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Former Mililani and Central Florida quarterback Dillon Gabriel pulls reverse, switches from UCLA to Oklahoma

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2021
                                Dillon Gabriel missed the final nine games at UCF.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2021

Dillon Gabriel missed the final nine games at UCF.

Former Mililani and Central Florida quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who announced his intention to transfer to UCLA last month, is now headed to Oklahoma.

Gabriel posted news of him flipping his commitment on his social media page Monday afternoon, adding the caption, “they say life’s a gamble like rolling the dice…DIMETIME.”

Gabriel deleted all mentions of his transfer to UCLA on social media. Just three days ago, former University of Hawaii linebacker Darius Muasau, who was teammates with Gabriel at Mililani, announced he would transfer to UCLA.

Gabriel is Hawaii’s high school football career passing record-holder and threw for 8,041 yards and 70 touchdowns with 14 interceptions in 26 career games at UCF.

The left-handed QB missed the final nine games of the 2021 regular season with a broken clavicle suffered on the last play of a 42-35 loss to Louisville in September.

He announced his decision to leave UCF in late November and three weeks later said he would transfer to UCLA before changing his mind again.

Earlier Monday, Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams, who threw 21 touchdown passes and four interceptions after taking over the starting role from Spencer Rattler during the season, announced he was entering the transfer portal but did not rule out returning to Oklahoma.

The Sooners lost head coach Lincoln Riley, who was hired for the same position at Southern California in late November. Oklahoma replaced him by hiring away defensive coordinator Brent Venables from Clemson.

Venables hired Jeff Lebby, who was offensive coordinator at UCF during Gabriel’s freshman season in 2019, to the same position at Oklahoma. Lebby spent the past two seasons as offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, where he helped develop QB Matt Corral, who is expected to be a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

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