OU’s Dillon Gabriel enters the top 10 for NCAA career passing yards

NORMAN — With a third-quarter completion to Drake Stoops against West Virginia Saturday, Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel entered the top 10 of the NCAA’s all-time passing yards list. 

Here’s what you need to know:

• Gabriel opened the night 13th in career passing yards at 13,851 needing 343 yards against the Mountaineers to pass Hawaii’s Colt Brennan (14,193 yards) for 10th on the all-time passing list. 
• Gabriel passed East Carolina’s Holton Ahlers (13,927) on his 63-yard, first-quarter completion to Nic Anderson. His 60-yard touchdown connection with Drake Stoops just after halftime pushed Gabriel past Marshall’s Rakeem Cato (14,079). And Gabriel sealed his place among the top 10 passers all-time with a 12-yard completion to Drake Stoops. 
• Gabriel closed the night 23-of-36 for 423 yards and five passing touchdowns, leaving his career yardage tally at 14,274. He’s now within striking distance of Washington State’s Luke Falk (14,481), OU’s Baker Mayfield (14,607), Boise State’s Kellen Moore (14,667) and BYU’s Ty Detmer (15,031). With two regular-season contests and a bowl game remaining after Saturday, Gabriel needs to average 252 passing yards per game to close 2023 as the sixth most productive passer in NCAA history. 

• Gabriel ranks second in career passing yards among active quarterbacks, trailing only Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman who entered Saturday with 15,239 yards. Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Mississippi State’s Will Rogers round out the top five behind Gabriel.
• Mayfield and Landry Jones (16,646) now stand as the lone OU quarterbacks ahead of Gabriel on the all-time passing list. Through 22 starts at OU, Gabriel ranks 7th in passing yards in the program record books. Gabriel threw for 8,037 yards at UCF from 2019-21. 
• Eclipsing Brennan’s career tally held extra significance to Gabriel, who grew up idolizing the former Hawaii quarterback. Brennan, a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist who launched the Rainbow Warriors to national prominence from 2005-07, passed away in May of 2021.

“I think it would be surreal (to beat Brennan’s yards record)  just because I once saw him,” Gabriel said earlier this week. “I saw him in the flesh. And then him passing away obviously is just tough. But you know, I got to see it all.”