Brent Venables details needed growth for Jackson Arnold

Going into 2024, the Oklahoma Sooners and head coach Brent Venables are going to need to replace two-year starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Luckily, it looks like Oklahoma already has its quarterback of the future in Jackson Arnold.

With Spring practice starting up, Venables detailed the growth Oklahoma needs to see out of Arnold ahead of the season.

“The growth has to happen everywhere,” Brent Venables said. “He got a small sample size of where he was a year ago — some good, some not so good. So, having awareness, good self-awareness, taking ownership, and all of it. The things I need to get better at, more comfortable at, leading or decision making or the timing aspect of it. The mechanics. Your footwork, your eyes, trusting the guys around you, all those things have to get better. So, there’s no one particular area that he needs to improve over the other. Certainly, in the 2024 season, he hasn’t taken any snaps, but he’ll be the first one to tell you he’d go down that same checklist.”

Jackson Arnold was a five-star quarterback in the Class of 2023, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He was also the fourth-ranked quarterback and the eighth-ranked player overall in that class. So, expectations coming in were massive.

In 2023, Arnold played in seven games, primarily as the backup to Dillon Gabriel. On 69 pass attempts, Arnold completed 63.8 percent of his passes and threw for 563 yards. He also had four touchdowns to three interceptions. On top of that, he had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

“Obviously feel really good about the type of leader and the type of athlete and the type of quarterback that he’s capable of being, but at the end of the day, your real judgement is on the kind of teammate he’s been, the leader, the worker. He’s been fantastic in those areas since he’s been here. He’s a bright guy, has great instincts, and he’s very skilled. Now, you’ve got to become a great college quarterback,” Venables said.

“So, that’s what’s in front of him right now, but if he’s gonna be successful it’s going to be because of everybody around him. It’s going to be because of a really good defense. It’s going to be because there’s a great compliment of players around him, the offensive line, tight ends, running backs, all that.”

Explaining how Dillon Gabriel leaving impacted Oklahoma’s over-under win total projection

Going into 2024, Oklahoma has a seemingly low over-under win total projection of 7.5 games. However, as  Sooner Scoop’s Eddie Radosevich explained, that may come down to Jackson Arnold replacing Dillon Gabriel.

“I do. I think just having somebody back there at quarterback, and somebody as experienced as Dillon Gabriel, I think that would probably count for, I don’t know what the number is, but one [game], maybe a half, maybe even two,” Radosevich said.

“So all of a sudden, you’re looking at an over/under of 9, 9.5, maybe 8.5-9. I think that, you know, it’s probably not as shocking as when you see the No. 7. Around here, that’s going to get people fired.”