Fearless Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel has arrived on college footballs biggest stage -

Dillon Gabriel had the suitcase out on his bed, slowly packing his things. The quarterback was set to fly from Hawaii to Los Angeles to begin the next step of his football journey.

It was Jan. 2, 2022, and the next 24 hours unexpectedly changed the trajectory of multiple college football bluebloods.

Gabriel had a good run of two-plus seasons as UCF’s quarterback but entered the transfer portal after the 2021 season. He visited UCLA and Ole Miss, where his former UCF position coach, Jeff Lebby, coached. After Oklahoma hired Lebby on Dec. 8, Gabriel committed to UCLA less than a week later. Caleb Williams looked entrenched as the starting quarterback at OU, even though Lincoln Riley had left for USC, so it didn’t make sense as an option for Gabriel. Two days into the new year, Gabriel readied to join the Bruins. He had an online Zoom class the next morning, which would mark his official enrollment.

Gabriel’s phone rang suddenly. It was Lebby.

“Boomer!” Lebby yelled into the phone.

Gabriel was confused. Lebby filled him in. Williams had just told the Oklahoma coaches in a Zoom call that he would leave the Sooners and enter the portal, the second quarterback to leave Oklahoma in the offseason. Williams ended up at USC, where he won the 2022 Heisman Trophy. As soon as Oklahoma’s call with Williams ended, Lebby dialed up Gabriel. The Sooners wanted — needed — the Hawaiian southpaw.

“This thing’s gotten very real, very fast,” Lebby told his former QB. “(Williams) is getting in. Let’s make this happen.”

Gabriel had to collect his thoughts, but he didn’t have much time, with his UCLA class the next day. He had never even been to Oklahoma. He didn’t know head coach Brent Venables. Should he back out of UCLA and join Lebby? The two had kept a close relationship.

“He’d made his decision, but I could see something wasn’t sitting well,” Gabriel’s mother, Dori, said.

Gabriel and his parents had another talk with Oklahoma coaches that night, followed by a Zoom call at 4 a.m. Hawaii time the next morning, Jan. 3. When his UCLA online class began, Gabriel didn’t log in. Ten minutes into the class, his phone started blowing up with UCLA coaches asking where he was.

They realized what happened. Word quickly got out.

Later that day, Gabriel announced his commitment to Oklahoma, where classes would begin on Jan. 18.

“He’d never met me,” Venables said this week. “We FaceTimed. ‘Hey brother, here’s the situation. I know you’re supposed to be going to college tomorrow, but here’s our situation.’ Obviously, Jeff’s relationship lended credibility to some of the conversations and what we were laying out there for them. He had a few questions, we answered them as well as we could. I told him we couldn’t make any promises about who was here and who wasn’t. He’d have to come knowing that. I wasn’t going to be misleading. He bet on himself.”

Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel, left, hugs his mother, Dori, after the Sooners’ win over Texas. (Jerome Miron / USA Today)

Gabriel chose Oklahoma sight unseen, because of Lebby and the chance to play for one of the most historic programs in the sport. Now Gabriel is among the frontrunners for the Heisman Trophy. Oklahoma is undefeated after Gabriel led a game-winning drive against Texas, throwing the winning touchdown pass with 15 seconds left.

Gabriel long has flown under the radar, from his low-profile recruitment out of high school to his daily calm demeanor to being tasked with replacing Williams and bringing the winningest college football program since World War II back to glory after stumbling last season.

Those close to him say he hasn’t changed from the smallest stage to the biggest. But while the laid-back Hawaiian personality sits on the outside with a big smile, the hard work and focus are always there inside. He always has had a plan. It’s exactly what Oklahoma needed.

McKenzie Milton had to nearly beg UCF coaches to take a look at Gabriel.

At Mililani High School in Hawaii, where he had replaced Milton, Gabriel had been lighting up scoreboards for more than three years. He was the son of former Hawaii QB Garrett Gabriel, who played under Paul Johnson and left as the school’s all-time leading passer.

Yet only Hawaii, Army and Air Force had offered well into his senior year, and Dillon was committed to Army, which was led by former Johnson assistant Jeff Monken. Despite a rising crop of quarterbacks coming from the islands, like Marcus Mariota, Tua Tagovailoa and Milton, Gabriel had stayed under-recruited, perhaps because he hadn’t attended many camps. Coaches want to see quarterbacks throw in person.

One coach told Gabriel he would have an offer if he was right-handed instead of left-handed. That coach years later reached out to Gabriel when he entered the portal. The family laughed off the coach. The Gabriels hadn’t forgotten.

So Milton constantly peppered UCF coach Josh Heupel that he should take a look at this QB. Once Gabriel passed Timmy Chang and Tagovailoa on Hawaii’s all-time passing list that fall, UCF coaches finally did. His 9,848 yards were nearly 1,700 more than Tagovailoa.

“McKenzie was talking about him and was back home throwing with him in the summer,” Heupel said. “Getting a chance to watch the video, he was smart, competitive, accurate with the football, a winner. It was all the things McKenzie was talking about with Dillon.”

