind Gabriel.

In the meantime, Lebby and OU feel great that Evers is leading the Sooners in this transition year.

“The guy’s averaging over 300 yards a game, three touchdowns a game in 26 starts, so you can’t argue that piece of it, but I think probably the thing that I’m most excited about is this guy knows how to operate. He knows how to walk in the building every single day have great ownership in how he’s going to operate, how he’s going to take command of the offense and what it means to be a quarterback. To me, that is huge and that is critical as we set the tone and the standard of how we’re going to do things,” Lebby said.

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The Sooners join two other teams in pursuit of Jaxson Dart; What does each offer?

Oklahoma is currently in a significant transfer portal recruiting battle with the Ole Miss Rebels and TCU Horned Frogs for QB Jaxson Dart.

Oklahoma and USC have been intertwined so much in the last two or three months you may have thought they were the fiercest of rivals. The reality is that one singular man’s decision married the programs in a way that neither probably wanted.

Lincoln Riley’s departure from Oklahoma had college landscape changing effects. Outside of the out of nowhere coaching search the Sooners undertook, the most significant ripple has been the departures each team has seen since that fateful day in November. The Sooners and Trojans’ have experienced so much player personnel coming and going that it is enough to make the calmest individual anxious and confused.

The biggest domino in this: Sooners QB Caleb Williams entered the portal and it led to Dillon Gabriel coming to Oklahoma to reunite with his former UCF coordinator in Jeff Lebby. Williams and his family were seemingly in LA visiting both UCLA and USC. Visits by Caleb and Mario Williams(also entered the transfer portal) led to folks closest to the program that there is significant reason to believe both could end up there.

On the USC side, things weren’t smooth sailing as former four-star QB Jaxson Dart, who performed admirably in the absence of Kedon Slovis with 1,353 yards and nine touchdowns against five interceptions while completing 61.9% of his throws, also entered the transfer portal.

Dart’s entry into the portal only gained traction as reports of Caleb Williams and USC uniting became a well-discussed topic amongst major college football media. As it stands both are the number one and two overall player available in 247’s transfer portal player rankings.

Oklahoma has shown Dart interest and Dart has an interest in them. According to a report from ESPN, Dart is also looking at Ole Miss and TCU

With that in mind and assuming Dart picks from one of those three let’s take a look at what each school has that could appeal most to Dart.

TCU Horned Frogs

The Horned Frogs may not be the sexy option that Oklahoma is but there’s a real reason to believe that Dart could go there, compete and be a successful quarterback. Why? The head coach has done it before with another transfer and at another school already.

Sonny Dykes has developed names like Jared Goff into the NFL and he also can boast that he helped Shane Buechele and Tanner Mordecai revitalize their careers at SMU. He knows and gets quarterbacks. That’s an undeniable fact.

He also stated that the TCU job is up for grabs this offseason. While Zack Evans transferred to Ole Miss, the Horned Frogs have a talented playmaker out wide in junior Quentin Johnston and incoming freshman Jordan Hudson as weapons for Dart. One would imagine TCU isn’t the betting favorite but they present some real opportunity.

Ole Miss Rebels

In Mississippi, Lane Kiffin waits and hopes he can do whatever he can to get Jaxson Dart on campus. Dart would immediately be the guy at Ole Miss as likely first-rounder Matt Corral is headed to the NFL Draft and John Rhys Plumlee to the transfer portal.

Currently, the only quarterback the Rebels have with any meaningful game action is like Altymer, who saw time in the Rebels Sugar Bowl loss to Baylor.

The aforementioned Zach Evans from TCU transferred to Ole Miss and it’s very plausible that Ole Miss brings in Michael Trigg, another USC transfer and supposedly a very close friend of Dart’s for a visit as well.

With Kiffin’s offensive acumen, recent film of Matt Corral success, and the path of least resistance to a starting quarterback job, the Rebels look firmly entrenched in this race.

Oklahoma Sooners

Last but certainly not least, the Oklahoma Sooners are the third team that figures to be a major factor in the race for Jaxson Dart.

Oklahoma probably has the most to offer but also probably poses Dart with the biggest obstacles to immediate playing time. However, that doesn’t seem to matter as Dart signed to play at USC despite Slovis’ presence and Miller Moss also signed. Competition doesn’t look like it scares him and if not, joining Oklahoma would be a great move.

