Blatant Homerism: Why are we still talking about Dillon Gabriel?
Let’s start with the topic everyone wants to know about: My opinion on the new season of “Slow Horses.” It’s as brilliant as ever. Still the best new television show of the last few years. Take some time to catch up on it if you have Apple TV+.
Now that is out of the way, onto the latest kerfuffle around the Oklahoma Sooners.
As head coach Brent Venables again addressed quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s departure from the program for Oregon during his weekly press conference, I was struck by a simple question.
“Why in the ever-loving **** would Dillon Gabriel want to come back to OU for another season?”
That’s not a shot at OU. It’s just reality.
For Gabriel, a return to Norman for 2024 would involve playing behind an overhauled offensive line… for a new offensive coordinator… against a significantly upgraded set of defenses. (Now factor in his injury history.)
The alternative: Go do that same thing for more money at Oregon.
You could argue that OU and its NIL collective should have broken the bank to retain Gabriel’s services for the team’s inaugural season in the SEC. For who? For what?
Yes, it would be more fun to watch Gabriel pilot this year’s team than to witness a prized QB prospect melt down. But given the problems plaguing this offense right now, what good would it do to have Gabriel behind center?
Perhaps the best explanation for why this is still a thing is that hyped-up prospects like Jackson Arnold foster some kind of psychology of resentment among the broader public.
Gabriel fits the folk-hero archetype to the letter. He wasn’t a heralded recruit. He’s not a big guy. Coming from Hawaii, he has a unique backstory.
Most importantly, Gabriel stepped in to help stabilize OU’s program during a tumultuous period. He may not be the best QB to ever take the field for the Sooners, but he earned some place in program lore.
Coming on the heels of Gabriel’s tenure, Arnold’s story couldn’t be more different. He has all the physical tools needed to succeed. Recruiting experts heralded his talents. Venables handed him the keys to the OU offense at the end of last season without any fuss.
Which story seems more relatable?
Of course, if you believe Venables is a doofus who is in over his head, it supports your view to paint the situation as poor leadership on his part. Not only did he back the wrong horse at QB, in other words – he’s unfairly pulling the plug on Arnold’s tenure after four-and-a-half games.
But if you’ve watched Arnold’s body of work to this point, it became painfully obvious in the Tennessee game that he was cratering. You can forgive a QB for routine growing pains, but Venables made it clear afterwards that the coaching staff considered Arnold’s errors in that game and the ones preceding it to be orders of magnitude worse than typical rookie mistakes. (You can’t blame them.) Hawkins played well enough in relief to keep Arnold on the sideline for the time being.
In an ideal world, OU’s coaching staff could take more time to figure out if Arnold just needs to work through his struggles. But it’s the other way. If all of us could see how quickly Arnold’s confidence was eroding, the rest of the team could, too. It doesn’t do anyone any good to keep him in the game under those conditions.
Venables bears responsibility for assessing what role, if any, OU’s coaching staff played in the situation reaching this point. Likewise, all of this should factor into how his bosses evaluate his performance as a head coach. But the time for that is later.
Even though all the finger pointing is intriguing, who promised what to whom in this fiasco involving UNLV and its now former quarterback Matt Sluka seems less important than the bigger lesson. The situation inadvertently demonstrates how players can take advantage of the current rules for transfers and redshirting to audition for bigger paydays in the first three games of a season.
Keep in mind that many players likely realize they will be going pro in something other than sports when their eligibility runs out. That gives them a limited window to cash in on their talents. Stay ready to renegotiate, collectives.
P.S. Jerry Tarkanian must be sick over all of this.
Picks and Recs: Homicide
While The Wire has become a staple of both pop culture and the broader dialogue about everything from black-market economics to labor politics, journalist David Simon first made his mark in television with Homicide: Life on the Street. The show was based on Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Streets, which chronicled the time he spent embedded with Baltimore’s murder detectives. (Also worth checking out.)
Peacock now has the whole series available for streaming. The performances are generally great, but the late Andre Braugher really stands out as legendary detective Frank Pembleton.
Aside from the obvious, a few of the other games I’m trying to catch this weekend:
Georgia at Alabama – Shouldn’t need an explanation.
North Carolina at Duke – The football will suck, but Mack Brown is going through some things.
Oklahoma State at Kansas State – Which of these teams is more likely to get up off the mat?
Texas A&M vs. Arkansas – That rascal Bobby Petrino matching wits with Mike Elko.
Liberty at Appalachian State – We’re running out of opportunities for the Flames to get beat, although App hasn’t looked like the team to do it lately.