Jackson Arnold has been chosen as the quarterback to lead the Oklahoma Sooners into the SEC after the team leaves the Big 12 in 2024.
With Brent Venables as the team’s head coach, Oklahoma has a good foundation as they start a transitional season. Despite all of the shifting components, they want to have a great first season in the famed football conference.
Still, Oklahoma’s playing style will undergo significant alterations as it transitions from the Big 12 to the SEC. Arnold realizes this, and he singled out the trenches as an area where the Sooners have been working to improve, thinking that the unsung heroes of the offensive and defensive lines must rise up.
“I feel like the guys that we’ve brought in, from either the transfer portal or the 2024 class, are really competitive, big guys that can get after it,” Arnold said, emphasizing the importance of the line of scrimmage in the SEC and being harder than the opponent. “You got after us today at practice, you know.
“I mean, guys like that are gonna be a big difference for us, and guys that we’ve had and we’ve developed are going to be a really big difference for us this year.”
Unfortunately, Oklahoma will need to bring the juice to the point of attack, but Jackson Arnold will be the true difference maker. We’ve seen what a talented quarterback can accomplish for an SEC team, and the Sooners want to have another in 2024.
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As the Oklahoma Sooners prepare to enter the SEC, head coach Brent Venables is replacing Dillon Gabriel at quarterback with the talented but inexperienced Jackson Arnold. With Fall Camp beginning, Venables described what has stood out to him about Arnold heading into the 2024 season.
“I believe we are executing at a very high level right now,” Brent Venables said. “Decision-making is better than it was. The players around him are playing better. I believe the offensive line is in a much better position than we were in the spring. We had some men who were either injured or hadn’t arrived yet. I did not mention Geirean Hatchett. He’s done exceptionally well as an insider.”
Jackson Arnold arrived at Oklahoma as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2023, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. In that recruiting cycle, he was ranked fourth among quarterbacks and eighth overall.
“Overall, leadership is a comfortable position,” Venables explained. “He’s led these guys all summer and spring and so it’s a little more natural now.”
As the aforementioned Gabriel is replaced by Arnold, the latter did receive some playing time previous season. In seven games, he completed 44 of 69 pass attempts for 563 yards and four TDs. He also had three interceptions. On top of that, Arnold ran 116 yards and scored a touchdown on the ground.