Gabriel fell in love with football at 4 years old, seeing the photos and trophies of his dad around the house. He’s named after Corey Dillon, a running back Garrett Gabriel loved to watch. His older brother is Garrison after Garrison Hearst and younger brother is Roman after the NFL QB of the same name. In the neighborhood, it was Dillon who always gathered the local kids for football games at the park.

“From the beginning, he had the leadership,” Garrett Gabriel said. “He got kids to do things that … (laughs). It was crazy. He had that knack of getting people together.”

Dillon Gabriel learned the game of football from his dad, Garrett Gabriel, a former Hawaii quarterback. (Courtesy of Dori Gabriel)

UCF coaches had finally noticed him but only offered a grayshirt after his visit, meaning he wouldn’t enroll until 2020. But by then, the secret was out, and other schools had noticed Gabriel. Late in the recruiting process, Georgia wanted him. So did USC and new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury. Gabriel visited both. Georgia offered. Lebby said it was difficult because coaches like to see quarterbacks “25 times” before they’re sure, but UCF changed its mind and offered Gabriel a full scholarship.

Gabriel ultimately chose UCF because he thought there was a better chance he could play early because Milton was successful there and because of an immediate connection with Lebby.

“Jeff Lebby from the get-go just made an impression on him,” Dori Gabriel said. “It’s like a big brother or a young father with him. They connected on so many levels.”

In 2019, UCF was coming off a second consecutive undefeated regular season, but Milton’s catastrophic knee injury the previous year meant the job was open. Darriel Mack Jr. had won the AAC championship game, and Notre Dame transfer Brandon Wimbush was also expected to compete for the job. But when Gabriel arrived early for spring practice, word got around quickly that this true freshman looked really good.

“The first couple days of spring ball, he was like, 70, 75, 80 percent completion rate,” Lebby said. “He was pulling the trigger. He didn’t know what was going on all the time, but you could see the anticipation part of it.”

Gabriel didn’t start the 2019 opener against Florida A&M, but he completed 9 of 13 passes for three touchdowns off the bench. The next day, coaches made the change.

“When we got in there on Sunday, me and Heup sat down, and he says, ‘Man, what do you think?’” Lebby said. “I told him what I thought. He felt the same way and wanted to push (Gabriel) to be the guy.”

Gabriel threw for 7,223 yards, 61 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions in two years under Heupel, including the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. It was everything the Gabriels could’ve imagined. When Milton recovered, he transferred to Florida State, announcing that UCF was Gabriel’s team now.

But Lebby had left for the Ole Miss offensive coordinator job in 2020. Then Heupel left for the Tennessee head coaching job in 2021, and in came Gus Malzahn. It was unclear how Gabriel, who thrived throwing the deep ball, would fit in a Malzahn offense that often relied on quarterback runs.

Three games into the 2021 season, Gabriel was putting up good numbers again, but he was also taking some big hits. Then, an unusual circumstance and a fluke play changed the direction of everything.

With less than 20 seconds remaining in a tie game with Louisville, Gabriel threw a deflected interception that was returned for a touchdown, stunning everyone and sending Cardinals fans into a frenzy. Suddenly down to one final play, Gabriel threw a short pass that was lateralled around. The ball eventually made its way back to Gabriel, who picked it up and was tackled hard to the ground, fracturing his left clavicle. His family was in attendance and waited for a while afterward to learn how bad it was. It was a devastating finish.

“That was tough for him and the family,” Garrett Gabriel said. “Those were hard times, dark times for him.”

UCF coaches thought they had a team that could go 11-1 or 10-2. The injury derailed those plans. Gabriel kept traveling with the team and supported backup quarterback Mikey Keene. The Knights finished 8-4, but as the season neared its end, some people in the UCF program felt Gabriel was perhaps healthy enough to play but wanted to take a redshirt to save his eligibility and possibly transfer, taking advantage of new rules that removed the requirement to sit out a year.

Gabriel’s parents say their son was working to get healthy and for a while didn’t entertain the idea of transferring, but he was worried about re-injuring himself and later concerned about coaches trying to get him back on the field before he was fully healthy.

“Some of those decisions factored into him saying, maybe this isn’t the place for me,” Garrett Gabriel said. “Toward the end, he knew it was time to move on.”

On Nov. 27, 2021, the day after UCF’s regular-season finale, Gabriel announced he would enter the portal. In the time since, Gabriel only has said of UCF that he transferred in order to grow as quarterback, wanting to reach the highest level of competition. He still has many friends and connections there and appreciates the place. Two months after entering the portal, and after that late flip from UCLA, Gabriel enrolled at Oklahoma.

At Big 12 media days this summer, Malzahn remained complimentary of Gabriel. On Saturday, they’ll face each other for the first time.

“Dillon is a phenomenal player. That’s what stands out,” Malzahn said in July. “The year I had him, I wish he hadn’t got hurt. I think it would’ve turned out a little different. But every day in practice, he would do something, and you’d go, ‘Wow.’”

