How letting Dillon Gabriel leave makes sense for Oklahoma

Former Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel entered the transfer portal earlier this week, announcing a move that surprised a lot of people.

However, On3’s George Stoia was not caught off guard by the decision. To Stoia, it makes sense. He joined On3’s Andy Staples and explained why.

“That’s the world that we live in is when you have somebody of Jackson Arnold’s caliber, who could also go just about anywhere in the country, I think a lot of schools would take him right now, even though he hasn’t played a whole lot of football yet,” Stoia said.

“That’s what Oklahoma’s dealing with is do you want to lose Dillon Grabriel and lose one year of him? … Or do you want to lose a guy in Jackson Arnold, who they believe can be a Heisman contender, be just as good as Dillon Gabriel, if not better.”

Gabriel led Oklahoma to a 10-2 record this past season, including a win over a College Football Playoff participant in Texas. Gabriel passed for 3,660 yards and 30 touchdowns this year.

His backup was true freshman Jackson Arnold, who was a five-star recruit and one of the top players in the country in the class of 2023.

Arnold completed 75 percent of his passes for 202 yards and two scores, without an interception this season. He is now set to take over for Gabriel.

“I mean, he definitely has the tools to be a great quarterback in terms of what he can do with his arm. And you get to have him for two, maybe three years. And that was always the plan,” Stoia said of Arnold. “This is a situation where Oklahoma feels very comfortable handing the keys to Jackson Arnold.”

The time is now for Arnold, who was ranked as the No. 8 overall player in the country in the class of 2023, according to the On3 Industry rankings.

Stoia believes Arnold is ready for the moment and even Dillon Gabriel knew it.

“He committed to Oklahoma two years ago. I believe in some industry standards he was ranked as the No. 1 quarterback in his class. I mean he’s a guy that can do a lot of different things and is the future of this program. And it’s been known for a while — Brent Venables said back in training camp, ‘We know this is Dillon’s last year. And we have to get Jackson ready.’ So this has always been the plan for Oklahoma,” Stoia said.

“I know there are some people out there like, ‘How could you get rid of Dillon Gabriel?’ I don’t think it was them pushing him out the door necessarily, but Dillon knows what was going on. He knew the plan. And he even said on the radio today – he went on the local radio here in Oklahoma and said, ‘Hey, Jackson’s ready and we all know it and I’m excited to see what he can do at Oklahoma.’ So I think this was something that was good for all parties.”