He’d compete with Dillon Gabriel all spring and summer and assuming Gabriel won out due to familiarity and comfort in Lebby’s offensive system, Dart would be the number two guy. He would only be a play away from seeing the field and we know that he’s comfortable coming off the bench and producing. Assuming Gabriel makes it through the season with a clean bill of health, he’d then go into 2023 with four-star commit Nick Evers as his only real competition.

Lebby’s track record of developing and getting the best out of his quarterbacks speaks for itself and Oklahoma’s offensive weapons with Marvin Mims, Eric Gray, Brayden Willis, Jalil Farooq, Theo Wease, and the incoming freshmen plus the possibilities of his friend and former Trojan Michael Trigg being able to play here have to seem doubly exciting.

All told, this is a fascinating situation that has a very interesting conclusion one way or another. Does Dart presumably switch places with Caleb Williams and head for the Palace on the Prairie? Does he go to Ole Miss and try and forge something with Lane Kiffin? Or does he join the Big 12 and head to Fort Worth to do battle with Max Duggan and Chandler Morris to see who Sonny Dykes’ QB to start his tenure at TCU?

Either way, whatever happens, we’ll keep you updated here on Sooners Wire.

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Who will be the starting quarterback for each Big 12 team in 2022?

With the 2021 season behind us, let’s look ahead at who will start at quarterback for the Big 12’s teams in 2022.

The Big 12 will see a lot of turnover at the quarterback position heading into 2022. Turnover happens every year and while several teams will have new signal-callers for the next season, there remains a lot of familiarity with the guys who will start at quarterback in 2022.

TCU will have to decide between the experienced Max Duggan and the flash in the pan performance of Chandler Morris. Baylor will likely go with Gerry Bohanon, but Blake Shapen looked sharp at times too.

We’re nine months from the start of the 2022 college football season, but it’s never too early to look ahead. Here’s who we think will start at quarterback for each of the Big 12’s teams next season.

Report Card: Grading the Sooners following their 52-31 win over TCU

The Sooners dispatched TCU relatively comfortably. Let’s take a look at how each position group graded out in the 52-31 win.

For a while, it may have seemed like an afterthought to grade out the offense with A’s and B’s across the board. However, that time has arrived.  The offense was a bright spot, and the defense wasn’t as bad as maybe it appeared.

As we do each week, let’s look at how each position group graded in the Sooners 52-31 thrashing of the TCU Horned Frogs.

Quarterbacks: A

No need to beat around the bush here: Caleb Williams was phenomenal in his first start since usurping Spencer Rattler in Oklahoma’s thrilling come-from-behind win against Texas.

He dazzled the sold-out crowd in Norman and had national media in an uproar. Williams was 18 of 23 for 295 yards passing and four touchdowns, three of which made their way to Jadon Haselwood. He added 66 yards rushing, including the electric 41-yard TD run in the third quarter you can see below.

After that performance, there’s no need to speculate about who will be the quarterback as Oklahoma heads to the state of Kansas again for their second true road game against the Kansas Jayhawks.

The next step for Williams is to continue to mature and grow within the offense.

Up Next: Backs and Pass Catchers

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Caleb Williams, Kennedy Brooks lead Sooners to 52-31 win over TCU Horned Frogs

In the first start of his Sooners’ career, true freshman Caleb Williams rose to the occasion to help lead OU to a 52-31 win over TCU.

The biggest storyline heading into the Oklahoma Sooners matchup with the TCU Horned Frogs was what Lincoln Riley was going to do at the quarterback position. As speculation ran rampant during warmups, it was revealed that true freshman Caleb Williams would make his start for the Sooners.

It was a debut for the ages that went about as well as it could for Caleb Williams and the Oklahoma Sooners offense that started with 14 unanswered points and never looked back offensively, putting together their best offensive performance from start to finish.

In what turned out to be a 52-31 win for the Oklahoma Sooners, Caleb Williams was 18 of 23 for 295 yards and four touchdowns through the air. Williams added 66 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, including the 41-yard dash late in the third quarter.

Kennedy Brooks followed an incredible 200-yard performance against the Texas Longhorns with 153 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

After jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Sooners and Horned Frogs would play a tight game through most of the first half. With 20 seconds to play, the Sooners would extend their lead to 24-14 on Caleb Williams second touchdown pass of the night, this time to Jadon Haselwood.

