There, 22-year-old unpaid volunteer Ben Arbuckle, offensive coordinator Zach Kittley and quarterback Bailey Zappe balanced football, film and dreams of the future.
They often chatted about career goals, desires, passions and everything in between. At the time, Arbuckle was driving for Uber Eats, a food delivery app, and only hoped to become a salaried, full-time college coach one day.
The trio grew close across three seasons together, moving from Houston Baptist to Western Kentucky.
Now, Arbuckle calls plays at Oklahoma, Kittley is the youngest FBS head coach at Florida Atlantic and Zappe is a backup quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
“We always had our dreams,” Zappe told The Oklahoman. “Kittley wanted to be a head coach. Obviously, that’s Arbuckle’s dream.”
Due to his work developing Zappe, Austin Reed, Tennessee Titans No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward and current Sooners star John Mateer, Arbuckle is one of the most respected quarterback whisperers and hottest up-and-coming coordinators in the country.
After arriving from Washington State, he’s converted an OU offense that ranked 124th in yards per play last season into one that ranks 28th in yards per game through three games, with Mateer as one of the frontrunners to win the Heisman Trophy.
Arbuckle, who turned 30 on Monday, has already come up as a potential head coaching candidate for next season.
The Athletic reported last week that “some” with the Sooners worry Arbuckle could be targeted to replace Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy should a change be made. Following UCLA’s firing of DeShaun Foster on Sunday, On3 listed Arbuckle as a potential candidate for the Bruins’ head coaching job.
“He would find success in anything he does,” said former Cougars defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding, who worked alongside Arbuckle at WSU for two seasons.
“If that is in his future, which it certainly could be, he would find the right people to put around him. Obviously, it’s early in the year, but if he stays on this trend and I certainly don’t see any reason why he won’t, that would be in his future for sure.”
Ben Arbuckle ‘coaches every snap’
Arbuckle, a former quarterback at West Texas A&M, is no stranger to transforming offenses.
At Western Kentucky with Kittley and Zappe in 2021, the Hilltoppers led the country in passing. Combined over Arbuckle’s two seasons at Washington State — his first experience as a lead playcaller in college — the Cougars ranked 10th nationally in passing yards per game.
His impact in Norman has been immediate. The Sooners never threw for at least 270 yards against an FBS team in the regular season last season, but have done it in each of their opening three games this season.
“For Ben to be so young — [and] to be an offensive coordinator in the SEC — is tremendous,” Zappe said. “It just shows how great of a coach he is, and how great of a coach he’s going to continue to be.”
One of the most significant differences between last season’s OU offense and this year’s is the energy Arbuckle brings to practices and sidelines during games.
He’s constantly moving around to different position groups, shouting directions and sometimes goofing around with players during downtime.
Sooners coach Brent Venables has seen the players reflect Arbuckle’s leadership just like he hoped they would when he decided to hire him.
“He loves to coach. He coaches every snap. I value that,” Venables said. “That’s why they call us ‘Coach,’ because we’re not just there to observe, man, we need to be an active participant.
“He gets that, he has a sense of urgency, a sense of desperation.”
OU’s offensive coordinator is ‘as good as there is’
Jeff Schmedding knows Arbuckle’s energy too well.
Oftentimes, the lightning rod young coordinator would hop into Washington State’s team breaks before practice. Or, sometimes Schmedding’s glance would wander toward the offensive side of the practice field and find Arbuckle dancing with the quarterbacks.
“He coaches the hell out of it, and then has fun doing it,” Schmedding said. “You say Ben Arbuckle and it puts a smile on my face, man.”
Sometimes practice could get less fun for Schmedding, however. Arbuckle’s offense can be difficult to defend, even when you know what’s coming. Schmedding watched the beginning of Arbuckle and Mateer’s relationship and has watched them not miss a beat at OU from afar.
Entering Saturday, the Sooners were the only SEC team and one of only three squads nationally with four players who each average at least 50 receiving yards per game. OU had also scored on all 13 of its red zone trips this season.
“Defending them, you better defend the whole field,” Schmedding said of Arbuckle and Mateer. “If he knows what he’s got, it could be a long day for you.”
Arbuckle reminds folks of former Sooners coach Lincoln Riley, who also hails from West Texas. If you watch Arbuckle’s vibrancy on the OU sideline from afar or close your eyes and listen to his drawl during press conferences, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two.
As Sooners offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh went through his first training camp with Arbuckle, he couldn’t help but think of Riley, his former boss.
“He’s young Lincoln,” Bedenbaugh said of Arbuckle. “He’s smart, he understands everything. For a young guy, he’s got great command.
“I’ve been around a lot of good ones, man. He’s as good as there is.”
There’s perhaps no one who has been more impressed with the job Arbuckle has done in his short time at OU than Sooners general manager Jim Nagy.
Nagy praised Arbuckle’s ability to keep it loose at practice, while being a serious coach and commanding the offense.
“Ben’s a stud, man. I hope he’s in a position, at some point, to become a head coach, because I think he’ll be a really good one,” Nagy said. “And if he does, that means we’ve had a ton of success at OU, so I’m all for it.”
The word about Arbuckle’s success is only going to grow nationally. Of course, the season is young and the Sooners face a daunting conference schedule.
Even if OU contends for the College Football Playoff and Arbuckle receives interest, who says he’d want to leave for a struggling program?
He could return to the Sooners for another season and wait it out for jobs at programs with better football resources.
Arbuckle’s rise through the assistant ranks has been nothing short of meteoric. If he were to leave OU for a head coaching job next season, he’d take Kittley’s title as the youngest FBS head coach.
If the Sooners continue to thrive, Arbuckle’s dream — dating back all those years at tiny FCS Houston Baptist — of one day leading a program could come true quicker than he imagined.
“The way that football is right now, it certainly could happen,” Schmedding said. “There’s no doubt about it. It would be off his whole body of work. Certainly, the success he’s having right now would catapult that; there’s no question about it, but it’s been pretty consistent.
“He’s a guy, how he is right now, who’s going to be better a year from now. He’s always trying to learn and grow and that type of mindset breeds success.”
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.