OU head coach Brent Venables explains Dillon Gabriel departure
The plan for Dillon Gabriel was always that the 2023 season would be his last to play college football. That’s according to OU head coach Brent Venables.
Gabriel, though, entered the transfer portal on Dec. 4 (Monday), now intending to use his final year of eligibility somewhere other than Oklahoma. And for the Sooners, they always thought Gabriel would move on. The expectation was that five-star freshman Jackson Arnold would take over in 2024. The only difference is they thought Gabriel would be headed to the NFL.
“It didn’t have anything to do with Jackson,” Venables said at the Alamo Bowl coaches’ press conference on Thursday. “I think Dillon had every intention to go to the NFL in his mind. This was going to be his last season. He’s going to have a great year, put himself in a position to go chase his dreams in the NFL.
“He’s the best person to testify in regards to how he came to the decision to play another year collegiately. But, quite frankly, we did plan to go into the ’24 season without Dillon Gabriel. And Dillon, I think, one of the things that he’ll comment about is he went through something similar at UCF with a quarterback there. And he knows the uniqueness of the situation.
“So Dillon knows he was more than welcome to stay and compete and be the quarterback at the University of Oklahoma. But that’s the decision he came to.”
When Venables was asked if Gabriel would play in the bowl game he said, “That hasn’t been finalized yet, so I’ll comment on that when it’s the appropriate time.”
It’s expected that Gabriel won’t play, as he’s already taking visits elsewhere as the Sooners prepare to face No. 14 Arizona in the Valero Alamo Bowl. That would mean Arnold would make his first career start against the Wildcats on Dec. 28 in San Antonio.
Venables did go on to praise Gabriel for his time at OU, pointing out how pivotal Gabriel has been to the growth of the program during Venables’ first two years as head coach.
“Dillon has been amazing,” Venables said. “He’s obviously played his best football this year. We wouldn’t have put ourselves in this position and had the kind of success we did, certainly, the turnaround that we did from year one to year two, without Dillon and all of his hard work, his leadership, his commitment. He made everybody around him better.
“So, really, really thankful and proud of Dillon. And he’s going to have, whatever is next for him, I promise you he’ll have his hands all over it. It’s going to be a really successful transition for him.”
