After the Oklahoma/Texas game, a couple of Sooner have earned Player of the Week honors. Below is the press release.
OU’s Gabriel, Rouse Earn National-Player-of-the-Week Honors
NORMAN —Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel and offensive lineman Walter Rouse earned national-player-of-the-week honors after leading the Sooners to a 34-30 win over No. 3 Texas Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, it was announced Tuesday.
Gabriel was named the Maxwell Award Player of the Week, Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week and Walter Camp FBS Offensive Player of the Week. Rouse was named the Outland Trophy National Player of the Week.
Gabriel, who was also the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, accounted for 398 total yards and two scores, including the game-winning touchdown pass in the final seconds. With his team trailing 30-27 with 1:17 to go and no timeouts, Gabriel drove Oklahoma 75 yards and threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Nic Anderson to put the Sooners in front with 15 seconds remaining. Gabriel completed 23 of 38 passes on the day for 285 yards and a touchdown and rushed for a career-high 113 yards and a TD on 14 carries (8.1 yards per rush). He committed no turnovers and became the first Sooner to ever throw for at least 250 yards and rush for at least 100 yards in a game vs. Texas.
Gabriel, whose previous career high in rushing yards was 64, registered a 44-yard run in the fourth quarter, which stands as OU’s longest rush of the season. The Mililani, Hawaii, product helped direct the Sooners to their first win against an AP top-five team since 2017 as OU gained 486 yards and scored 34 points against a Texas team that entered the day giving up 290.8 yards and 12.8 points per game.
Rouse, a redshirt senior transfer from Silver Spring, Md., anchored the offensive line that paved the way for a season-high 201 rushing yards and limited Texas to only one sack of Gabriel (Texas was averaging 2.8 sacks per game entering the contest). Most notably on OU’s final offensive play, Rouse held off two rushing defenders by himself, allowing Gabriel time to find Anderson in the end zone for the game-winning score.
On the season, Gabriel is completing 72.3% of his passes for 313.0 yards per game and has thrown 16 touchdown passes (all three are Big 12 highs) and just two interceptions. He has also rushed for 208 yards and a team-high five TDs. Gabriel also leads the league in pass efficiency rating (178.2; ranks eighth nationally), points responsible for per game (21.0; ranks fourth nationally) and total offense (347.7 yards per game; ranks fourth nationally).
A redshirt senior from Silver Spring, Md., and a transfer from Stanford, Rouse has started all six games this season at left tackle. He has been part of an offensive unit that ranks fourth nationally in scoring (45.2 points per game), sixth in total offense (506.0 yards per game) and passing offense (341.2 yards per game) and 14th in fewest sacks allowed (0.8 per game).
No. 5/7 Oklahoma (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) is off this week before hosting UCF (3-3, 0-3 Big 12) on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. CT and the game will be televised by ABC.