How Dillon Gabriel ended up at Oregon: Sixth-year QB’s audible could set up big finale

EUGENE, Ore. — Dillon Gabriel wasn’t supposed to be here. Not under a silvery sky in the same No. 8 uniform worn by one of his idols. Not dapping up his new head coach in Ducks green prior to his first appearance in Autzen Stadium in Oregon’s spring game in late April. Not the presumptive starter for a College Football Playoff contender. No, he wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near Eugene. That wasn’t the initial plan or one ever envisioned.

But, like all savvy quarterbacks, sometimes you have to simply take what is given.

Leading Oregon, his third college program, into the Big Ten is the personal audible he never saw coming. See, he was supposed to be back home in Hawaii, seated on his couch, surrounded by family and friends, as his name was called in this year’s NFL Draft.

That’s what he thought last November, anyway.

After throwing for 3,660 yards and accounting for 42 touchdowns (30 passing and 12 rushing) as starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, Gabriel thought his most prolific college season would propel him to the pros. They’d just gone 10-2, though back-to-back slip-ups at Kansas and Oklahoma State thwarted the Sooners’ chances of playing in a final Big 12 title game before moving to the SEC in 2024.

So Gabriel, the 5-foot-11 lefty, sought advice from agents and NFL scouts on where he’d fit in the draft. The consensus? He received a seventh-round/undrafted grade.

“I was just devastated,” he said. “I had it all set.”

Dane Brugler, The Athletic’s draft expert, said that counts as a conservative projection and a team could’ve taken him in the middle-to-late rounds.

Gabriel instead returned to school — for his sixth and final year of eligibility, available thanks to a redshirt season and the pandemic bonus year — rather than rolling the dice on his pro prospects.

Said Gabriel’s mother, Dori: “Unfortunately, draft grades take a lot of size into account, but don’t take into account the size of your heart.”

Gabriel’s heart was further tested in the coming days.

On Dec. 3, he FaceTimed Dori from his car in the driveway of Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables. He took long, deep breaths, preparing for a tough conversation as he ended his days in crimson and cream. Dori told her son he invested his all in a program that embraced him two years earlier when he’d transferred from UCF.

Thank you Oklahoma ❤️ pic.twitter.com/90fT2nBE7A

— Dillon Gabriel (@_dillongabriel_) December 4, 2023

His time in the transfer portal lasted just five days. Oregon went big-game hunting to replace Heisman Trophy finalist and eventual first-round pick Bo Nix, tabbing Gabriel, one of the most productive quarterbacks in NCAA history, as its QB of 2024.

“I’m still very surprised,” he said. “I love Oklahoma. I love all the people I met there. I think that’s a spot where I truly grew up to be the player I was going to be.”

What happened, then?

“For him, the biggest lesson was, in the end, as much as you want to do good for people, there’s also a business side,” said Dillon’s father, Garrett Gabriel. “You want to fall in love with a place and stay there the rest of your career, but nowadays, it usually doesn’t work out that way.”

In the transfer portal era, quarterbacks move on, and quickly, if they aren’t starting or don’t get a chance to start soon. Gabriel became the starter as a freshman at UCF in 2019 as star McKenzie Milton, a two-time AAC Player of the Year, recovered from a serious injury he suffered in November 2018 that derailed his career. Milton, who preceded Gabriel at Mililani High on Oahu, eventually transferred to Florida State, saying, “It’s Dillon Gabriel’s team now.”

In his first two years in Orlando, Gabriel swiftly became a sensation, throwing for 7,223 yards and 61 touchdowns. But three games into his junior year, during the 2021 season, Gabriel suffered a broken left clavicle, then decided to transfer at the end of the season.

At Oklahoma, freshman QB Jackson Arnold, a five-star prospect, waited mostly in the background during Gabriel’s stellar second season with the Sooners in 2023. Despite the coaching staff publicly voicing a desire for Gabriel to return, there was a sense Arnold should get a long look. Gabriel entered the portal on Dec. 4.

“He just knew if he stayed, Jackson might leave, and he didn’t want that for the program,” Dori said. “If you feel like returning is going to cause more harm to the program than good, then you do what you have to do.”

