UCLA football will be serious Pac-12 title favorite with Dillon Gabriel

UCLA football has officially landed Dillon Gabriel in the transfer portal and he’s going to make the Bruins immediate Pac-12 title contenders.

Chip Kelly is starting to work his magic with UCLA football.

After a disappointing for three years with the Bruins, going 10-21, the former Oregon and NFL head coach led UCLA to an 8-4 season in 2021. He was close to going 7-0 or 6-1 in 2020, losing all of his games by just one score. It seemed like UCLA was on the verge of greatness, but now he’s really showing that the program is trending up.

Oregon nearly came calling last week after Mario Cristobal left for Miami, but Kelly stayed in place and that turned out to be a massive win for the Bruins.

On Thursday, they landed one of the top transfers on the market in former UCF sensation Dillon Gabriel. He chose the Bruins over Ole Miss and he’ll be the successor to Dorian Thompson-Robinson.

This is a pretty telling transfer addition because it’s basically hinting at the fact that DTR is not coming back even though he still technically has one more year of eligibility, but he paved the way for a quarterback like Gabriel to come in and have immediate success.

UCLA was going to be in a good spot heading into 2022, but now the Bruins have to be considered serious Pac-12 favorites.

Dillon Gabriel changes UCLA football’s immediate outlook

Replacing DTR wasn’t going to be easy and no quarterback on the roster currently is equipped to fill that role right away, but Gabriel certainly is.

In two-plus seasons, Gabriel has passed for 8,037 yards and 70 touchdowns with just 14 picks and a 61 percent completion rate. He’s also rushed for 372 yards and eight more scores. He’s not an elite dual-threat, but he can run when he needs to which makes him dangerous.

Gabriel is going to be the best passing quarterback he’s had since his Oregon days and this is an intriguing addition because I thought UCLA was going to be a contender in the Pac-12 next season before him, but now the Bruins look like favorites.

Watch out, USC, Utah, and Oregon.