Big 12 Football: Jackson Arnold replaces injured OU QB Dillon Gabriel

Another weekend has brought more chaos around the Big 12 football landscape in the morning kickoff slate. In a tightly-contested matchup early in the second half between the No. 14 Oklahoma Sooners and the BYU Cougars in Provo on Nov. 18, head coach Brent Venables’ squad had a change at quarterback.

True freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold replaced redshirt senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel for the Sooners early in the third quarter with the game tied up against BYU at 17-17.

It wasn’t initially reported on the ESPN broadcast for the Oklahoma-BYU game why Gabriel was taken out for the Sooners.

But an update from the ESPN broadcast team a few minutes later indicated that Gabriel is unlikely to return to the game due to an injury. A report from the Oklahoma SI page also pointed to a hard hit that Gabriel took on a run late in the second half as a possible source of the injury.

Gabriel led Oklahoma’s final drive of the first half against BYU, which resulted in a field goal. Arnold took over at quarterback for the Sooners on their first drive of the third quarter.

Before exiting the game early in the second half, Gabriel completed 13-of-21 pass attempts for 191 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and no interceptions.

Gabriel has started every game for the Sooners this season. He’s thrown for over 3,200 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, and five interceptions, along with 337 rushing yards and 11 rushing scores.

Arnold has now taken snaps in five games for the Sooners, including this one against BYU. Entering the BYU game, he had completed 13-of-15 passing attempts for 169 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, and no interceptions.

Early in the third quarter, Oklahoma and BYU are still tied up at 17-17.

The Sooners are still alive in the race for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game this season, entering Week 12 with a record of 8-2 (5-2 Big 12). BYU (5-5, 2-5 Big 12) is looking to reach bowl eligibility if it wins either of its next two contests against the Oklahoma schools to close out the regular season.