Brent Venables expresses trust, belief in both Michael Hawkins Jr., Jackson Arnold

Oklahoma’s offense has been underwhelming in 2024, for a litany of reasons, with quarterback play near the top of the list. But head coach Brent Venables is still confident about what the future holds for his quarterback room.

So far in 2024, Oklahoma has started two quarterbacks: sophomore Jackson Arnold, who was benched before halftime against Tennessee for true freshman Michael Hawkins, who has held the starting job since. Hawkins is set to keep the job going forward after a 34-3 loss in the Red River Showdown, but Venables expressed belief in both signal callers.

“Completely, totally believe in them and I trust them and they’ve got their head down, they have humility, they’ve got work ethic, they’ve got great leadership qualities,” Venables said. “All the things you would want, arm talent. Both of them, to me, are the total package and all their best football is still in front of them.”

Arnold started the first four games of the season, going 3-1 as the starting quarterback. He completed 59.8% of his 102 pass attempts for 538 yards and mustered seven touchdowns with three interceptions and also lost several fumbles. The nadir for Arnold came with three turnovers in the first half against the Volunteers.

That gave way to Hawkins, who came in against Tennessee after making his college debut in some limited action the week prior. In that contest, Hawkins gave the Sooners some late life in a loss. He then started for a road win at Auburn before struggling in the Red River loss, his second-ever start. So far, Hawkins has completed 62.7% of his passes for 458 yards and just a touchdown with no interceptions.

Hawkins also offers some rushing upside, carrying 48 times for 128 yards (sacks included) and a touchdown.

So while they’ve certainly shown some warts to their game so far, Venables has an optimistic outlook about what the future holds for his quarterbacks. And he said it’s on the rest of the team to give them better situations to succeed.

“I love what we have in the quarterback room,” Venables said. “Incredibly talented group. Inexperienced group with, again, the first two guys that you mentioned there. But they’ve got great talent, great futures and we need to be able to play winning football, put them in position to and help them be successful.”