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Why Weaponizing QB Dillon Gabriel in the Run Game Worked For Oklahoma This Time

When things started slow against Cincinnati's formidable defensive front, Gabriel added 42 yards to the ground for the Sooner offense.
John E. Hoover|
Why Weaponizing QB Dillon Gabriel in the Run Game Worked For Oklahoma This Time
Why Weaponizing QB Dillon Gabriel in the Run Game Worked For Oklahoma This Time

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Oklahoma Sooners

CINCINNATI — Maybe it’s not ideal. But weaponizing quarterback Dillon Gabriel as a runner was a key factor in pushing Oklahoma past Cincinnati on Saturday.

Gabriel gained 42 yards on the ground (25 net), which isn’t a lot. But adding Gabriel to the ground attack eventually stretched and softened what is an otherwise firm and stout Bearcats defensive front.

“Yeah, absolutely,” said left tackle Walter Rouse. “DG, people might not think, but he’s got some legs under him.

“He’s a tough son of a gun, too. He got hit a couple times and was able to get a couple yards after the hit, especially on that touchdown run. … It may not seem a lot, but in the game, he made it where it counted.”

Gabriel’s 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter required power through contact as he bulldozed his way across the goal line. Of course, that separation might have came sooner if Gabriel hadn’t lost a fumble inside the 10-yard line on a keeper earlier in the game.

You take the good, you take the bad. You run the quarterback, he’s going to get hit.

“Good, except for the fumble,” offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby offered. “That was a frustrating part. That kind of summed up the day for us offensively, just finding ways to mess it up. Just playing cleaner, executing cleaner. But really proud of how tough our guys played. Really proud of how tough he played when it wasn’t perfect.”

Here’s the thing about adding Gabriel as a runner: he’s not Jackson Arnold.

Arnold, the Sooners’ 5-star freshman backup, has already taken some hits as he’s been used (overused, some might suggest) as a short-yardage wildcat quarterback. No doubt that Arnold is a more gifted athlete than Gabriel, a more dynamic and explosive runner.

But fighting through Cincinnati’s formidable defensive line without having to resort to trickery or desperation shows Lebby’s confidence in Gabriel’s ability to get the job done.

“We had some really strange things happened with the football that’s kind of unexplainable,” Lebby said. “But proud of him.”

“I think it's always good to have that,” head coach Brent Venables said. “It's good at every level of football to have a guy that can do that. It's what we call a plus-one run game. You know, it's like, ‘Oh now what are you gonna do?’ And there’s stuff that you can do (defensively). But you have to have, schematically, things designed just the right way that depends on the scheme to account for it. And not an easy thing to do when you want to play — we got lots of playmakers that can really strain you, that sometimes those schemes that are designed to stop the quarterback from running aren't near as good at stopping the passing game. You're vulnerable there. So striking that balance is hard on the defense. But when a quarterback can do that, it drives you crazy.”

So Gabriel overcame a rugged Cincinnati defensive front and some continuing issues on his offensive line and a “weird” at Nippert Stadium and his own ups and downs to lead the Sooners to their first Big 12 Conference victory of the season.

His teammates are not surprised.

“He’s so resilient, and he’s going to do whatever he can to help this team win,” Rouse said.

“Yeah, when they dropped so many guys (in pass coverage), it’s just a free run with DG,” said running back Marcus Major. “DG, he’s a playmaker, he runs the ball and throws the ball. It was fun, it was a great day. We got him rolling in the rush game. That's when we knew we had to step it up in the run game as well.”

Now Oklahoma has reached the stage of the season where last year Gabriel took a cheap hit to the head and was lost for two games to a concussion. Running the QB once in a while is OK, but Lebby knows Gabriel’s value to the team prohibits him from relying on it.

“A win is a win, so I don't want to complain about that,” Gabriel said. “I think there's things we can get better at. But at the same time, finding ways to win in games where there might be a struggle or adversity, that's important.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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