Jeff Lebby discusses importance of offseason additions to Oklahoma's quarterback room

Oklahoma‘s quarterback room looks drastically different from top to bottom than it did a year ago. The Sooners lost the top two options from last year’s depth chart in Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler, but went to the transfer portal to bring in some additions of their own.

Dillon Gabriel is set to start for Oklahoma, and he will be reunited with his former offensive coordinator in Jeff Lebby from their days at UCF. Oklahoma also wanted to add some depth and experience behind Gabriel, which they did through a number of additions.

Behind Gabriel, Oklahoma added Davis Beville from Pitt, General Booty from the JUCO ranks, and true freshman Nick Evers. Those additions were a point of emphasis entering the offseason in the eyes of Lebby.

“Yeah it was incredibly important,” Lebby said when asked about adding Beville and Booty to the quarterback room. “What’s still a little bit concerning as we sit here today is we’ve got one guy that’s thrown a bunch of footballs in live action. Davis has got some action, which I though was huge to be able to add that to the room. And the General in the same light has played some college ball at a much smaller level. But those guys know how to work. They know what it means to be a quarterback, they’ve got presence about them, they’ve done everything the right way. So excited about getting on the grass with them for sure.”

Oklahoma is suddenly deep at quarterback

Gabriel put up big numbers at UCF from 2019-2021. He threw for at least 3,570 yards with 29 touchdowns through the air in each of the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Last year, Gabriel’s season was cut short early on when he suffered a shoulder injury.

Beville played sparingly at Pitt behind Kenny Pickett the past two seasons. Booty played more in the JUCO ranks, but as Lebby alluded to he hasn’t had any experience playing against the level of competition he’ll see at Oklahoma.

Evers comes to Norman as a talented quarterback with a strong arm. He is rated as a four-star prospect and the No. 8 quarterback in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

With a new staff in place and plenty of new faces on offense, there could be an adjustment period for Oklahoma’s offense. But despite the changes, the Sooners hope that Brent Venables can build off of last season’s impressive 11-2 campaign.