🏈 Lot to love about Lebby's offense
🏈 Lot to love about Lebby's offense
Dillon Gabriel sat down with a pair of reporters over the weekend and discussed why OU was right for him. New OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby was a major reason.
✌🏽 Happy Wednesday, friends. Let’s ride.
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🎯 ‘He loves to take shots’
Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma’s expected 2022 starting quarterback, recently spoke with The Oklahoman and The Athletic and offered insight into his decision to transfer to OU and his relationship with new Sooners offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.
The former Central Florida quarterback and Lebby have reunited after two years apart. Lebby served as Gabriel’s quarterbacks coach in 2019 but left for Ole Miss the next season.
If memory serves Gabriel correctly, OU fans will enjoy what the QB had to say about what made Lebby’s offense the right fit for him:
“He loves to take shots. He loves to be super aggressive, play fast, physical and fearless. ... I just like his mindset, to dominate, not just win by three, but to go win by 40 and make sure they feel it, you know what I mean? That's someone you wanna play for.”
Gabriel had more to share about Lebby, as well as the transfer portal and his road to Norman. The Sooners’ latest quarterback transfer seems more than ready for the challenges that await him and OU this fall.
🎧 Listen to the podcast
The Eyes on Oklahoma podcast feed has been busy over the last week.
First, I’ve joined forces with Norman Transcript’s Abby Bitterman to deliver a weekly OU softball discussion. We reacted to Jocelyn Alo matching the NCAA career home runs record and recapped the Sooners’ dominant weekend in Houston in Monday’s pod. (👉🏽 Click here to listen)
I also recorded a solo pod last Friday (the episode is linked below) to share my thoughts on the College Football Playoff not expanding until 2026 and how it affects Oklahoma.
Where you can subscribe to the Eyes on Oklahoma podcast:
💰 Football and finances
Coaching salaries continue to reach new heights in college football. Multi-million dollar deals are to be expected, but not every coach lives up to their paycheck.
Stanford's David Shaw ($8.9 million) was the sport's fourth-highest paid coach in 2021. The Cardinal finished with three wins and nine losses.
Both Ed Orgeron ($9 million) and Dan Mullen ($7.6 million), both of whom were not retained for the 2022 season, made more than Kirby Smart ($7.1 million), who led Georgia to its program's first national title since 1980 this past season.
And Lincoln Riley ($7.6 million) ... well, I don't need to remind you how 2021 went for the Trojans’ new ball coach.
The coaching market is littered with head-scratching contracts, but this is nothing new in college football. In fact, big paydays and inconsistent pay scales have been affecting a program like Oklahoma for nearly a century.
OUDaily.com’s Mason Young explored OU football’s history with coaching salaries and spoke with a few smart people to help contextualize it all.
📝 News & notes
Oklahoma appears to be building momentum with David Stone, the Del City native and Rivals.com four-star prospect. Over the last few days, recruiting insiders from Rivals.com, 247Sports.com and On3.com have posted predictions for Stone, a Class of 2024 product, to eventually sign with the Sooners. The 6-foot-4, 255-pound defensive tackle is set to attend IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for his final two years of high school.
Former OU receiver Jadon Haselwood, who’s now with Arkansas, recently sounded off on a few Oklahoma fans. It’s unclear what exactly prompted the tweet, but I’d imagine a few folks directed some anger at him for leaving OU.
Former OU safety Delarrin Turner-Yell spoke with Sooners Wire about his path from early playing time in Norman to competing for an NFL roster spot this coming year. (Click here to read)
🎧 “The Podcast on the Prairie,” hosted by Jeremiah Hall and Brayden Willis published, published an interview with former Sooners linebacker Jordan Evans this week. (Click here to listen)
📻 On the radio
I’ll be joining Mike Steely and Parker Thune for a guest spot on KREF Sports Talk 1400 at about 1:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, Feb. 23).
You can listen in Oklahoma City on 94.7 FM and 1400 AM, as well as at sportstalk1400.com.