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In the months leading up to the start of fall camp, BeaversEdge.com will be counting down the Top 25 Oregon State football players on the 2024 roster.
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No. 14 QB Gabarri Johnson
Bio
No. 5
5-foot-11, 192-pounds
Rs-Fr.
Tacoma, Wash.
Lincoln HS
2023 Stats: DNP (Redshirt)
2023 Recap
Johnson, one of the top-ranked quarterbacks in the 2023 recruiting class, boasted offers from Oregon, Utah, Washington, Arizona State, Oregon State, Arkansas, Missouri, and others before signing with the Tigers.
He was the third-best player in Washington, the fifth-best dual-threat quarterback in the country, and a four-star recruit in the Rivals250 at No. 231 nationally.
However, he found himself in a logjam at the quarterback position with the Tigers, serving as the scout team quarterback for the season.
The Tigers returned 2022 starting quarterback Brady Cook, who was coming off a season where he threw for 2,509 yards and 13 scores, and backup Jake Garcia, who threw for 803 yards and five scores in relief in 2022.
The Tigers also boasted a four-star freshman from the 2022 class in Sam Horn who was coming off a redshirt season, so the quarterback room didn't have much room for Johnson to make headway as a true freshman.
The depth of the position was a big factor in Johnson's decision to depart after just one season, as he wanted to be somewhere where he was a more featured piece of the offense.
In addition to already knowing about OSU from his HS recruiting process, the Tacoma (WA) native's personal quarterback coach is Lavelle Durant, who is the father of Oregon State 2024 wide receiver signee Malachi Durant.
The opportunity to return to the Pacific Northwest and to a situation at Oregon State where he knew he could compete for a starting job right away was extremely attractive to Johnson and a huge part of why he landed with the Beavers.
Johnson comes in with an impressive high school resume as he was a three-year starter for Lincoln, throwing for over 5000 yards and 70 touchdowns, while also adding 2,324 yards on the ground and 35 touchdowns.
2024 Outlook
Arriving at Oregon State ahead of spring practices, Johnson's Beaver debut would have to wait as a foot injury kept him out of roughly half of spring as he made his practice debut on Day 9 in early April, and went live (full 11-on-11) several days later on Day 13.
While we weren't able to get a full spring's worth of practices from Johnson, the limited sample size showed flashes of why he was rated so highly coming out of high school.
Of all the quarterbacks we saw take reps during spring (Ben Gulbranson, Gevani McCoy, Johnson, and walk-ons Dom Montiel and Jake Sanders), Johnson arguably has the best deep ball, and a case could be made for the best pure thrower on the team.
Add in the fact that he's also mobile, and a tailor-made fit for what the Beavers are installing offensively under new offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson and it's not hard to see why he and OSU were a great fit.
Johnson did see a good bit of action in the Beavers' spring game, helping lead one of the early scoring drives, and showcasing his scrambling ability before finding Trent Walker for an open touchdown.
His arm talent, ball placement, and decision-making all stood out in the few spring practices we got to see him and that was an advantage he had on some of the other quarterbacks in spring who struggled with accuracy and interceptions. That's not to say that he didn't have his moments of inaccuracy as well, but he seemed to do a good job at limiting his mistakes.
He'll also need to continue learning the Beavers' offense as he didn't get much run in it during spring, but from what we've been told, Gunderson's offense is a lot less complex than the previous pro-style system under Brian Lindgren, which will certainly speed up his learning curve.
For Johnson to win the quarterback job and be Oregon State's guy game one against Idaho State as someone who has yet to play in a collegiate game, he'll have to be extremely consistent and be able to execute the offense at a high level during fall camp.
Johnson will also need to showcase good chemistry with the receivers to win the job, and that's something that can be built with offseason workouts this summer, so it'll be interesting to see where he is to start camp.
He's got all the potential and ability to be the Beavers' starting quarterback this season, but he's got to prove he's the class of the room with a pair of contenders in Gulbranson and McCoy who boast more experience.
Previously
Honorable Mentions + Just Missed
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