It was one of three touchdown receptions by Haselwood, the first time since 2019 that a Sooners wide receiver had three touchdown catches. That time, it was CeeDee Lamb carving up the Texas Longhorns on the way to his incredible day.

In the second half, the Sooners and Horned Frogs would continue their offensive show, but TCU would never get closer than 10 points as Williams, and the offense answered every Horned Frogs touchdown with a score of their own.

After the Horned Frogs cut the lead to 10 on Quentin Johnson’s big 75-yard catch and run for a touchdown, Gary Patterson and TCU would attempt an onside kick. Oklahoma would catch the kick and pick up 15 yards on a kick-catching interference call. The Sooners would then go three plays for 33 yards for Jadon Haselwood’s third touchdown of the night.

Johnson would torch the Sooners for much of the night with his size and speed combination. He finished with seven receptions for 185 yards and three touchdowns. Max Duggan threw for a career-high 346 passing yards and four touchdowns. Duggan added 45 yards rushing on the ground on eight carries.

Though it was a game with several momentum swings, every time the TCU Horned Frogs looked like they were mounting a comeback, the defense would get a timely stop, or the offense would respond with a touchdown.

Caleb Williams was excellent on the evening, showing incredible arm strength and accuracy, attacking the TCU secondary downfield. Williams hit nine different receivers on the night, averaging a tremendous 12.8 yards per attempt in his first start for the Sooners.

TCU isn’t the toughest defense the Sooners will face this year, but Caleb Williams did everything he wanted in his first start helping the Oklahoma Sooners improve to 7-0 on the season.

Next up for the Oklahoma Sooners is a date with the Kansas Jayhawks while TCU (3-3) heads home to take on West Virginia.

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4 defensive players to watch as Oklahoma takes on TCU

Oklahoma is in need of a bounce back defensive performance and to get it, these four Sooners are vital against TCU.

While the offense continues to find itself and find its quarterback, the Oklahoma Sooners defense will have to continue to show up. After a very poor performance in the first half of the Sooners win against the Texas Longhorns, Speed D found its footing and was absolutely lights out in the second half to hold up their end of the bargain in the team’s improbable comeback effort.

Timely stops, better coverage, and better tackling all led to better results in the second half of the Sooners’ win.

Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch will be hoping they can carry that second-half finish with them as they return home.

They now turn their attention to TCU, who’s offense has been pretty good in 2021.

They are led by Max Duggan and lining up in the backfield with him is former five-star running back Zach Evans and another solid running back in Kendre Miller. Out wide Quentin Johnston, Derius Davis, and Taye Barber are their main threats.

Who are the key Oklahoma defenders in this match-up? Here are four Sooners that are vital to Oklahoma’s chances of slowing down the Horned Frogs offense on Saturday night.

Up Next: It all Starts Upfront

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How do the Oklahoma Sooners and TCU Horned Frogs stack up statistically?

How do Oklahoma and TCU stack up statistically heading into their showdown on Saturday night?

The Oklahoma Sooners and the TCU Horned Frogs face off Saturday night in Norman. The two squads meet for the 21st time in a series the Sooners have historically dominated. OU leads the all-time series 16-5 and is on a seven-game win streak dating back to 2014.

Both teams have scratched and clawed to secure winning records. While Oklahoma is undefeated on the year, the Sooners have won five of their six games by a touchdown or less.

After dropping the conference opener vs. Texas two weeks ago, TCU grabbed a 52-31 win at Tech to improve to 3-2 on the year.

Quarterback questions abound for each team. For Oklahoma, Lincoln Riley told the media he wouldn’t announce a starting quarterback between Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler until gameday. For TCU, Gary Patterson played the injury status of starting quarterback Max Duggan close to the vest, refusing to comment on whether Duggan or Matthew Downing will start under center this weekend.

With so much uncertainty surrounding Saturday’s game, we’ve put together a statistical primer of cold hard facts to get you ready for kickoff.

3 Offensive Keys to the game for the Oklahoma Sooners vs. TCU

As the Oklahoma Sooners get ready to play the TCU Horned Frogs, here are three keys for the offensive side of the ball.

On Saturday night, Oklahoma pushes forward and looks to take one step closer to an undefeated regular season. This week’s opponent will be the TCU Horned Frogs led by Gary Patterson. Patterson’s team is far from a heavyweight but they aren’t pushovers either. They come into the game with a record of 3-2 with losses to Texas and their big rival in SMU.

