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Oklahoma coach Brent Venables celebrates with Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Dillon Gabriel (8) after the Red River Rivalry college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the University of Texas (UT) Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. Oklahoma won 34-30.
In late November of 2021, the unexpected departure of then-head coach Lincoln Riley sent shockwaves through the Oklahoma Sooners football program. Riley had been in charge for five seasons, inheriting the job from the legendary Bob Stoops in the summer of 2017 when Stoops retired.
Riley’s decision to become the next head coach at USC is one of the biggest and most surprising decisions in recent college football history. But, the Sooners bounced back, hiring Brent Venables one week later. Venables, a defensive savant, hired Jeff Lebby to be his first offensive coordinator, but the duo needed a quarterback to run the offense.
The cupboard was pretty empty in that regard. Spencer Rattler, who had been OU’s starter entering the 2021 season, was benched halfway through the year. He entered the transfer portal the day after the regular season ended, the same day Riley’s defection to Southern Cal took place. Caleb Williams, who replaced Rattler under center, would enter the transfer portal later that winter and decided to follow Riley and become a Trojan. Suddenly, OU, the home of some of the best quarterbacks in the sport’s history, needed one desperately.
They found one in UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel, who was convinced by Lebby to forgo transferring to UCLA and instead come to Norman. The pair had worked together at UCF back in 2019 when Gabriel was a true freshman, and still had a very good relationship.
Gabriel arrived at OU and was immediately handed the starting gig as the only QB on the roster who had substantial…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/brent-venables-shared-more-led-111533439.html
Author : Sooners Wire
Publish date : 2024-09-26 11:15:33
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