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Oklahoma QB Named to Fourth Award Watch List

After a solid outing in 2022, Sooners' quarterback Dillon Gabriel was named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list.
Randall Sweet|
Oklahoma QB Named to Fourth Award Watch List
Oklahoma QB Named to Fourth Award Watch List

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Oklahoma Sooners

For OU signal caller Dillon Gabriel, watch list season continues.

The former Central Florida QB has named to the Manning, Maxwell and Davey O'Brien Award watch lists earlier this summer, and now is in the running for another national honor.

On Tuesday, the fifth-year senior was named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list. The award is given annually to "the top senior or upperclassman quarterback set to graduate with their class," per the award website.

Gabriel's nomination comes after a strong first season as a Power 5 quarterback. After four seasons at UCF, the Mililani, HI, product threw for 3,168 yards and 25 touchdowns last year with the the Sooners, adding 315 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. 

In 2023, Gabriel will need to reproduce some of his better seasons with the Golden Knights to have a shot at winning the Unitas Award. As a true freshman at UCF, Gabriel threw for 3,653 yards and 29 touchdowns, following up his stellar first year with 3,570 yards and 32 touchdowns and just four interceptions in 10 games as a sophomore.

If Gabriel is able to reach similar statistics and help lead Oklahoma to a few more wins than the team achieved in 2022, then he will certainly be in the running for the Golden Arm Award at the end of the season. 

With three new offensive lineman and an inexperienced group of wide receivers, Gabriel playing his way into contention for the Johnny Unitas trophy would be quite the feat.

Conference opponents Jalon Daniels, Quinn Ewers, Will Howard, Donovan Smith, Kedon Slovis and Blake Shapen join Gabriel on the Unitas Award watch list. Former Sooners' Tanner Mordecai, Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler also made the cut.

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Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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