Dillon Gabriel addresses how he handles 'OG jokes' as Oregon veteran

Dillon Gabriel has been around college football a long time and the Oregon quarterback has to handle some “OG jokes” around the locker room.

But it’s all in good fun for the Ducks QB. Gabriel has Oregon undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the latest AP Poll.

At this rate, who cares if he’s an “OG” or an old man?

“I get a lot of OG jokes,” Gabriel said on The Hard Count with JD PicKell. “And I deflect by trying to call out another old dude in the locker room. That’s my defense mechanism. But I do think it’s funny. Usually it’s the younger guys in our room, Ryder Hayes in the quarterback room, to be exact. He’s got all the old jokes in the book. But what I do, like honestly, is being here in Oregon, we do have a lot of older vets that have played a lot of football. So, you know, I’m able to kind of use that as my defense mechanism as much as possible.” 

Gabriel isn’t afraid to send some return fire in terms of jokes either!

“We all get stray bullets thrown our way,” Gabriel said. “And we just run with it, but I try to flip it and reverse it in a good way. And, you know, they call me pops or old man, but, you know, I’ll flip it into a more inviting way.”

Dillon Gabriel comfortable at Oregon, being a veteran

In his sixth year, and his lone with Oregon, Gabriel is having another solid season through seven games. He has 2,080 yards, 15 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 77% completion percentage.

“I think being comfortable in your own skin, you know, I’ve played in the southeast, in the Midwest, and then here in the Pacific Northwest, I think you just learn that very different people in different walks of life, but you take all that knowledge of being around different people and how you can find ways to relate and know that you come together to achieve a common goal,” Gabriel said. “I think also the way I work in the building, and that’s just day to day, whether it’s, spring workout, spring ball, summer grind, fall camp, I think the respect level as well is there just by the way I work. 

“So that allows us to be, you know, true and authentic to ourselves and connect on that level. So I think on the people side, that’s where I thrive. I just be myself. But on the football side, you know, as a young man, when I was 14 or 13 I believe, you know, I started football my freshman year in varsity … Played a lot of ball all the way into my senior year, and then was thrown into the fire again in the college level my freshman season, and have played all the way up until this point. So I know, if you go and look back at the amount of snaps I’ve had, starts, just the amount of experience I’ve had, I think you use that to your advantage.” 

The growth is immeasurable for Gabriel and it could pay off in the biggest way at the end of this college football season.

“And I think with anyone the developmental piece of you look at me as a freshman in high school to now, what’s that? 10 years now? You see a player that grows and just continues to evolve and get better,” Gabriel said. “But that’s the truth. We play a game that you practice more than you play. So how do you replicate game reps? You can’t. So that’s something that I’ve really pride myself on, and continue to get better and look at it from that way of, you know, I have a real feeling that I can look at and get better from.”