Gabriel hasn’t shied away from the awkwardness that can persist in these conversations, because in his mind, even a sudden change of heart can be accepted if relayed honestly. Like when he was all but set to take over for Chip Kelly’s UCLA offense in January 2022 during his first round in the portal after leaving UCF, but the pull of playing for Jeff Lebby at Oklahoma was too intriguing. Lebby had recruited Gabriel to UCF as the Knights OC before a stint at Ole Miss and then being tabbed to run the Sooners offense. They were part of the program resetting after coach Lincoln Riley and QB Caleb Williams bolted for USC.

A week before Gabriel entered the portal last December, Lebby took the head coaching job at Mississippi State.

“I’ve definitely led with my heart,” Gabriel said of his collegiate journey, “but I let the facts act as the main point of guidance of where I should go.”

Such facts — like searching for the right spot, right fit — can be vexing to some. When he left UCF, he saw comments on his social media from fans who said he would ride the bench at Oklahoma, that he didn’t honor his initial commitment to the program.

The reaction to leaving Norman wasn’t as aggrieved. Most thanked him for his time at Oklahoma, but as always, there were critics, saying if being the Sooners starter wouldn’t get him ready for the NFL, no other program would.

Like a true Hawaiian, he understands the necessity of riding the waves of emotion with an accompanying fan base. Gabriel reminds himself that those highs and lows don’t vanish. They’re always there. Gabriel still thinks about the hopeful loft into the end zone from 23 yards out on the final play of the game in the 38-33 loss at Kansas. Or the 3 yards gained on fourth-and-5 with one minute left in the 27-24 loss at Oklahoma State.

But he also accounted for eight touchdowns in OU’s 59-20 win over West Virginia. And he etched his name in Red River rivalry lore last October on a 3-yard touchdown pass to Nic Anderson with 15 seconds remaining to beat Texas. Those moments are just one Google or YouTube search away. And he wants fans to know that, too.

Sooner Magic ✨#OUDNA | 📺 ABC pic.twitter.com/g46vRAJngI

— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) October 7, 2023

“It’s so new to college football,” he said of player movement. “NFL players and NFL fans are used to their favorite players and coaches moving. College fans are used to coaches switching around. People are accustomed to it. With players moving, it’s so new. Like, I’m in the first four or five years of this new era. There’s going to be some uneasiness about this. And same with players. I’d be lying if I said with change, there’s not growing pains, too.”

Upon his entry in the portal, Gabriel said “a bunch” of programs offered him. Both times he’s been in the portal, it’s predominantly been teams losing a high-profile quarterback that are interested in snagging a proven commodity.

Gabriel’s history with Oregon coach Dan Lanning goes back to his time as a prep star at Mililani. After his recruitment caught fire late in the process, he was invited to visit Georgia, where Lanning was the defensive coordinator. They saw everything eye-to-eye then, but their paths, once diverged, reconnected in the lush green landscape in Oregon.

Proven commodities are what Lanning wants. He had it with Nix after being hired as Oregon’s head coach and has it again in Gabriel. After starting two years for the Ducks following his transfer from Auburn, Nix broke the NCAA record for most starts by a quarterback with 61. Gabriel enters his final year with 49 career starts, so if things play out the way they believe they can, another Ducks QB will be atop that list.

“Dillon had a clear vision, and having some of the experience that he’s had, I think he had an idea of what he wanted,” Lanning said. “Part of that process is knowing what quarterbacks have done here in the past. Our proof is in the pudding, and now we have the pudding to show to people.”

GO DEEPER

Think Dan Lanning will leave Oregon? Check the ink

Winning, Gabriel said, is a habit he’s become “overly obsessed with.” He is a middle child, so it could be that he’s always been striving to stave off his older and younger brothers in competition. Could also be that he’s the son of a former University of Hawaii quarterback. When filtering through where he’d end up in this final stop, he wanted to blend in seamlessly with a coaching staff and teammates and to contend for a Playoff berth.

“I’ve always been close to that next step. I want to win and play in those big atmospheres,” said Gabriel, 23. “I don’t like using this reference, but there’s always a bigger rush and a higher high you want to feel, and you get that in the biggest games. It’s something I’m chasing. Being here with all these guys, it’s been fun and refreshing. Who else gets to see a third spot and still learn in my sixth year of college? It’s not normal, and it’s different.”