Defensively, they do not resemble the TCU defenses of the past. For years, TCU was a stingy, stingy defense that had impactful players at every level. While the talent isn’t bad, they lack the edge of TCU defenses from the past.

So, how does Oklahoma attack them when the Sooners have the ball? Let’s take a look at three offensive keys to put Oklahoma in a spot to come out victorious Saturday night.

Protect the Ball

Yes, it’s quite obvious. However, there is still uncertainty about who will be taking the snaps as starting quarterback. There has been no official word from Lincoln Riley about his decision but the point stands for either Spencer Rattler or Caleb Williams. Rattler was benched for his turnovers against Texas. A fumble on a scramble sealed his fate for that game and opened the door for Caleb Williams.

However, Williams has had some issues securing shotgun snaps. TCU quarterback Max Duggan is a veteran player and has the running and throwing ability to make Oklahoma pay if they give them extra possessions.

The Oklahoma Sooners are the more talented team. They can’t afford to let a team like TCU hand around by giving them good field position off of turnovers. Whoever the quarterback is the Saturday night has to protect the football.

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Big 12 Power Rankings after week 1 of the season

How does the Big 12 stack up after the first full week of college football action?

The Big 12 got off to a rough start in the first full week of action. Though they finished with a 9-1 record on the weekend, the games were much closer than they should have been. With just two Power Five matchups on the slate, the Big 12 struggled against Group of Five and FCS teams throughout the weekend.

It was a similar start to the season as last year when the Big 12 saw several upsets at the hands of FCS schools. It created a perception that teams like Iowa State and Kansas State weren’t very good, but they bounced back in the following weeks to come up with big wins in the conference.

These teams will likely look better as the season progresses, but it was an unfortunate start for a conference trying to prove it belongs among the Power Five with realignment on the horizon.

*Ranking is based on the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll – last updated Aug. 10.

Oklahoma Sooners Big 12 opponent expected to breakout in 2021

After an up and down 2020 season, Athlon Sports is projecting Max Duggan as a breakout candidate for 2021.

The defense has been slowly changing the narrative for the Oklahoma Sooners over the last couple of seasons. In 2020, as they finished the season allowing just 17 points per game over the last seven games, they found a level of success they hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

Their streak of success started with their matchup with the TCU Horned Frogs. In the three weeks leading up to their matchup in Fort Worth, the Sooners defense allowed 40 points per game to Kansas State, Iowa State, and Texas. They’d gone 1-2 in conference play to that point and hadn’t shown the promise of defensive improvement that many were expecting under Alex Grinch.

After the Red River Shootout, the Sooners traveled back to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to take on the Horned Frogs and put themselves back into the Big 12 title conversation.

Led by Max Duggan, the Horned Frogs played a solid game, but weren’t able to string enough drives together to put points on the board. The Sooners controlled it throughout, but Duggan established himself as a quarterback to watch completing 71% of his passes and throwing for 276 yards and a touchdown. The Sooners limited him to 18 yards on nine attempts, completely taking away a huge part of his offensive attack.

As the 2021 season approaches, Duggan remains a name to watch in the Big 12. Steve Lassan of Athlon Sports ranked his top 20 quarterbacks ready for a breakout season in 2021 and Max Duggan came in at number 13 on the list.

Duggan finished 2020 with just 10 touchdown passes and 1,795 yards, but considering he missed time leading up to the opener due to heart surgery, along with the other limitations of practice time last year, the gains from September to December provide promise for ’21. The Iowa native threw for 265 yards and ran for 104 in a Dec. 5 win against Oklahoma State and connected on 10 of 13 passes for 160 yards and a score in an easy win against Louisiana Tech the following Saturday. Duggan led the team in rushing with 526 yards and reached the end zone 10 times on the ground. An improving supporting cast should only help Duggan’s development this fall. – Lassan

In 2020, Duggan showed a ton of resiliency, helping lead the Horned Frogs to a come back win over Texas. He was up and down in his first season as a starter, but heading into 2021, is a player capable of taking over a football game.

The Sooners’ defense will be challenged by Max Duggan and the Horned Frogs. TCU is even a sleeper to challenge for the Big 12 title according to Josh Pate of 247Sports. In order to repeat as Big 12 champions, the Sooners defense will need to be on point when they face Duggan and the Horned Frogs.

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