Passing Colt Brennan on NCAA list 'would be surreal' for OU football QB Dillon Gabriel
NORMAN — Dillon Gabriel grew up dreaming of playing football at Hawaii.
He idolized the Rainbow Warriors and wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as a Hawaii quarterback.
None of those players he looked up to growing up was held in any higher esteem than Colt Brennan.
“When either I got to a game or check out practice I remember Colt would have his orange practice jersey on at Hawaii and throwing by the mountains at the UH practices,” the OU quarterback said.
“He was just inspiration, and I remember his famous dying his hair blond but left the Hawaiian Islands black. Just little things like that, you know, being a Hawaii boy, an island bow. Seeing Marcus (Mariota), guys like that, that’s what you dream of. So I’m glad I had those guys to look up to.”
It would take a big game from Gabriel to do it Saturday when the No. 17 Sooners host West Virginia (6 p.m., Fox), but Gabriel is on the verge of passing Brennan for ninth in NCAA career passing yards.
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Gabriel enters Saturday’s game needing 228 yards to pass Marshall’s Rakeem Cato for 10th place all time and 342 to pass Brennan, who threw for 14,193 yards from 2005-07.
Gabriel has thrown for 342 or more yards 11 times during his college career, including five during his time at OU. That includes last week’s 344 yards in the Sooners’ Bedlam loss.
“I never had that dream,” Gabriel said of passing Brennan, who died in 2021. “I never had that goal. I love ball and I just want to win. Like, that’s always who I am to the core — hand the ball 50 times or I could throw it 80 if we could. I think it would be surreal just because I once saw him. I saw him in the flesh and then him passing away obviously is just tough. But, you know, I got to see it all. So that’s cool for me from a different perspective; from a different lens.”
Gabriel’s father, Garrett, was a quarterback at Hawaii from 1986-90, and his status as a former Rainbow Warriors player afforded him access that few kids had.
He was a regular at practices and games.
“I remember being in that locker room and just wanting to, I don’t know, I would dream of running out to Hawaii Five-0,” Gabriel said. “And seeing that in Hawaii when Hawaii was popping and everyone would go to the game and June Jones was diving that (stuff) up.”
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One of Gabriel’s prized possessions as a child was a Under Armor tribal wrist band.
“That’s why I always give kids that because it’s just — I remember I was once that kid that would get that wrist band and I’d have it in my room forever,” Gabriel said. “I remember I put it on like I’m on the street playing and frick, I’m a college quarterback. Just little things like that. I think that’s important and it’s bigger than me. I represent a lot more than just myself. I take that with a lot of responsibility.”
Gabriel has a chance to move up a few more spots by the time the season is over, including passing Baker Mayfield, who finished with 14,607 career yards during his time at Texas Tech and OU.
Former Sooners star Landry Jones and former Hawaii standout Timmy Chang are out of reach for Gabriel, though.
Gabriel says he’d like to return to Hawaii after his football career ends, grow his hair long and surf and “barbecue on the beach.”
“But until then, yeah, playing ball and slinging it as much as I can,” Gabriel said.
OU vs. West Virginia
KICKOFF: 6 p.m. Saturday at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman (Fox)
More: Mussatto: Can OU football fix its penalty issues? Brent Venables says to shoot the arrows
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football's Dillon Gabriel set to pass Colt Brennan in passing yards