Before he committed to Oregon, he phoned up one of his two quarterback heroes who isn’t his dad: Ducks legend and Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. In Gabriel’s announcement of his pledge to the Ducks, he simply wrote, “Marcus approved!” That wasn’t regarding the fit. That was obvious. Gabriel asked for Mariota’s permission to don No. 8, the same number Mariota did when he led the Ducks to the national championship game after the 2014 season. Gabriel wore the same number at Oklahoma.

MARCUS APPROVED! 🎱 #DIMETIME pic.twitter.com/GZUgZVS5rw

— Dillon Gabriel (@_dillongabriel_) December 9, 2023

It’s also the number Mariota wore as a high school superstar at Saint Louis Prep in Honolulu. Garrett took Dillon, a middle schooler then, to go watch the No. 8 who would change the way Hawaiian prep players would be viewed forever. A young Dillon was transfixed by Mariota.

“The local kids just realized that the scouts weren’t going to come over here just for offensive and defensive linemen anymore,” Garrett Gabriel said. “For Marcus to have that effect on kids growing up, I know Dillon saw that and thought, ‘Wow, I want to be like him. I can be like him.’”

Dillon Gabriel doesn’t like to be alone all that much. In fact, he’s currently driving a white Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan for all the reasons one would if they were intent on keeping the three rows filled as often as possible. When he unveiled the new ride to Dori in February, a few weeks after moving to Eugene, she thought it was a rental. He’s joked that his minivan serves as a rideshare option to the Eugene regional airport when teammates are flying home because it gets the best gas mileage on the team.

“Anybody who knows him would think, ‘Yeah, he would get a minivan,’” Dori said.

Dori said her son has always wanted to share what he had with those who didn’t share the same luxuries — going back to the days when neighborhood kids wanted to come watch his two tortoises partake in the world’s slowest race.

That’s since carried over into Gabriel using his name, image and likeness earnings to headlining a fundraising event for Mililani High’s athletic department last month, where they unveiled new Nike football uniforms. Through his own personal donation and fundraising network, Gabriel has generated over $200,000 for his alma mater’s athletic department since the NIL era began, Dori said.

“He has a unique way of bringing people in,” said his NIL agent, Steve Smith.

Gabriel also sponsors team retreats with his own personalized “Dimetime” trademark brand earnings. The two requirements of a Gabriel teammate getaway: some body of water and everyone crammed together in an Airbnb. There’s something, he said, about just sleeping on the floor next to your buds like you’re kids again.

Which he does. It’s why he wants teammates around him as much as possible. For the 2022 retreat at Oklahoma, he teased the event on social media saying: “Life would be boring alone … do it together.”

It may sound silly, Gabriel said, but seeing guys enjoying time on the water or playing each other in video games or waiting for the barbecue to be warm enough to start cooking will allow Oregon’s new quarterback to learn tendencies that will translate to the field. He’s already bonded with Oregon star wideout Tez Johnson, who figures to be one of his top targets. Same for tight end Terrance Ferguson.

“It’s all trust,” he said. “Trust is my biggest thing because how am I going to be able to demand anything from you if I don’t take you out to eat? If I don’t try and hang out and play video games? If I don’t take a trip with you and go enjoy it? Trust me, I enjoy. We’re going to have fun. But if you don’t have those times, there’s no demand on the field. Everyone matters. It could be the kicker. Everyone matters.”

Multiple retreats are in the works this summer, because he wants to include as many teammates as possible. The difficult part now is trying to find housing that can accommodate these groups.

Gabriel has thrown for 14,865 yards in his career, which puts him No. 8 on the top 10 all-time list of passing yards. A normal Gabriel year — which is about 3,500 passing yards — would get him to the No. 2 spot, currently occupied by Timmy Chang, another Hawaiian quarterback, who is now head coach of his alma mater at Hawaii, where he started 50 of 53 career games (17,072 yards). Houston’s Case Keenum tops the list with 19,217 yards in 57 games.

Gabriel will be working with Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, who helped Nix morph into a first-round pick this April. All Gabriel has done wherever he’s cocked back that left arm and let loose is rake in yards, touchdowns and been the face of offenses that go, go, go.

If the Ducks fly under the new No. 8 in their first year in the Big Ten, odds are he’ll hear his name called next spring. But in the meantime, the priority is to embrace the hype around this stacked Oregon team and ensure it’s in the Playoff conversation late into the fall.

“We’re hoping he’s that piece,” Garrett Gabriel said. “I think everything is in place.”