Dillon Gabriel (8) faces his former team, UCF, on Saturday. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)

At Oklahoma, Gabriel is once again the person getting the other kids together. Not long after his arrival, he hosted retreats at Airbnbs with teammates, including one with skill position players at a ranch in Lawton, Okla., and another with the offensive linemen at Lake Thunderbird.

“DG is one confident son of a gun, in a positive way,” Oklahoma guard Andrew Raym said. “You don’t ever have to worry about DG.”

“(I’m) putting that at the forefront of continuity, brotherhood, friendship, doing it not just on the field but off,” Gabriel said this week. “Trusting people off the field only helps on the field. Those retreats are huge. It was huge for the new guys to come in and see the group we had and mesh. I’m a big believer in it.”

Those retreats were made possible by Gabriel’s various name, image and likeness deals. He has a DG The Brand clothing brand, a truck from Bob Moore Auto Group and other deals with EvoShield, Old Spice, Rock ’Em Socks, Sonic and more, along with the Crimson and Cream OU collective.

Gabriel has used much of his NIL opportunities to give back. He has involved teammates in his deals, taken others out to dinner for free meals, bought recovery equipment and donated to high schools in Norman and Orlando. He helped get new basketball jerseys for the Mililani High School team, where his dad coaches and younger brother plays. Gabriel says his dream is to open an IMG Academy-type athletics school in Hawaii.

“Here’s a 20-year-old coming home and donating $8,000,” said Dori Gabriel, who works in pharmaceutical sales. “He’s always been giving, very generous. I believe that’s why things come back to him. He was so adamant about giving back to Mililani High School. He did it last summer, did it again and is planning an event next spring.”

“There’s three things I represent,” a tearful Dillon Gabriel said after the win over Texas. “The name on the front, the name on the back and the state of Hawaii. I hold it heavy because I love that place. I love everything it represents. That’s love, humility and respect.”

Steven Smith, Gabriel’s brand manager, said NIL played no role in Gabriel’s decision to choose Oklahoma. Gabriel’s approach to NIL has changed during the past year. Heading into this season, Gabriel told Smith not to do any major NIL deals in-season, feeling they provided too much outside distraction the past two years. That has continued as Oklahoma has gotten off to an undefeated start.

“After a big week like Texas, people’s first thoughts is about NIL,” Smith said. “The No. 1 thing he told me was, ‘Let’s not switch what we’re doing. Don’t chase anything. I have a whole back half of the season to play, and I have goals that are bigger than NIL deals.’”

Gabriel’s first season at Oklahoma was a rocky one. He suffered a concussion against TCU and missed several games, including a 49-0 loss to Texas, as the Sooners finished 6-7, their first losing season since 1998. Toward the end of the year, Gabriel was evasive on questions about his future, and Oklahoma signed five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold. But in early January, Gabriel announced he would come back for his fifth season.

“I don’t think anybody thought last year would be the way it was,” Lebby said. “Having to weather that storm and find ways to respond created a bunch of growth, a ton of humility and understanding that fine line of being on the right side and wrong side. He went through it, we went through it. We’re all better for it.”

“He faced the music,” Garrett Gabriel said.

Finally playing healthy again, Gabriel has been almost unstoppable this season, throwing for 1,878 yards, 9.6 yards per pass with 16 touchdowns and two interceptions and 72 percent completions through six games, on pace for career-highs, also adding five touchdowns on the ground. He’s currently second in The Athletic’s Heisman Trophy straw poll. Gabriel does have a sixth year of eligibility next year, although Dori Gabriel let it slip to the student newspaper in September that this likely would be her son’s last season. She jokes that she got some flack for that.

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Heisman straw poll: Oklahoma's Dillon Gabriel enters the top 3, LSU’s Jayden Daniels back in the mix

All the focus is on finishing this season, and Gabriel’s ability to rally the people around him has never been more evident. Whenever Gabriel gets home to Hawaii, his friends immediately show up, and he cooks them breakfast as they plan out the day of football workouts or yard projects, Dori said. It was no different when he got in the huddle with 1:17 to play, trailing Texas 30-27, with a bloody finger from his non-throwing hand glued shut.

“I saw confidence,” receiver Nic Anderson said. “He knew exactly what we were going to do. We’d done it 100 times in practice. I could feel the confidence buzzing off him, and it hit the rest of the O.”

DILLON GABRIEL FINDS NIC ANDERSON WITH 15 SECONDS LEFT 🤯

This year's version of the #RedRiverRivalry has been wild.

🎥 @ESPN pic.twitter.com/sv1JJjAJVG

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) October 7, 2023

Gabriel threw a leaping touchdown pass to Anderson to win the game and declare to the world that Oklahoma football was back and, not so subtly, that he finally had arrived on the biggest stage. There’s no reason not to notice him anymore.

“He’s the calmest guy I’ve ever been around,” Venables said. “He’s got great belief in the players around him, and he’s incredibly humble. You don’t see him ever tooting his own horn. …

“He’s fearless. I don’t put any limits on what he can do.”

(Top photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)

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