Dillon Gabriel shares what bowl win would do for 2023 season

Oklahoma did not have the season that they anticipated in 2022. After starting 3-0 as a Top-10 team in the nation, the Sooners finished 3-6 as they freefell from the AP Poll and contention as a whole during the stretch run of Big 12 play. Still, quarterback Dillon Gabriel says he and his teammates have a lot to play for in the Cheez-It Bowl later this week.

Gabriel shared his thoughts on his team’s bowl game against Florida State during media on Monday. He says it would be big for the program, regardless of the circumstances, and that they’re excited about the opportunity it will present them to wrap their season up with.

“Not only a good performance but a win is huge in any situation. Especially against a good FSU team,” said Gabriel. “It can definitely help us.”

“And, like I said, (we’re) just excited about the opportunity because it’s another game and we’ll never take that for granted,” Gabriel said.

The end to Oklahoma’s season was especially brutal as the team went 1-3 with the three defeats each coming by three points. That’s why a seventh victory, rather than finishing with the program’s first losing record since 1998, would work wonders for the morale of Gabriel and his teammates as they finish up this season and head into 2023.

Joel Klatt: Brent Venables has ‘pressure’ to win bowl game over Florida State

There could be pressure on Brent Venables to get a win for Oklahoma in the team’s bowl game against Florida State, according to FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt. 

“I will tell you this, I do think that there’s some pressure on Brent Venables to be 7-6 and not 6-7,” Klatt said on his podcast. “At this program, with their success over the last 20 years, you think about that, and that’s clearly something that you’ve got to take into consideration.”

Klatt broke down the game between the Sooners and Seminoles, which he dubbed as an interesting matchup considering the trajectory of both programs going into the Cheez-It Bowl.

“A weird game. How often do you see 6-6 against 9-3? You don’t often see that. Generally speaking you see teams that have a similar finish,” Klatt said. “I thought that they would take a major step back this year. I think that the biggest thing for me is they struggled in two areas this year that I thought were vital and really I think one of those could hurt them in this matchup…Their rush defense was just not good enough. They gave up almost 190 yards per game on the ground. And this is a run game for Florida State that has gotten better and better and better in the back half of the season. So that’s a big worry for me. 

“And then the other one is like, they just didn’t win tight games…That’s a thing,” said Klatt. “We talked about Texas all the time. These one score games, like this is not great. 3-3 down the stretch. All three losses were by three points apiece. So at some point, you’ve got to get better in those moments.”