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Brent Venables sees a lot of similarities in Dillon Gabriel, Jackson Arnold

Screen Shot 2024-05-28 at 9.09.17 AMby:Kaiden Smith11/21/23

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(Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports)

Oklahoma true freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold had his redshirt burned last weekend, appearing in his fifth game of the season when he took over the reins of the Sooners’ offense in the second half of their 32-24 win over BYU.

An upper-body injury ruled starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel out for the second half of Saturday’s game versus the Cougars, and his status for Oklahoma’s regular-season finale versus TCU is still uncertain. With that in mind, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables was asked how important this week of preparation will be for Arnold if he has to assume the role as the starter.

Jeff [Lebby] does a good job, the first and second team guy are getting virtually the same amount of reps,” Venables said. “The things that we’re asking him to do he’s good at, we don’t have to, okay now Jackson’s in let’s do this.”

Not much was asked of Arnold in his second-half showing versus BYU, completing five of his nine pass attempts for 33 yards and rushing the ball eight times for 24 yards. Meanwhile, Gabriel currently leads the Big 12 in passing yards and touchdowns this season, but Venables made it clear that the game plan would not change much if Arnold is in fact under center for the Sooners this weekend.

“They’re some things that maybe he might be good at, but I mean the game plan’s gonna be the game plan based on the things that you’re going to see from an opponent and then the things that we do every single week,” Venables explained. “So it’s important that he has those things down so we can go execute the offense and still take advantage of his best skillsets.”

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Through talking through their offensive game plan at the quarterback position, Venables also compared the two quarterbacks. Saying that he sees similarities between the veteran in his fifth season and the true freshman who was formerly a five-star prospect out of high school.

“But I think him and Dillon are very very similar in many ways,” Venables said. “I don’t think okay this guy’s a runner and this guy’s a thrower, he can’t throw, this guy can throw. We don’t have that problem with those two guys.”

Regardless of who starts for Oklahoma on Saturday, it sounds like the Sooners will be sticking to their offensive formula that’s been successful this season. TCU visits Norman on Black Friday as the two Big 12 foes will square off at noon ET in a game airing on FOX.