Kirk Herbstreit: Dillon Gabriel had 'Heisman moment' against Texas, leads race heading into Week 7

While there’s a trio of Pac-12 quarterbacks leading the Heisman Trophy discussion, Kirk Herbstreit selected a certain quarterback out of the Big 12 as his frontrunner for the award midway through the season.

During this Saturday morning’s edition of College GameDay out at Washington’s campus, ESPN flashed a graphic of the most likely quarterbacks to win the Heisman trophy. Washington’s Michael Penix led the way, followed closely by the 2022 winner Caleb Williams, and then Bo Nix was just behind them. However, it was the fourth player on that list, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, that’s really impressed Kirk Herbstreit so far.

Using his heroics in the Red River Showdown as the crux of his campaign for Gabriel, Herbstreit explained why the Sooner star has stuck out.

“There’s only been one team in game and one player that’s had that ‘Heisman moment’ at this point. To me, that was Dillon Gabriel last week with what he did at the Cotton Bowl. Game was on the line, looked like they were going to lose, but he ends up making the plays that ultimately decided the outcome of the game.”

With just a few ticks left on the clock, Gabriel had driven Oklahoma all the way down inside the Texas red zone and found an open receiver in the back of the end zone despite throwing the ball out of a collapsing pocket. And it was that play alone which won the game, thus becoming the “Heisman moment” in the eyes of Herbstreit.

“Des, to me, you won the Heisman, you know what that’s like. When you’re in a rivalry game, the whole world’s watching, and you deliver the way Dillon Gabriel did, running the football, throwing the football — to me, he’s at the top right now,” Herbstreit continued. “I don’t know what the odds say. What was he, fourth or fifth?. But in my mind, Dillon Gabriel’s up at the top.”

Desmond Howard, the former Heisman winner himself, picked Caleb Williams as his own top guy in this year’s race but did agree with Herbstreit that Gabriel was incredibly impressive in the Texas win.

“That was a big jump for him to play the way he did last week vs. Texas in the Red River Rivalry.”

It will be tough for Dillon Gabriel to mount a campaign as strong as some of these Pac-12 rock-slingers, but if OU keeps on winning and Gabriel continues to make jaw-dropping plays to get them there, well, then he very well may become the latest Sooner QB to place that old golden trophy on his mantle.