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Has Dillon Gabriel considered Ohio State in the transfer portal? What you should know

Posted on by Vanessa
Has Dillon Gabriel considered Ohio State in the transfer portal? What you should know

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Oregon football and Dan Lanning solidified themselves as national championship contenders last offseason when Dillon Gabriel announced his transfer to the Ducks.

The Hawaii native, who played the last two seasons at Oklahoma, was not only one of the more experienced quarterbacks in the transfer portal, but also one of 247Sports' top quarterbacks. Through the six weeks of the season, Gabriel has moved into sole possession of third place for all-time touchdown passes in college football history after throwing two touchdowns in Week 6 against Michigan State.

Lanning and the Ducks will look to lean on Gabriel's experience this Saturday when No. 3 Oregon hosts No. 2 Ohio State at Autzen Stadium for more than just one of the Big Ten's – and college football's – biggest regular-season games yet .

Required reading: Where does Ohio State football rank in the polls after Week 6?

But it's also one where the quarterback leading the Buckeyes into enemy territory could be the quarterback in scarlet and gray instead of green and yellow.

Here's more information about whether Gabriel considered Ohio State and why he ultimately chose Oregon:

Has Dillon Gabriel considered transferring to Ohio State?

Yes. At Big Ten Football Media Day in Indianapolis in July, Gabriel told the assembled media at Lucas Oil Stadium that the Buckeyes were one of his options in the transfer portal and that he had had discussions with them.

“It was good,” Gabriel said of his discussions with Ohio State. “I think everything throughout the whole process is just about gathering information about each other. But I think the recruiting process is what it is, and I think anyone who has been a quarterback in the portal has been able to have conversations with different schools.”

Why did Dillon Gabriel choose Oregon over Ohio State?

It's a layered answer.

The first level is that the 6-foot-1 quarterback didn't want to wait to decide where he would go, as it was the third time he had gone through the recruiting process, having transferred from UCF to Oklahoma before the 2022 season changed.

“As I go through my third recruiting process, I know it is a stressful time for everyone. Even though new beginnings are nice, everyone knows the stress and many things that come with it. There's the move, the movers, the move-in,” Gabriel said at Big Ten Football Media Day. “The quicker you make a decision and feel good about it, the more decisive and appropriate you can act.”

Gabriel committed to Oregon on Dec. 9, well before Ohio State and Will Howard met, as the Buckeyes wanted to see how Devin Brown had performed in their Cotton Bowl game against Missouri. Howard announced his commitment to Ohio State on January 4th.

The second? Well, the Ducks were able to check off all the boxes for Gabriel and what he was looking for, calling it a position he “couldn’t pass up.”

“I think after taking that visit to Oregon and seeing it and being in the facilities and discussing things, I couldn't pass this up,” Gabriel said.

Gabriel added: “The alignment of everything I was looking for. … Whether it was that conversation with Coach (Dan) Lanning, I remember it like it was yesterday, and it wasn't necessarily a matter of if, it was just, 'How are we going to get it done.' And right now, after seven months, everything we talked about has become a reality and he has kept his word.”

Where did Dillon Gabriel transfer from?

Gabriel transferred from Oklahoma, where he was the Sooners' starting quarterback each of the past two seasons.

In those two seasons at Oklahoma, Gabriel completed 66% of his passes for 6,828 yards and 55 passing touchdowns and was named the 2022 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and a 2023 All-Big 12 First Team selection. He spent the first three years of his college career at UCF.

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