Dillon Gabriel described as ‘plug and play’ for Oregon’s offense
Dillon Gabriel will enter the 2024 season as one of the most accomplished quarterbacks among active players in college football today.
Transferring from Oklahoma to Oregon this offseason, Gabriel is Dan Lanning’s presumed starter and successor to the accomplished Bo Nix. But how fast is Gabriel, who is about to learn his third offense in six seasons, going to adapt to his new environment? According to Scoop Duck’s Justin Hopkins, there shouldn’t be too much of a learning curve.
“It’s really dangerous to say this because of how good and how efficient Bo Nix was last year — but it really feels plug and play if you’re Oregon,” Hopkins told Staples. “I think [offensive coordinator] Will Stein has shown that he has no problem kind of adapting his offense to the strengths of his current quarterback, whether that be Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel, whatever the case calls there.
“They’ve got plenty of weapons at wide receiver, they returned basically the entire offensive line. … Across the board offensively, Oregon looks really good and defensively, they’ve brought a lot of those guys back as well. If you’re looking for a team with balance, and talent and depth, I think Oregon checks all three of those boxes.”
Gabriel played two seasons with the Sooners after transferring from UCF following the 2021 season, and he made an undeniable impact on the program. Through his five whole seasons at the college level, Gabriel has thrown for more than 14,000 yards while completing better than 63 percent of his passes.
At Oklahoma, Gabriel played in 12 games during the 2023 season, completing just over 69% of his passes. He threw for 3,660 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just six interceptions. Lanning will have another mobile quarterback on his hands as well, with Gabriel adding 373 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns to the stat sheet. All of which are career highs.
Gabriel’s commitment could potentially begin a new trend for so-called plug and play quarterbacks. Lanning secured Nix out of the transfer portal in 2022 and has done the same with Gabriel this offseason. Due to his eligibility being exhausted after the 2024 season, Oregon is only allowed one season with Gabriel under center — but it seems that Lanning has already covered his bases for when Gabriel’s time in Eugene is over.
Dante Moore, a former five-star recruit in the 2023 class, announced his transfer to Oregon in December and is expected to take over once Gabriel is done. With Oregon boasting arguably the best quarterback room in the country, the Ducks look to be in good standing over the next few seasons under center.