Official: Oklahoma Has Fired OC Seth Littrell

Sooners head coach Brent Venables made the decision Sunday to fire his offensive coordinator after OU suffered another crippling loss in SEC play.

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Seth Littrell / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables made the difficult decision Sunday to fire offensive coordinator Seth Littrell.

A source confirmed to Sooners On SI the multiple reports Sunday evening from OU Insider and Sooner Scoop. Co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley will call plays for the rest of the season "on an interim basis," OU said in a press release Sunday night. A national search is expected.

Head coach Brent Venables announces offensive coordinator change

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"Seth is an all-time great Sooner," Venables said in the press release. "He has a deep love for this university and football program, and has poured his heart and soul into both. Despite that, our performance as an offense this season has not at all lived up to the OU standard and I felt a change was necessary now."

Littrell, the former OU fullback and captain on Bob Stoops' 2000 national championship team, was living his dream job as OC and quarterbacks coach for the Sooners. But his offense at OU had become untenable as the Sooners lost to Texas 34-3 and to South Carolina 35-9 in back-to-back weeks.

The OU offense has fallen to No. 128 overall among 133 FBS teams this week (288.1 yards per game), and is 107th in scoring offense (22.1).

OU currently ranks 127th nationally in third-down conversion percentage (.277), 105th in fourth-down conversion percentage (.429), 112th in total first downs (120), 107th in fumbles lost, 116th in pass offense (176.0 yards per game), 129th in yards per completion (9.78), 114th in rushing offense (112.1 yards per game), 128th in tackles for loss allowed (8.0 per game), 132nd in quarterback sacks allowed per game (4.14), 122nd in pass efficiency rating (117.54), 110th in time of possession (27:47) and 90th in pass completion percentage (.594).

Now it's up for Finley to fix the many maladies of the OU offense.

"The leadership role Joe Jon plays on our team is critical," Venables said. "He has the confidence of our locker room and coaching staff, and I'm thankful to him for taking on this expanded role in the middle of the season."

Last week, Venables said OU has "a small army" of people working with quarterbacks. From that group, offensive analyst Kevin Johns, formerly an offensive coordinator and QB coach at Indiana, Western Michigan, Texas Tech, Memphis and Duke, will take over as quarterbacks coach while Finley continues to coach tight ends. Johns will also add co-offensive coordinator" to his title.

"Kevin joined our staff last spring as an offensive analyst after serving as an offensive coordinator for over a decade," Venables said. "He has a wealth of experience coordinating offenses and coaching quarterbacks, and I'm looking forward to the fresh approach he'll bring and the bigger role he'll play in offensive game-planning. I'm confident Joe Jon, Kevin and the rest of the offensive staff will work tirelessly to put our players in positions to succeed and make us more effective on that side of the ball."

Littrell was hired by Venables last year as an offensive analyst after he was fired from his head coach position at North Texas. After Jeff Lebby took the head coaching job at Mississippi State last December, Littrell was elevated from analyst to OC for the Alamo Bowl, and was promoted to full-time offensive coordinator in January. Littrell was previously offensive coordinator at Arizona, Indiana and North Carolina before he took over at North Texas in 2016.

Littrell's efforts have been limited by injuries to the Sooners' top five receivers, and offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh's offensive line has been in disarray all season as he's had to replace all five starters from last season. As a first-time quarterbacks coach, Littrell has worked with former 5-star recruit Jackson Arnold and 4-star Michael Hawkins.

Arnold took over for Dillon Gabriel in the Alamo Bowl but committed four turnovers as OU lost a fourth-quarter lead and fell to Arizona, and he struggled this year in the Sooners' non-conference games before losing his starting job to Hawkins in the second quarter of the Week 4 loss to Tennessee. Hawkins rallied OU to a comeback win at Auburn, but he was ineffective against Texas and committed three turnovers on the Sooners' first three drives against South Carolina, two of which were returned for touchdowns.

Finley, who also played for the Sooners while Venables was an assistant coach, has no play-calling experience during his stops at Baylor, Missouri, Texas A&M and Ole Miss. Finley did join Littrell in the coaches' box on Saturday after spending the first six games on the OU sideline.

It's the first time Oklahoma has fired a coordinator at midseason since 2018, when Lincoln Riley fired Mike Stoops following a disastrous loss to Texas.

After the latest setback Saturday, Venables was asked how he thought Littrell would handle the continued criticism.

"I don't want to speak and conjecture what he will or won't do," Venables said, "but it's for any of us, man, you should never (listen), whether it's the applause or the boos, either-or. You put your head down and you go to work, control the controllables. That — the scrutiny — comes with it.

"Everybody wants to see success. We've got to smart fan base, they know when it's going well and they know when it's not going well. Regardless of whatever the issues are, our job is to put our guys in a great position to be successful, no matter what, no excuses, no injuries, no new quarterback, no who we're playing, none of that stuff matters. Everybody knows that's what you sign up for."

When Littrell got the job ahead of the Alamo Bowl, he expressed his appreciation for getting to call plays at the school his dad, Jim Littrell, starred as a fullback for Barry Switzer, the school he loved as a kid, and the school where he became a no-nonsense ball player and a national champion.

"This place obviously means everything to me," Littrell said last December in San Antonio. "I've been trying to get back here for 23 years, and so this is obviously the place I want to be.

"I'm just as much of a fan as I am a coach. I'm a huge fan of Oklahoma. So I have high expectations of this program along with everybody sitting up here and everybody within our program, and so we know the expectations, and hey, we're going to do everything we can to go out and compete and win championships."

Littrell was under contract through 2027 and was scheduled to make $1.1 million a year.

Littrell represents Venables' second tough decison as a head coach. Prior to the 2022 season, he fired long-time OU assistant, former Sooners quarterback and accomplished recruiter Cale Gundy from his job as receivers coach after Gundy read aloud from a player's notebook lyrics that included a racial slur. Venables replaced Gundy with assistant wideouts coach L'Damian Washington, then hired Emmett Jones to coach OU receivers ahead of the 2023 season.

Firing a long-time friend and colleague for job performance, however, no doubt has taken a different type of toll on Venables.

"He's been a winner his whole life," Venables said of Littrell. "He's a competitor, he's a winner, he's a leader. I know he hurts. He's disappointed for the University of Oklahoma, a place that he loves dearly and certainly every one of those players that lay it on the line every single day for us."

The Sooners (4-3 overall, 1-3 SEC) play at No. 18 Ole Miss (5-2, 1-2) on Saturday at 11 a.m. The game will be televised by ESPN.